Workplace Wellness: Involving Families and Doctors
Although the work environment is a key site for wellness, extending your efforts beyond that setting will increase success and make it easier to maintain a high percentage of healthy, low-risk employees who will add productivity and decrease health care costs. Your program should use several methods to move beyond the workplace. Self-care, family involvement and health care provider involvement have been shown to improve a person’s success in adopting and maintaining good health habits. Anything you can do to encourage employees, their families and their health care providers to be actively involved in their personal health will complement your efforts at the worksite.
Self-care:
Self-care or personal interest in one’s health is very important because you want employees to be proactive in their personal health. Examples of self-care include exercise, diet monitoring, seeking more information about health care and following medical instructions to deal with a health condition. Through self-care, employees are empowered to take charge of their own health and to make better decisions, which will make it easier to get them involved in your wellness program activities. To encourage self-care, make sure that you provide good information and resources to employees who are looking for additional resources.
Family Involvement:
Family involvement can often make a difference because of the social support and encouragement it provides. Healthy behavior can be influenced and reinforced by family members’ health habits. The healthier all family members are, the more likely your employee will be healthy. Get everyone involved by sponsoring events that include employees’ spouses and dependents, and provide education for living healthy as a family. Allow flexible scheduling for increased family time, especially when an employee or dependent is sick.
Health Care Provider Involvement:
Because there are many aspects of wellness that need to be addressed in the health care setting, working closely with health care providers is essential. Encourage participants to establish a solid relationship with their health care providers so that prevention and treatment of health conditions can be coordinated with your program. As a starting point, create a follow-up plan for HRAs and biometric screenings. And having a systematic referral plan for screening results that require medical follow-up is important for addressing high-risk health factors.
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