“Wellness is something we do with and for people. It isn’t something we do to them,” shared WELCOA’s Ryan Picarella, the keynote at this week’s American Heart Association’s Worksite Wellness Summit. He reminded us that it is really all about living happier, fuller lives. So often we talk clinically: the need to lower blood pressure – lose weight – eat vegetables. Isn’t it really about feeling better every day? Perhaps living long enough to know our grandchildren? To be able to simply enjoy life’s offerings, and perhaps be better prepared to deal with its challenges.

Ryan went on to talk about how we create trust within our workplaces. Trust is truly the backbone of just about everything. Though he didn’t speak about it, we know that the culture of both safety and health require trust as a basic tenet. And finally, he reminded us of purpose. Purpose matters. How do we in fact measure it? Grow it? It matters for me as it does for you – just as it does for my twenty-something daughters and my eighty-something mother. Do our workplaces support our human need for purpose?

What I was reminded during this year’s Summit is the question of who is missing? What if I don’t work for an organization that has invested the money or attention to a worksite wellness program? What if I work two or three jobs – all of them part time? What if I am out of work? This is where our Institute and the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center need your help – uncovering community partners that we are missing. Along with our Total Worker Health partners, including SAIF Corporation, Wellness@Work, OEA Choice, Worksite Wellness Network, Oregon Public Health Institute, among others – we are eager to expand our collaborations. Are you a community partner new to us? Contact us and help us better understand how we can work together. And let us know – what is your why?

Resources:
OccHealthSci topic: Total Worker Health and Well-being
NIOSH Total Worker Health
Wellness@Work
Worksite Wellness Network