Wellness Ideas – Support for Healthful Changes.

Group support and encouragement can be very beneficial in assisting staff make healthy changes. Develop situations, peer groups, or information avenues where the expertise and experiences of peers can be shared with others. Some ideas for providing on-site support for healthy changes include -

o  Workers can be asked to voluntarily submit suggestions, advice, and strategies related to particular healthy practices they have successfully implemented in their lives.

For example, ex-smokers may be asked to submit suggestions about what worked for them when they quit; then those ideas may be shared in newsletters, flyers, classes, etc.

o  Topics like weight control, stress management, managing change, increasing exercise, etc. lend themselves to this development of collective wisdom sharing.

o  Behavior change support groups, developed based on worker interest in making healthy change, can meet regularly to share ideas, resources, support, etc. Wellness programs can offer some help and facilitation in getting a group began.

The group then its self takes charge of keeping the group going. Periodically the wellness program can offer to bring in a speaker or presenter on a topic relevant to the group.

Be certain to help the group establish ground rules that everybody agrees to before the group is left on its own.