Wellness Committee events to aid, educate employees

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The Employee Benefits Committee created a Wellness Committee three years ago as a way to promote health and wellness among the faculty and staff at UAB.

Participation in the 2008 Walk UAB! Challenge event was high.
The Wellness Committee focuses on four areas: Nutrition, physical activity, smoking-cessation and stress management.

The wellness effort strives to create programs and educational strategies to enhance or improve the well being of employees. Summer events promise to provide employees more unique opportunities to improve their wellness, says Alesia Jones, interim chief human resources officer and chair of the Wellness Committee.

“During the summer months we tend to spend more time doing things that can help maintain personal health, like increased physical activity and lighter diets,” Jones says.  “Our committee aims to provide information that will help motivate employees to focus on wellness.”

Summer events

Download a calendar of events each month on the Wellness Committee Web site at www.uab.edu/wellness.
• June 17 — Prostate cancer. June is Men’s Health Awareness Month and there will be a discussion on prostate cancer from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the West Pavilion.
• July — Deskercise online. Several “deskercise” videos on will be posted on the Wellness site at www.uab.edu/wellness. The Committee also will team up with UAB’s EatRight program to provide several healthy, summertime recipes free to employees on its Web site.
• August — The Committee is teaming with UAB Community Eye Care to provide free vision screenings. The 10-week Walk UAB! Challenge also will return in late August.
The Wellness Committee was responsible for bringing the Scale Back Alabama campaign to campus three years ago, and it was the catalyst behind the formation of the 10-week Walk UAB! Challenge this past fall.

“We thought Scale Back was a great event to kick start our wellness program,” says Anne Kerr-Brown, administrative associate in Human Resources and member of the Wellness Committee. “We’ve had fantastic campus participation in Scale Back each year with employees losing more than 14,000 pounds in the three years combined, including a high of 7,076 pounds in 2008. And our employees walked 90,295 miles during the 10-week Walk UAB! Challenge. Those are just terrific numbers.”

The group also has hosted Wellness Wednesday events on campus since April, focusing on different topics including exercise, stress management and healthy eating. The group’s efforts have been so successful that it has received the American Heart Association’s Gold Level Start! Fit Friendly Award two years in a row.

“We know our employees desire this information and the chance to participate in or view demonstrations so they can learn to be healthy. We also would welcome any suggestions employees have for events or activities. Suggestions tell us what’s working and what’s not,” Kerr-Brown says.

To learn more or make suggestions e-mail uabwellness@uab.edu or visit www.uab.edu/wellness.