Winston Salem Wellness : What is a Workplace Health Promotion Program?

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Posted by Winston Salem | Posted in Wellness Tips, winston salem wellness | Posted on 28-05-2009

According to the American Journal of Health Promotion, “Health promotion is the science and art of helping people alter their lifestyle to move toward a state of ideal health. Optimal health is defined as a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health. Lifestyle change can be facilitated through a combination of efforts to enhance awareness, alter behavior, and set up environments that support good health practices. Of the three, supportive environments will probably have the greatest impact in producing lasting change.”

Corporate Wellness Program: Action Steps

The process of creating a Worksite Wellness Program involves:

• Identifying the current health status of your workers
• Determining the appropriate programs and interventions to offer
• Promoting and launching the programs
• Building in motivational incentives/rewards
• Measuring the impact
• Revising programs based on assessment outcomes

It may even include starting policies and procedures that support employee participation in wellness activities at your workplace (such as flextime).

Steps to Starting a Workplace Health Promotion Program

• Conduct an company assessment
• Get senior staff reinforcement
• Establish a Corporate Health Promotion Program Committee
• Get employee input
• Design objectives and goals
• Design and enable program activities
• Choose incentives
• Evaluate outcomes

One of the ways the government plans to improve the nation’s health is through accross the board Company Health Promotion Programs. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, these programs may help workers live healthier lifestyles by creating supportive work environments and offering awareness, education and behavior change programs. In fact, one of the objectives and goals of Healthy People 2010, a set of health objectives for the nation to achieve by the year 2010, is to stimulate the proportion of workers that take part in a accross the board Company Health Promotion Program at their worksite to 75 percent.

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