Workplace Wellness Works!
Thank you to all those who attended our June Webinar: Workplace Wellness Works! Celebrating a Healthy Worksite.
The BC Alliance for Healthy Living hosted a province-wide forum on healthy workplaces. Speakers shared their experience working with BC workplaces to improve health. The presentations included tips and tools available to make our workplaces better and healthier and are available now on-line. The first presentation from the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS), featured their Wellness Fits program.
Taking over from CCS’s Sharon Storoschuk and Kate Carty was Brandon Grant. Brandon’s presentation profiled the Northern Health’s Men’s Health Initiative.
We know from follow up surveys that the presentations and subject matter were well received, and hope that you will join us this coming Fall for our next session.
For more information on our June presenters and their programs, read below.
SHARON STOROSCHUK is the Director Health Promotion Canadian Cancer Society BC & Yukon (CCS). Sharon has a Master’s of Public Health degree and over 20 years of experience in health promotion, evaluation and research. Sharon is responsible for overseeing CCS’s provincial Prevention Strategy for cancer.
KATE CARTY is the Project Manager for WellnessFits at the Canadian Cancer Society BC & Yukon Division. Kate has a Master’s degree in Kinesiology and over 20 years of experience in health services planning, project management and health-related research and evaluation.
BRANDON GRANT is the Men’s Health Initiative Program Coordinator for Northern Health. He has worked in Dawson Creek at the Nawican Friendship Centre, initially as the Youth Program Coordinator and eventually as the Executive Director. In 2008, he moved to Prince George to pursue a Master’s Degree in Social Work, after which he worked with the Community Partners Addressing Homelessness (CPAH) and was employed by the Northern Family Health Society as a Community Support Key Worker. After completing his MPA in June, 2011, he joined Northern Health. Since joining Northern Health, Brandon has been able to travel across the northern health region speaking with community members about men’s health.
Programs Profiled:
WellnessFits
The Canadian Cancer Society, BC and Yukon Division, in partnership with Healthy Families BC recently launched WellnessFits – a free comprehensive workplace wellness program designed to address the different needs of small, medium and large businesses with two flexible program options.
Building on the learning and initial investment of the BC Alliance for Healthy Living’s Tobacco-free Workplace Initiative, WellnessFits is a comprehensive program that addresses key behaviours in the workplace including healthy eating, physical activity, healthy minds and being tobacco-free in order to reduce the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases. In addition, WellnessFits offers free online, email and telephone support, or on-site consultations to help businesses get started.
Northern Health Men’s Health Initiative
The Men’s Health program was created by Northern Health in response to the Chief Medical Health Officer’s November 2010 report “Where are the Men?” This report outlined a number of health challenges for men living in northern BC including:
• Higher rates of cancer, suicide, occupational deaths, and chronic disease
• And lower access rates of health care
To address this issue, Northern Health has made Men’s Health a focus area by creating a program to improve the health outcomes of men living in the North. This commitment is closely aligned with Northern Health’s pillars of integrated health services with a population health approach outlined in their Strategic Plan. In the spring of 2011, Men’s Health was identified as the focus of Northern Health’s community consultation.
