Congratulations to Oriana House nominated by Anthem and selected as the first quarter Rising Star of worksite wellness.
Established in Akron in 1981, Oriana House now provides community corrections and substance abuse treatment programs throughout much of Ohio. With facilities in Summit, Cuyahoga, Seneca, Erie, Sandusky, Huron, and Washington counties, Oriana House employs nearly 800 professionals who work to help clients become healthy, independent members of the community. Delivering an appealing wellness program to multiple locations is a big challenge.
When Oriana House offered a free and during working hours smoking cessation class, Stephen who works in IT was happy to participate. He was ready to quit. He had tried multiple times before to stop smoking. “My biggest reason is I have a four year old and I didn’t want her to see me smoke and think it is ok when she gets older”, said Stephen. “I remember being about the same age when my mother quit smoking for the
Stephen stopped smoking
same reasons”, continued Stephen. He found breaking the habits of smoking the first two weeks the hardest but was grateful for the tools, advice and support offered in the class useful.
The Freedom from Smoking class was conducted by Evelyn who has offered it several times this year. “What I like most about leading the class is seeing someone come in who is apprehensive about quitting yet they get engaged in the program and have success”, said Evelyn. “Nice thing about it, the tools we use in the class are like the other work I do for Oriana House to fight other addictions” continued Evelyn.
Oriana House utilizes several different methods to increase engagement. Their program focuses on various areas of wellness, including: physical, mental, social, and financial wellness. They do not limit their focus to physical activities. Their offering of Employee Assistance Program (EAP), WorkLife Services program and Live Health Online webcam services, address a broader definition of wellness. In addition to these services all sites have access to a wellness portal operated by Fitthumb as part of its core wellness program. Fitthumb is an interactive, online platform that provides engaging short-term and long-term challenges across the various areas of wellness. Fitthumb also offers online classes, health assessments, automated participation tracking, social features, link to wearable trackers and more. The program includes daily, weekly, and monthly challenges to keep staff engaged. Their culture of health surrounds Fitthumb with monthly wellness posters, weekly WOW emails, floor signs, personalized trainings, friendly competitions and more.
Oriana promotes participation in wider community events such as Heart Walk, NAMI Walk, ADM 5k Obstacle Challenge, Walk of Heroes for the Rape Crisis Center and the Akron Relay. They had five teams participate this year in the Relay including the winning team.
Akron Relay Trophy
Treatment Trotters 2018 Edition
If you ever get a chance to talk to Mary, a senior management member and wellness program champion, get ready for an enthusiastic response. Mary will tell you that every member of the senior management committee participates as well as more than half of all employees. She started the program after studying health reports provided by Anthem. She designed a broad program that would improve mental health as well as help with financial wellness. The program is available around the clock to the many locations. Mary recently participated in a poker walk. Everyday participants who walk a required distance were given a playing card. The one with the best poker hand at the end of the week wins the prize.
Lori coordinates many of the wellness committee activities. The committee is comprised of multiple employees in various positions throughout the agency that are passionate about wellness and engaging staff to participate in our wellness. “Our wellness committee is constantly looking for new, innovative approaches to engaging staff and instilling a culture of wellness throughout our agency”, said Lorri. They are currently focusing on recruiting more wellness warriors onto our committee. They are also looking forward to including new initiatives such as employee appreciation week, weekly wellness quizzes scrolling across employee television monitors, and participation in the corporate challenge.
Joe Green is the wellness coordinator for Anthem and works with the wellness champions by attending their regular meetings and offering any input or assistance to aid in furthering their continued mission of promoting wellness every day to team members. In his experience, Joe can’t recall a more organized and passionate committee. Their success is due in part to strong leadership support. In addition, every member is wholly interested in using their own unique talents to contribute to the planning, implementing, and marketing of each wellness objective and doing something outside of their normal professional responsibilities to inject wellness daily at Oriana House. They have utilized some of the most creative, interactive, and fun ideas to challenge Oriana House team members; create competition; and increase engagement by promoting campaigns and challenges that make it easy for all to participate. They are a model wellness committee and should serve as a glowing example for any company who wishes to implement a wellness program onsite.
