Our hospital has just developed a Wellness Service and our Wellness
Committee has a website that I can't forward because it's on our internal
server. I've copied some web links from it below. The most impressive piece
about Wellness from a workplace perspective, from the research that we did,
is the underlying respect for employees and their work environment - it
demands a commitment to improvement - hence the strong relationship to
Quality Improvement initiatives. As with all "preventive" methodologies,
Wellness is another of those solutions that does not get political attention
because the "return on investment" won't likely be seen before the next
election. There is also an undercurrnet - or at least we experienced one,
that has some people saying why should we support Wellness when people ought
to be responsible for their own health. Of course, as time goes by, it is
apparent that there are savings for organizations in terms of reduced
absenteeism and a recent Canadian study demonstrated that for every dollar
invested in Wellness there was about a $3 return in "productivity" - couple
that with the new evidence that antidepressant medication has surpassed
antibiotic medication for insurance coverage - which is likely to get
someone's attention. I know there are other resources that span the spectrum
of new age to more traditional - we are a mental health institution so we
probably fall a little more toward tradition - although our new Wellness
Coordinator has a background in Yoga and Metaphysics. The US seems to be way
ahead of Canada in these services and you may find helpful info from sources
there. The other big organization to be focussing on Wellness is the RNAO,
and we have some folks from here who just returned from a conference
highlighted with Wellness workshops - but I don't have the web info handy.
Kathe

OHS    www.oshforeveryone.org
Wellness Web   http://wellnessweb.com
Canadian Wellness Network    http://asclepius.ic.gc.ca
ergonomics   www.ergoconsulting.net
National Quality Institute    www.nqi.ca   (a great resource that includes
assessment packages)
Centennial College in Scarborough has a Wellness Program
[log in to unmask]
another program exists at  [log in to unmask]
Other reading material:
Active Workers/Productive Workers, Canadian Healthy Workplace Criteria,
Bottom line on Wellness, Organizational Health Promotion, Healthy Workplace
Library tapes / Wellness Section in the Library. Just talk to Pat Reid to
guide you in the right direction.




-----Original Message-----
From: Helen Lewis Apps [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 1:08 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: health promotion & wellness?


I am struggling with "Wellness" does anyone know the history and politics of
it? I am well versed in health promotion and public health but am not sure
where "wellness" fits in?

Helen A Lewis Apps
PO Box 126161, Onderstepoort, 0110
South Africa
Tel: +27 12 540 0244
Cell: 082 338 1433

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