Wellness Ideas - Support for Healthy Changes.

Group support and encouragement could be very beneficial in assisting staff members make healthful changes. Develop situations, coworker groups, or information avenues where the expertise and experiences of coworkers could be shared with others. Some ideas for providing onsite support for healthful changes include -

• Employees may 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.

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

• Behavior change support groups, created based on staff member interest in making healthful change, can meet on a regular basis to share ideas, resources, support, etc. Wellness programs can offer some help and facilitation in getting a group started.

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.

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