Wellness Newsletter
Develop and offer “free” medical information resources as part of the overall employee health promotion strategy. Reliable information is available free, or at very low cost, through many resource areas.
Ideas and resources will be suggested here. Also review the Resource and Website listings at the end of this guide for more ideas and resources.
Health Promotion Bulletin Board Ideas
Most workplaces have at least one staff member bulletin board located in a central area. Obtain permission to use part of that bulletin board as the “Health Promotion Corner”, or obtain management approval to develop a bulletin board dedicated to wellness. Health Promotion bulletin board suggestions include –
• White 8 1/2″ x 11″ flyers will be ignored. Use color or nonstandard size and shape when possible.
• Change your bulletin boards often. When they remain the same too long, they become “white noise.”
• Play “Dialing for Dollars” to increase bulletin board attention. Make a random phone call and ask an worker to name the health fact of the day as listed on the health bulletin board. Award nominal prizes to winners.
Use an “activities calendar” with targeted advertisements, football schedules, recipes, etc. that will encourage keeping the calendar updated and utilized.
• Post or email quick tips on health. Get tips from the Hope Health website at – http – //www.hithope.com/main.php?dir=content&file=health_tips.txt.
Health Promotion Library
Develop an staff member library in a central area that has easy staff member access. Resources and ideas for the library could include –
• A local health resources guide with referral lists to help staff members hook up with resources if onsite resources cannot be provided. Keep referral lists in a 3-ring binder and update monthly.
• A brief, periodic wellness newsletter or update flyer distributed to staff members via their paycheck or department meetings. It’s easy to make use of the monthly CIS Healthy Benefits worker update for this purpose.
• A variety of consumer books, magazines, videos, and articles related to good health. Solicit worker donations of current titles and recyclable items.
Be certain to encourage employees to checkout materials for loan. Update resources regularly. Consider using some of the CIS Healthy Benefits employee health promotion grant funds for good library resources.
• Healthy resources are available at local libraries. Publicize those resources within your onsite wellness library.
• Health magazines may be kept in the employee break area.
• Download extra copies of the CareWise quarterly newsletter from the CIS website at http – //www.cciservices.com, Healthful Benefits, and circulate these in employee break room areas.
• Create a consumer health information bin that is updated with articles and pertinent information regarding consumerism and healthcare. Check the resource listings at the end of this guide for additional ideas.
• Free handout materials could be acquired from local non-profit agencies (American Red Cross, Heart Association, Cancer Society, Lung Association), and made available in staff member areas.
See website listings and other resources in the back of this guide for additional ideas regarding free health resources.
New Year’s Resolution Bulletin Board
• Have staff members voluntarily write down their health-related New Year’s resolutions on 3″ x 5″ index cards with their names on the back.
• Post the cards in the form of a collage on the wellness bulletin board.
• Leave the cards up for about two weeks, and then store them in a secure wellness file.
• Post the cards near the end of February to remind employees of their goals and self-commitments.
• Take the cards down again after another week and again store in a secure file.
• Mail the cards back to the person along with health promotion program promotions or other information announcements after March.
• Throughout the year, continue to offer wellness opportunities, support groups, or related activities.
Are You a Type D Personality?
You’re probably aware of whether you tend toward a type A or type B personality, since those labels are part of our lexicon. What you may not know, however, is that there is a third type -- type D -- and it’s not a great category to find yourself in. The D stands for distress, and a growing body of research links this personality type with a variety of health risks and even early death -- so it may be especially important for these inhibited and gloomy folks to do everything they can to lighten up.
Remember Eeyore -- the sad, self-conscious donkey character in Winnie-the-Pooh? To my mind, he is a perfect illustration of the type D personality. He always expected the worst and therefore, that’s what he usually got. Traits associated with this personality type include social inhibition, a negative self-image, depressed mood, hostility, tension, chronic anger and a tendency to overreact to stressful events.
Type D & Death Risk
It’s already known that having this type D personality elevates risk for people who have had heart attacks, cardiac bypass surgery and/or stent implants. In new research from the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands, scientists set out to determine the impact of these characteristics on people with a common condition called peripheral artery disease (PAD), a circulatory problem in which narrowed arteries reduce blood flow to the limbs. People who have PAD have four to five times greater risk for heart attack and stroke.
Researchers asked 184 patients (average age 65) diagnosed with PAD to fill out a 14-item personality questionnaire to assess character traits, such as negativity and social inhibition. They rated statements such as "I would rather keep people at a distance" and "I often find myself worrying about something" as false or true on a scale of zero to four. During the next four years, 16 patients (9%) died -- six of cardiovascular disease, seven of cancer and one each from emphysema, pneumonia and acute pancreatitis. After factoring in other variables such as age, gender, diabetes and kidney disease, investigators learned that those with type D personalities were more than three times as likely to have died as those who were Type A or B.
How Distress Raises Risk
There are numerous pathways linking this particular personality type with poor health outcomes, I learned from study coauthor Johan Denollet, PhD, a professor of medical psychology at Tilburg University. Some are physical, other behavioral. For instance, Type D individuals tend to...
• Experience chronic anxiety and negativity. Living in such a state has a variety of physical effects on your body, none beneficial. Chronic stress drives up levels of inflammatory proteins called cytokines, which leads to increased oxidative stress and contributes to disease. The adrenal glands respond to stress by pumping out cortisol, the hormone that helps us meet perceived threats. Having high and prolonged levels of cortisol in the bloodstream causes serious problems, including blood sugar imbalances, reduced immunity, slower wound healing and increased abdominal fat.
• Have poor health habits. Research has shown that people with type D personalities often neglect their health by eating improperly, not having medical checkups and being sedentary.
• Are unlikely to be proactive in seeking medical care. Perhaps because they are unable to express their emotions and are tense, insecure and uncomfortable in social situations, type D individuals are often slow to seek the medical help they need. In one study, type D patients with chronic heart failure experienced more cardiac symptoms and worried more about them than other people but, paradoxically, were less likely to discuss them with health-care professionals. Other research demonstrates that heart failure patients with "inadequate consultation behavior" face a six-fold increased risk for impaired health.
What Can Help
Generally speaking, you can’t change your personality -- but if you recognize these traits in yourself or a loved one, there are plenty of things you can do to address the issues and minimize the impact on your health. For example, Dr. Denollet notes that type D personalities are more likely to experience anxiety and depression -- and points out that these can be managed to a significant degree with counseling and/or medication. Other strategies include...
• Adopting healthier lifestyle behaviors, such as better diet and regular exercise.
• Participating in programs or counseling to conquer addictions, such as smoking or alcohol abuse, or to improve social skills and learn to relax.
• Using techniques such as guided imagery, breathing exercises, meditation, tai chi and yoga to help manage stress and mood and learn to control anger and hostility.
While you can’t change who you are, if you have a type D personality, you can take these concrete steps to make yourself healthier and, I’ll bet, happier.
Source(s):
Johan Denollet, PhD, professor of medical psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
* * * End Quote * * *
If you would like help applying Affirmations, Meditation, or Qigong (Chi Kung) practice to this debilitating health issue, contact me at bewellwithmichelle@gmail.com
