Drug Education and Intervention in the Workplace

Health screenings are significant programs to identify chronic conditions in their early stages. Once identified, wellness intervention programs can help prevent a disease from progressing. Working with local hospitals and other corporations, you can obtain information on offering screening and intervention programs that could better your employees’ health and save your corporation money in absenteeism, treatment for disease complications, and reduced productiveness. Below are some ideas to assist you in getting started.

Based upon your Employee Needs & Interest Survey and the demographics of your workplace, consider offering periodic screenings to find specific health risks such as:

• Blood Pressure (BP) Checks to identify employees with pre-hypertension or hypertension (elevated blood pressure),
• Cholesterol Screenings for total, HDL (good cholesterol), LDL (bad cholesterol) and/or Triglycerides
• Blood Sugar Screenings fasting or non-fasting to screen for possible diabetes,
• Body composition, such as body mass index (BMI) or body fat measures
• Bone density for potential risk of osteoporosis,
• Cancer screenings such as, skin examinations, mammograms, or PSA screenings,
• Vision checks for glaucoma, or visual acuity
• Other health screenings depending on your worker population and needs

Your local hospital, corporation physician practice, or health department may provide assistance. Still, if you have staff members you may want to concentrate on programs that will keep them healthy rather than screening for early identification of chronic conditions. The focus of your wellness program might be healthy lifestyle practices to reduce risk and prevent disease.

In addition to the wellness screenings, consider offering a Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment to all staff members. The Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment will help to identify factors that may lead to additional risks, such as smoking history, stress levels, conception of health, family history, job satisfaction, support systems, and mental health. Often the screening results are included on the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment, which supports a more accross the board snap shot of health risks. The summary results provide the valuable information to plan appropriate interventions.

Workplace Health Promotion Program Interventions

The key to the effectiveness of screenings and Health Risk Appraisals / Health Risk Assessments (HRA’s) is the interventions or follow-up programs. The information from the screenings increases awareness and often motivates staff members to consider making healthier changes. It’s the follow up interventions that support the critical reinforcement and assistance needed for staff members to actually make and maintain those changes. The interventions are able to include individual follow-up and ongoing counseling, individual or group health coaching on the risk factors, behavior change programs, and/or organization reinforcement. Examples include:

• Strategies to lower Blood Pressure
• Managing diabetes
• Taking care of your heart
• Healthy eating
• Weight loss plans
• Increasing physical exercise
• Smoking Cessation

Of course, this is for individual information only. Any follow-up interventions planned by the company would be based on interest expressed by the employee.

Based on the outcome and your Workplace Health Promotion Program Committee goals and objectives you have the potential to plan the best strategies for your organization and workers. Consider the community resources available to offer services, such as health associations, hospitals, medical providers, and/or public health agencies.