Working On Wellness
History
In the fall of 2002, The Community Health Forum formally recognized the increased incidence of chronic diseases (such as Type II Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer) among our citizens and the increased prevalence of obesity and inactivity as contributing factors to this countywide problem. A small committee met initially and developed the following mission statement:
Our mission is to create a partnership to challenge all local community members to "Work on Wellness." We are committed to improve the standard of personal health by promoting physical activity, a nutritious diet, preventive screenings, and healthier choices through lifestyle modification.
Working on Wellness, with the acronym WOW, became the title for this community health initiative, which currently involves nearly all members of the Community Health Forum.
Purpose
In support of national initiatives and in response to obesity-related issues identified locally, the Community Health Forum of Augusta County has developed and begun to implement a 5 year Working on Wellness plan (hereafter referred to as WOW) to create a healthier community through an innovative and effective community-wide health promotion and chronic disease prevention program. This effort will be supported by both public and private partnerships that will directly influence the prevention, delay or mitigation of obesity and diabetes by increasing activity and improving the nutrition of the citizens of Augusta County. A successful program will require the full engagement of our schools, businesses, faith communities, forum members, health care providers and other community sectors, working in collaboration to promote health and reduce chronic disease. This program will not duplicate or compete with existing services, but will serve as a vehicle to enhance awareness of current related services, while developing new initiatives to meet our goal. Sound theoretical models for health education, health promotion programming and evaluation will be utilized with scientific data collection to support evidence-based planning. Our project will support both the Healthy People 2010 objectives, the Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity and the President Challenge for Physical Fitness. 3 age-specific subgroups have been mobilized to develop, implement and evaluate pilot programs with children/youth, working populations, and seniors. Funding sources include support from the Augusta Health Care Foundation and generous in-kind support from the agencies of the Community Health Forum. As the program develops, additional funding will be solicited from private and public foundations.
Program Goals
1. To increase the community's awareness of healthy lifestyle choices and their relationship to chronic diseases.
2. To improve the health of our community, through increased activity and improved nutrition.
Working on Wellness Project Update - Summer 2005
The three age-specific work groups of the WOW project continue to make slow but steady strides in addressing the obesity issue that is evident in our community.
Children-Youth – Height and weight measurements have not been consistently obtained on the school children across our three school divisions. It was the goal of the task force to begin to accurately and consistently collect BMI data on our children, to provide a baseline from which to work, with the ultimate thought of securing outside funding for programs and projects. We are very pleased to report that this data was collected for all the children, grades K, 3, 7, and 10 in the Waynesboro division and for K and 3rd grade students in six Elementary Schools in Augusta County during this past school year. We have some very startling findings that we hope to share with the community in the near future. We have confirmation from the Staunton City Schools that they too will participate in the screenings this year and we will continue to expand the screenings in Augusta County. Thanks to our hospital’s foundation, we have been able to provide the equipment to conduct these screenings, fostering successful working relationships with all the schools. In addition, a WOW representative attends the School Health Advisory Boards to maintain our relationships and keep the project in front of the school administrators and health professionals. Relationship-building has been a tremendous outcome of the WOW project among all our workgroups, but of particular note is the nutrition workgroup that has evolved from the children’s committee. The food service managers from the 3 school divisions meet regularly with the nutritionists from the Extension Office, the Health Department and AMC to share resources and provide the impetus for change in our school cafeteria menus. Pat Caulkins coordinates our children-youth subgroup and can be credited with successful and effective leadership in moving these projects forward.
Working Populations - This segment of our population, with ingrained nutrition and activity habits and busy lifestyles, presents the greatest challenges with regard to behavior change and we are continually modifying our work plan for this group. We initiated two WOW program pilots last year and although there were several personal success stories in each location, the overall commitment to an improved nutrition and activity program was less than desirable. So we find ourselves this year on a different path. We are going to pilot a “WOW messages” program at AMC. You will see the identification of WOW foods in both the cafeteria and the Lifetime Café. In addition, WOW messages will be utilized to encourage our staff and visitors alike, to choose stairs over elevators and distant parking spaces rather than those closest to the door. We’re hopeful that messages at the time of decision-making will have a greater impact on more individuals. So if you see someone conducting a traffic count in the stairwells, you’ll know what were up to! We will continue to offer curriculum kits to work sites that are interested in conducting a WOW program in their facility. The staff of Community Wellness provides the leadership for this project and funding from the foundation makes these programs possible.
Seniors – Leslie Lindsay-Smith, a nurse educator from the Valley Program for Aging Services, leads the senior workgroup. Our partnering with this group has taken us to the local senior centers and to several faith and minority groups in our community. We have piloted two WOW “You Can” programs, supported by funding from the foundation, with tremendous results shown by increased activity and improved nutritional habits among the participants. Moving our plan forward, we will continue to identify groups where a strong internal leader emerges to carry the project forward and utilize the curriculum kits that Leslie has designed. Our goal for this workgroup is to continue to impact one person at a time using an existing support group and internal leadership. Leslie is maintaining data from the pilot groups and has presented her work at two national meetings.
If you have questions about the WOW program, have knowledge of an untapped resource or other great ideas to share, please contact me at (540) 332-4191 or by e-mail at ljohnson@augustamed.com. We welcome your thoughts!
Linda Gail Johnson
WOW Project Coordinator
Director of Community Wellness
Last updated: July 25, 2005