Wellness Plans : Health Promotion Program Design Choices.

The health promotion program design choices depend on the goals and desired outcomes of your health promotion program. If your goal is to help workers change behavior, reduce risk factors, or save healthcare dollars then your health promotion program would be designed to accomplish those outcomes and a budget would be necessary to support that design.  

There are different health promotion program design levels depending on desired outcomes and budgets.  Each level has advantages and disadvantages.  The intentions or results are quite different, aren’t interchangeable in terms of obtaining the same results, and thus shouldn’t be confused.  

For  instance, scheduling activities like an employee health fair or lunchtime education sessions, or having brochures available don’t normally lead to behavior change, but might increase awareness on a topic.  

If the goal is behavior change then a different design is required, like Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs and Organizational Support.  The outline below describes the wellness design levels with a brief explanation.

Awareness Programs –   at this level a corporation makes medical information available and accessible to workforce.  This type of health promotion program can include brochures on a selection of topics, wellness articles in newsletters, bulletin board displays, e-mail health messages, etc.  

Moreover, most health fairs are designed as awareness programs with providers providing information and providing health screenings to staff members.  

Awareness programs are low cost and don’t require comprehensive staff member or business time commitments. However, these health promotion programs don’t typically result in healthier behavior change.  

Increasing awareness isn’t usually enough to generate lifestyle changes for most person, unless used to motivate staff members to register for a wellness program being offered at the corporation or community on the topic.  

An example of this would be providing information on the harmful effects of use of tobacco and inviting employees who smoke to register for a use of tobacco cessation class.

Education Programs –   Educational health promotion programs often provide more information on a topic and can also provide time for questions and answers, but are similar to awareness health promotion programs.  An example is lunch-n-learn sessions on a health related topic.  

These cost the organization a little more than awareness programs; notwithstanding, they’re still low cost and do not require a excellent deal of time for planning or attending a session.  

Again, increasing awareness and providing information may not lead to the desired behavior modification unless ongoing support or incentives are also planned.

Lifestyle/Behavior Change Programs –   These wellness programs are designed as 4 to 12 weekly sessions or seminars to provide wellness education, address barriers and provide opportunities to practice the desired skills.  

Behavior change programs accordingly require more company resources, cost more, and require more staff member commitment, time and effort.  The results are often the desired positive lifestyle change, which if sustained can lead to potential cost savings.  

Examples are tobacco use cessation classes, losing weight and weight control meetings, or an ongoing fitness program.

Environmental and Organizational Support –   Environmental support is often considered the highest and most essential level to include when designing your health promotion program in order to support and maintain healthful behaviors.  

These types of design options include policy changes like –

• Creating a smoke-free workplace

• Designating a walking path,

• Establishing on-site fitness centers,

• Ensuring healthy vending machine selections,

• Offering healthy food choices in the cafeteria, and/or

• Establishing flex-time policies.  

Other examples include subsidizing healthful vending machines or cafeteria choices; reimbursing fitness club or weight loss and weight control program memberships; or providing insurance incentives for healthful behaviors.

Ideally, the wellness program design would include some of all these options.  The more robust and integrated the approach, the more successful the results will be.  For example, a business can –

• have tobacco cessation information available;
• can schedule a one hour awareness session on the harmful effects of tobacco use and how to quit;
• can start an onsite smoking cessation program,
• supply self quit smoking kits, or
• support workforce to attend a community program; and/or
• on an environmental support level can establish a smoke-free worksite and grounds,
• offer lower insurance premiums for non-smokers, or
• provide pharmacological quit smoke aids for free.

Wellness Program –  Components for Success

There are a few key components or elements that should be considered to ensure the success of your Health Promotion Program or wellness program.  These include –  

• Upper Management Support and Employee Involvement

• Active Health Promotion Committee

• Program is Based on Employee Needs and Interests

• Goals and Objectives are Established

• Detailed Action Plan Based on Resources and Budget

• Program Implementation and Internal Marketing and Advertising

• Evaluation of Outcomes and Program