Working Your Way to a Healthier You
What is Worksite Wellness?
More than 60% of adults work and many spend 2,000 or more hours a year at work. Worksite wellness makes the place they work healthier and gives them an opportunity to add wellness activities into their daily lives. An ideal healthy worksite plan has opportunities for employees to:
- Be more physically active/gain access to physical activity event, venues…
- Eat healthful foods
- Live tobacco-free
Chronic diseases (heart disease, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis) which are largely preventable through lifestyle changes and prevention services, cause 70% of all deaths each year and account for 75% of our $42.2 trillion annual healthcare costs. These rising costs of chronic disease and the desire to help employees attain healthier lifestyles are prompting worksites to incorporate worksite wellness programs. Initiating a good worksite wellness programs can:
- Reduce absenteeism (Healthy employees miss fewer days of work)
- Improve productivity
- Control increasing health care costs
- Reduce injuries
- Improve employee morale
Orange County Department of Health will assist your worksite to develop programs and policies for a healthier worksite. This may include:
- Setting up Walking Loops and Programs
- Healthier Vending Machines and Snack Areas
- Support for Breastfeeding Employees
- CSA to Worksite Program
- Healthier Meeting Guidelines (New York State Department of Health)
- Water Friendly Worksite and Drink Water Week
- Access to Tobacco Cessation Programs
- Education Sessions – Lunch and Learns on a variety of topics, including USDAMYPlate, portion sizes, Reading Food Labels and other individualized topics.
- Walking journals/tracking sheets
- Walking route maps
- Exercise guidelines
- Pedometers
- Education
The goal of the Healthy Orange Worksite Wellness program is to increase employee awareness about the dangers of tobacco use and secondhand smoke. Another goal is to increase the number of employees interested in quitting tobacco use and enrolling them in FREE cessation programs. The goals will be met through needs assessment tools, public health education, on-site activities including free tobacco cessation classes and ongoing support from the employer and the Orange County Department of Health.
Healthy Orange looks forward to bringing future wellness programs in 2016 to Orange County employees. For more information regarding Healthy Orange and worksite wellness, please call Orange County Health & Wellness Coordinator at 845-360-6680.