Professional Development
I assisted with implementing our wellness program in 2006 as an Executive Assistant and was recently promoted to Health and Wellness Coordinator. Completing a Bachelor’s degree in neuroscience supported my lifelong interest in wellbeing while providing insight into holistic program design. I achieved WELCOA faculty status in 2014 – my most valuable certification to date – enhancing my knowledge for effective program design. The 7 Benchmarks best-practice guidelines provided the structure for our program, leading Dickinson to receive the American Heart Association’s gold-level Fit Friendly Worksite award in June 2014, and the Well Workplace Gold Award by WELCOA in 2011! 

Demonstrated Success
Developing the employee wellness program blossomed into a passion and a comprehensive goal for creating a campus of wellness. Our most successful programs have addressed physical inactivity and lifestyle-related disease management (diabetes and heart disease), with an additional focus on stress management. We implemented a Holistic Health Incentive Program (HHIP) that required participation in five key areas of wellness – Physical, Preventive Health Screenings, Nutrition, Emotional and Financial. For 2013-2014, we focused more intently on increasing participation in biometric screenings and health risk assessment (HRA) to better educate our employees about their health risks, with amazing results!

With the refined HHIP approach, we were not only able to increase participation significantly but also received aggregate reports of the collected data that demonstrated the positive impact of wellness program participation for cost-savings related to medical claims for participants. The aggregate total medical claims (per member per month) for participants were 18.9% less than those who were non-participants in the wellness program. Trends in aggregate biometric markers also revealed a decreasing trend for participants’ glucose levels (12% more were within range in just one year).

Participation levels have steadily increased in our wellness programs since 2006, but increased dramatically this year, specifically for the biometric screenings (56% increase) and HRA (19.6% increase) due to the incentive reward structure along with peer/supervisory support that is now part of the culture at Dickinson. Participation in any one of our wellness programs has been over 70%. Peer and supervisory encouragement has helped increase participation through friendly all-campus and peer-campus walking challenges as well as local community events!

The culture of the college has shown a shift toward a culture of wellness as it complements sustainability, which is another of the college’s initiative for a healthier world. We have combined collaborative programs for staff and students for physical wellness (exercise & flu vaccinations) and wellness information sessions.

Our Wellness Advisory Group continues to look for opportunities to educate and implement programs for the broader college community that will result in not only a healthier campus but also should lead to cost-savings for the institution when possible. Outcomes of the wellness programs offered are analyzed on an annual basis, and some more frequently dependent upon the program type for participant satisfaction, level of participation, biometric marker trends, and ROI. (We have used several of WELCOA’s tools for evaluating our outcomes.) The increase in participation and knowledge that has occurred resulting from the cultural changes has benefited not only our bottom line financially, but also has raised awareness amongst our population for their own health and wellbeing!

Leadership
As the Health & Wellness Coordinator for the wellness programs at Dickinson College, I walk-the-talk everyday – literally – by walking all over campus to promote our wellness programs. Exercising regularly, eating healthy meals, knowing your numbers and balancing work/life responsibilities requires dedication, but also requires living by example to effectively promote this to others. The WELCOA resources have helped educate me on specific areas of program design – while websites and contacts for local resources such as the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Partnership for Better Health and many local healthcare providers have provided additional assistance to make our programs a success. Being actively involved with the Relay for Life, United Way and other organizational activities keeps me in touch with the local community surrounding Dickinson. For those new to wellness, the best piece of advice would be to explore WELCOA and all that it has to offer in addition to checking with local healthcare providers or benefit plan providers!
 
Innovation
At Dickinson, we approach wellness from a collaborative, campus-wide approach to reach the campus community. We began our wellness program focusing on employee education through free health screenings, wellness information sessions along with exercise programs. More recently, we have expanded our programs to allow student/staff participation as well as removing fees previously associated with exercise programs that had created a financial barrier. We have also moved to more on-site program approaches to build our culture of wellness, reaching areas that had lower participation because of their campus locations. The result has been an increase in new participants and a cultural shift toward the desired wellness culture and lifestyle. Peers and supervisors are reaching out to staff members to encourage greater awareness and participation. Our health status/medical claims aggregate reports reflect this through reduced medical claims/cost-savings for wellness participants compared to non-participants!

Compelling Vision
The Health Promotion industry as a whole has so much to offer and so much room to grow. By continuing to move in a preventive and educational direction, the industry should realize the dream of healthier individuals by avoiding the pitfalls of health issues caught too late. The biggest threats in the next five years will come from inability to easily access healthcare providers due to a lower number of physicians and providers available. The opportunity will be for Physicians Assistants and Nurse Practitioners to fill this gap and cover the need. For me, the next five years will be to continue promotion of a campus culture of wellness that includes both staff and students, to embed the healthy lifestyle into all within before they leave our limestone walls! By creating a campus of wellness, we will impact not only our staff/students but their families and future connections.