Vol. 38, No. 18

4-21-2004
By: Shannon Wingard

Mind, body, spirit focus of university’s wellness programs

For faculty and staff, wellness at Ohio State often means taking exercise classes and attending educational seminars given by medical experts. For students, it means learning about health issues affecting today’s young people, including those involving alcohol, sexual orientation and stress.

Throughout the year, Ohio State’s wellness programs help faculty, staff and students learn to live a healthy lifestyle by addressing mind, body and spirit needs.

Benefits of Ohio State’s wellness programs range from an annual health and wellness fair to flu immunizations to health risk assessments to smoking cessation classes. Counseling services, substance-abuse programs and a University Health Connection clinic for faculty and staff also are part of the programs.

Now, through a newly formed Wellness Collaborative, the university plans to expand the myriad programs by blending components of each. The collaborative, made up of representatives from around campus, has a goal of making Ohio State the first large university to promote holistic wellness as a part of its research, teaching and social mission.

According to Stephanie Cook, medical director for the Faculty and Staff Wellness Program, the programs have run separately for years, but by collaborating on some issues, the university can optimize the benefits for the Ohio State community.

“There has always been a huge awareness of health issues at the university,” Cook said. “The collaborative will allow us to bring a wealth of information and experts together. We have a unique ability to have a top-line internal network.”

She said a human resources advisory committee in 1993 suggested adding a wellness program to employee benefits. Prior to that, some similar benefits were offered to employees through their health care plans but the program made the benefits more comprehensive. Now, Ohio State employees in all 88 Ohio counties can take advantage of such benefits.

“We have designed the wellness programs based on the issues surrounding the community. Over the years, the shift in programs has gone from intervention to prevention,” Cook said. “We also have made sure that the program is available to every Ohio State employee. Our employees don’t have to be on the Columbus campus to be a part of the initiative.”

In addition to personalized benefits of the program, faculty and staff also may choose from more than 50 free lunchtime and evening programs at which university experts discuss various health-related topics like stress reduction and meditation.

“Wellness has grown to the point that it has become a focus for employers to try to control the health care costs of employees,” Cook said. “It’s really a partnership between the provider of care, the employer and the employee, and the wellness program is the bridge.”

Connie Boehm, director of the Student Wellness Center, says Ohio State has offered a wellness program for students for approximately 20 years to address their evolving needs. When HIV/AIDS became a national issue in the early 1980s, the program provided education for students about the disease as well as opportunities for testing and counseling. Now, the program helps educate students on a variety of issues, such as drugs, smoking, breast cancer and self-checks, and sexually transmitted diseases. The programs for students are run out of the Wilce Student Health Center, which is where students often go for medical service.

Boehm says it is important to offer these services. “Through the program, we are trying to build a healthier community of students,” she said.

The wellness program for students also offers individualized sessions about wellness issues for first-year students, residence hall residents and members of the Greek community, among other student groups. Also, students may volunteer with the Peer Advocates for Total Health (PATH) program to help counsel and educate other students on wellness.

Boehm says another component of the student program is assessing student needs and creating programs to meet them. For example, the wellness program now employs a credit counselor who can advise students on financial issues.

Boehm says the program will continue to evolve to address the needs of students.

“We’re an academic institution and these wellness issues play a big part in the students’ academic performances,” she said. “The students get some great education about health issues and wellness, and we try to make it fun for them.”
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