Monthly Archives: June 2013

WOW-Working on Wellness

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6/29/2013
It has been a very busy and exciting few weeks working on wellness at the Neponset Health Center. I created a survey to assess the employees needs and interest in worksite wellness and posted it on Survey Monkey as well as putting paper copies and a collection box in all the lunch rooms. Four pedometers were raffled as an incentive for completing the survey. Wellness Team members also promoted the survey at their departmental staff meetings. I did a great deal of campaigning urging staff to complete the survey on an individual level as well as participating in a number of staff meetings.
Comments from the staff are really encouraging, for example one woman wrote to me and said “I’ve worked here since 2004 and nobody has ever done anything for us before”. The dedicated email for the Wellness program has allowed employees to post their comments and suggestions for making the worksite healthier.
All the effort paid off and we got a total of 135 surveys returned which represents 62% of the total staff. According to my site supervisor this is the greatest response to any survey administered during her 24 year tenure in the organization. Seventy three surveys were answered on Survey Monkey and 52 on paper. It took some time and effort to aggregate the results which I presented to the Wellness Team at our second team meeting this past Thursday.
Some of highlights from the survey results are:
• 73% of respondents reported engaging in physical activity 3 or fewer times per week, with 24% reported no physical activity.
• 78% of respondents reported eating less than 5 fruits and vegetables daily, the majority, 45% reported eating 2 or fewer fruits and vegetables daily.
• Overwhelming, 73% of respondents indicated that they would participate in worksite wellness activities and 27% answered “maybe” (if they were interested in what was offered). No one responded that they would not participate.
• Weight and stress management were the most cited activities respondents would like to be available as part of a worksite wellness initiative.
• Yoga, stretching, zumba and walking groups were the physical activities in which respondents were most interested.
• The most cited reason for wanting to participate in worksite wellness activities was to feel healthier, meet and get to know more staff and team building.
Based on the survey results the wellness team decided to organize a virtual walk. I am going to plan this event and with the wellness team roll it out over the next few weeks.
During the past few weeks I have compiled a literature review on worksite wellness programs that focused on environmental and policy changes and specifically on studies based in smaller worksites similar to Neponset Health Center. I completed my summer practicum on worksite wellness reviewing a study which tested the effectiveness of a worksite intervention which focused on environmental and policy changes on weight-gain prevention.
Finally I am working on an environmental audit, there are several tools available but I have chosen to use the Checklist of Health Promotion Environments at Worksites (CHEW) tool as it is mentioned frequently in the literature and is one of the tools recommended by CDC. http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/hwi/programdesign/environmental_audits.htm

Worksite Wellness

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Currently I am working on two different practicum experiences.  The first being in Washington, DC at The Mary Frances Picciano Dietary Supplement Research Practicum presented by the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institute of Health.  This was a four day educational opportunity to provide knowledge on supplements.  A wealth of information was dispensed to me in these four days.  Topics that I have been introduced have included:

  • Supplement use in the U.S. and reasons why individuals use them
  • Knowledge about government regulatory agencies and the framework surrounding supplements
  • Supplement quality differences (in which I have found there are many)
  • Assessing the health effects of food and supplements
  • Clinical trials, types and how they are done
  • Global perspectives and supplements
  • Case studies involving certain supplements like Iodine, Omega-3, Garlic, and Vitamin D
  • The importance of good research and how you conduct good research on supplementation
  • The controversy surrounding supplementation (good and bad)

This practicum experience has provided me with an amazing amount of additional knowledge about the world of supplementation.  I will be reporting more about what I learned and took away from the experience when I present my practicum presentation.

My second practicum experience has been secured and started with Live Well Longmont, a community which is part of Live Well Colorado.  Live Well Colorado is a nonprofit organization committed to reducing obesity in Colorado by promoting healthy eating and active living.  Live Well Colorado focuses on policy, environmental and lifestyle changes that remove barriers and increase access to healthy behaviors.  Live Well Longmont has made it their vision to make Longmont, Colorado the healthiest community in the healthiest state.  I have the opportunity to work with the worksite wellness coordinator Leslie Feuerborn as my practicum supervisor.    Currently LWL is working its worksite wellness collaboration with three of the larger employers of Longmont.  The collaboration includes Longmont United Hospital, St. Vrain Valley School District, and the City of Longmont.  Through these partners and the current project to develop comprehensive wellness plans.  LWL hopes to market the wellness plan to other employers in the community to help establish a community wide culture of healthy eating and active living in Longmont through various methods and programs.

Currently my role has been working exclusively with Leslie reviewing the latest literature to support her grant writing requests.  I assisted on research of the literature and finished the final letter to submit for the Millennium Trust grant for LWL.  This was an interesting letter to write since the trust specifically wanted to know how LWL worksite wellness program could help the people of Boulder County enjoy the beautiful nature of our surroundings.  I will also be helping with 2 other grant writing projects.  These grants would fund specific programs through LWL; targeting worksite wellness in different worksites.

LWL is looking to secure grants to fund worksite wellness programs in non-profit organizations that lack the funds to start or implement worksite wellness programs.  I will be assisting Leslie with the grant writing and literature review to support this new program.

I also have attended collaboration meetings to learn how these 3 large organizations are working with LWL to foster the growth and advertise the importance of worksite wellness programs.  Participating in these collaboration meetings has educated me on how a non-profits can work with different agencies to help develop new programs and policies collaboratively.  An upcoming project that I will assist on is LWL role in promoting worksite wellness at the Roger River 5 K run at Rhythm on the River (which is a very well attended event in Longmont that kicks off the summer events).   There are many projects that are in the works this summer so I look forward to updating my progress as we move through the summer.

Dining with Diabetes class 3

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After a 2 week break due to Memorial Day, we reconvened at the Center at Spring Street for class 3, but had a role reversal.  My teaching partner, Mandel, did the powerpoint presentation and education lesson about fats and salt while I cooked!

I added to the education lesson, clarifying that the ABCs of diabetes stand for A1c, Blood pressure, and Cholesterol and pointing out that people with diabetes and hypertension are more likely to be salt sensitive, among other things.

For the cooking demonstration, I made Sautéed yellow squash and snow peas in the electric frying pan and Classic Caesar salad.  The hot dish used a minimal amount of oil and many herbs.  I made sure I knew what nutrients the vegetables were good sources of and delved into those benefits while cooking.  The Caesar salad was made from a plain Greek yogurt base for some bite, but no raw egg or anchovy paste.  Very light and tasty if not exactly what they’d serve at Caesar’s Palace!  Mandel had baked a Buttermilk chocolate cake at home using brown sugar Splenda and that was served to all as well.  These recipes are all in the Dining with Diabetes cookbook, at class we give copies of all recipes used, then at the last class, we give them a cookbook that includes everything.

After class, one participant hung around and asked me if I knew what hydrogenation meant (we had taught about trans fats in class), I said sure, “it means the liquid oil was bombarded with hydrogen molecules through some kind of process and became more solid.”  She went on to explain that she was a retired high school chemistry teacher and she taught Mandel and me a thing or two! She said “you are both a carbon, you each have 4 places to bond, head, each hand, and feet,” and then had me hold Mandel’s hand. “Now you have 3 places left to bond,” so we could bond to another carbon on both sides and hydrogen top and bottom.  Then she had us hold both hands (like playing London Bridge), and said “now you have a double bond, you only have 2 other places to bond, one place for the next carbon and one hydrogen. So you will be an unsaturated link.” It was like a light bulb going off for the first time!!  I knew about this but never really “saw” it until I acted it out! I gave her a hug, she was a great teacher!

WOW Working on Wellness

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The overall goal for my practicum is to develop and plan for the implementation of a wellness program in a medium-size community health center.
I work for Harbor Health Service, INC. (HHSI), a non-profit, public health agency and I am doing my practicum at one of its community health centers. Harbor Health owns and operates three community health centers: Geiger Gibson Community Health Center in Dorchester, MA., Harbor Community Health Center-Hyannis, MA., and Neponset Health Center, Dorchester, MA. Harbor Health also administers the Elder Service Plan in Mattapan, MA, a program providing care to frail elders in their place of residence, the Ellen Jones Community Dental Center, Harwich, Ma and the Dorchester South WIC program where I am the director.
I am doing my practicum at the Neponset Community Health Center. My site supervisor Paulette Shaw Querner is the vice-president of the HHSI Community Health Centers Division and I am also getting a tremendous amount of support from Kevin Casey the Executive Director of Neponset Health Center.
Paulette and I decided to use the Worksite Wellness Program Toolkit which was developed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Public Health in 2012 (http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/docs/dph/mass-in-motion/worksite-wellness-toolkit.pdf) as a guide for my practicum.
An important first step for a worksite wellness program is to have a clear mandate from the leadership as this communicates the importance of worksite wellness to all employees and helps to create a culture of health. It also helps to obtain resources, support and participation.
When I first approached Paulette about the possibility of working on this initiative for my practicum, she was immediately excited, supportive and motivated to see the project succeed. Likewise Kevin Casey assured me his support of the project.
The next step was to compose a wellness team. Research from the Wellness Council of America (WELCOA) suggests that team members should be formally appointed. Therefore I emailed every middle-manager at Neponset Health Center to nominate one person from their department who would be interested in this great opportunity. Currently there are 16 members on the Wellness Team. Concurrently with composing the wellness team, I did a number of presentations to market the wellness program concept. I presented at the HHSI all mangers retreat as well as the middle-managers meeting and at the general staff meeting at Neponset Health Center. I also met individually with the Medical Director.
This past Thursday May 30th marked the kick-off meeting of the worksite wellness team. I did a brief presentation on the current food and physical activity environment and provided some ideas for improvement. Working on Wellness (WOW)   I am trying to attach the presentation but I’m not sure if it will work. The team decided our program would be called “WOW” acronym for “Working on Wellness”. We developed a needs and interest survey for employees and the plan is to administer the survey this week through survey monkey and paper as some employees do not routinely check their email. The team also decided to request a designated email for the Wellness program- wow@hhsi.us . The health center is sponsoring a raffle for four accelerometer pedometers for employees who complete the survey.
That’s all for now!