Health And Wellness Plan » Health and wellness programs
Emotional health is a state of wellness that comes from understanding and acknowledging our emotions and finding appropriate ways to express them. As employees, we often bring emotional problems from our childhood or current family life into the workplace because we haven’t dealt with them effectively outside of work. This can seriously damage workplace relationships and lead to poor performance and negative feelings all around.
Many tools and techniques exist for helping us improve our emotional health. Some of the most common are given below, with real-life case histories illustrating their use. If an unpleasant mood or feeling persists over a length of time, don’t hesitate to seek out a qualified professional. Corporate wellness programs usually have professional support already in place as part of their services.
1. Coaching/Counseling:
One of the hallmarks of emotional health is the willingness to ask for help when we need it. Confidential professional help, the coaching and counseling provided by employee assistance or wellness programs, can provide an external source of strength and insight for “working out” emotionally-based problems instead of “working them in” to your job.
Valid and reliable health information comes from respected journals, magazines, and newsletters. Such publications have health or medical editors and subject their articles to peer review and criticism by other scientists. In the consumption of information even from reputable, peer-reviewed sources, it is important to remember the advice of the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine.
What medical journals publish is not received wisdom but rather working papers. Each study becomes a piece of a puzzle … No matter how important the conclusions, they should usually be considered tentative until a body of evidence accumulates pointing in the same direction.
Another source of health information and medical advice growing in popularity is the telephone. S Several telephone service businesses are now available that offer live interaction with health-care professionals . These services, which are available through toll-free 800 and/or moderately expensive 900 numbers, provide consumers with a private and convenient option for getting answers to questions ranging from the side effects of a medicine to the need for a second opinion regarding a particular diagnosis.
Thousands of men and women all over the world have reduced their chance of getting stress-related diseases through wellness programs and general health and wellness. Corporations in the Western world have been recently implementing voluntary wellness programs in order to create healthier happier employees. This may mean providing facilities where employees can practice their fitness regimes as well as providing wellness tips through trained professionals and tailoring routines for all of the individual employees. The benefits of reducing the stress in our every day lives is endless.
Health and wellness is so important because it affects all aspects of our lives. Information is available through the Internet, media, and of course the references of our friends and family. Wellness programs suggest we use whole food supplements, Chinese herbs and the ayurvedic medicine of India. Wellness tips are a great way to start experimenting on what best works for you. This is a free guide to all alternative healing products and information so you can find exactly what you are searching for.
Regular exercise is good for all ages and even better when you can find quality free exercise plans. Throughout life exercise is important for preventing disease, maintaining proper body weight, relieving stress, and continuing or enhancing ones life activities. We are also human, and can be forcefully driven by our sexual needs and aroused at the sight of another’s physical state. The appearance of another’s body that is utilizing a well developed exercise program can not only be very pleasing to the eye, but also extremely advantageous to the overall health and wellness of the exercising individual.
As we age, the effects of gravity, diet, parties, disease, sport injuries, etc. weigh in (no pun intended) on our physical appearance and health. The American Heart Association and American College of Sports Medicine (AHA & ACSM) have addressed this aging issue directly by issuing guidelines for those over 65 and those over 50 with disease or function impairment.
Free Exercise Plan Guidelines:
Aerobic Activities
Suggested activity levels include equal or greater than 30 minutes, 5 days per week of moderate exercise OR 20 minutes of vigorous activity 3 days each week. On a scale of 1-10 a 5/6 is considered moderate exercise and a rating of 7/8 is considered vigorous. Your exercise plan may start with less than this, but you will be working toward reaching these minimums.
You may be surprised at the discussions you’d have with a wellness coach. You are more likely to talk about what inspires you, your wellness vision, your personal goals and your dreams and aspirations than you are to talk about the breakfast you had last week. Now, be clear that this is not psychoanalysis. A coach acknowledges the varied background, successes, setbacks and triumphs you’ve had in the past, but that is water under the bridge. Be prepared to talk action, to develop a plan, to build accountability structures and to think through real life ways you can be successful with your goals
With the varied background you’ll find with coaches, you’ll notice that each has a unique methodology, philosophy and personality. We all express ourselves differently. If you are considering a coach, make sure to interview your prospective colleague to see if you believe you can reach your goals working with this person. If not, perhaps the coach is not right for you, or perhaps you’d be better off hiring a consultant that guide you and point you in the right direction.
You may or may not have heard of wellness coaching – its a field of health and wellness that is new, exciting, and rapidly evolving. While not everyone knows what a wellness coach is today (similar to the what I suspect people knew of personal trainers 30 years ago), I envision that in another 10 years the term and understanding of the profession will be widespread.
While the term itself may be common in a decade, I suspect that the background and knowledge of wellness coaches will be every bit as varied as those we currently see in any industry that requires a certification rather than a four year degree. I say that not to knock the background and qualifications of most wellness coaches (many are RN’s, personal trainers, registered dietitians, competitive athletes, or other medical professionals), its just to say that the your coach may have a very unique and particular background which may make him or her a good fit or not to work with you.
Why would I hire a coach and not another industry professional?
Worksite wellness for their employees, employers are discovering, is good for the health of their businesses as well. Health and wellness programs help to cut the costs associated with poor employee health, which include absenteeism, loss of productivity and poor work quality.
A recent Hewitt Associates survey of over 500 US companies indicated a significant paradigm shift in how companies view health benefits for their employees. Of those surveyed this year, 88% are committed to instituting long-term health care assistance programs (over the next 3-5 years) for their employees, with the goal of boosting the health and productivity of their workforce. This represents a 25% increase in interest in worksite wellness programs over 2007.
A strong offering of health and wellness programs to meet the demand has resulted. Health assistance providers have broadened their programs with tools that address general lifestyle factors, physical, social and psychological health factors. Programs look to predict chronic disease in their employees and give them the tools and the information to prevent it. Companies also demand a way to measure the effectiveness of their healthcare spending.