I’ve been hearing about organizational wellness programs for several years now. What could be bad?
According to an article in The Wall Street Journal’s, MarketWatch (Even During Financial Crisis, Investing in Wellness is Good Business)
- Chronic illness accounts for 2/3 of a company’s health care expense.
- 80% of all chronic disease is the result of 3 preventable health behaviors: physical inactivity, poor nutrition and smoking.
Corporate Wellness programs typically include smoking cessation, weight loss and exercise programs with ‘health coaches’.
But that 80% is the low hanging fruit. What about the 20% who live with chronic disease that isn’t “preventable”? They desperately need to work for organizations with flexible schedules, supportive supervisors who adjust work loads and good benefits so they can get the medical treatment.
Now that would be an investment in human capital! But much harder to do than hiring an outside firm to deliver health coaching.
I also worry about this: Describing chronic illness as preventable could lead an employer or a colleague of someone with a chronic illness (such as rheumatoid arthritis, mitochondrial disease or sarcoidosis) to assume that all chronic illnesses are preventable? Or that a relatively straightforward life style change would eradicate the disease?
Could wellness programs further marginalize those who don’t get “well”? Folks with chronic illness who have little control over their health could be seen as difficult in this environment.
Excuse me for being paranoid. Tell me, have you seen or experienced what I describe? Or am I letting my imagination run away with itself?
Rosalind aka cicoach.com
Christina Gombar says
Rosalind — I share your frustration with the institutional focus on purely preventable illnesses. A few years ago, I answered a state-sponsored telephone survey, where I revealed I had a disabling chronic illness, and I protest the same thing — the emphasis on helping those with illnesses that are self-inflicted.
When I got sick with my chronic illness, I was eating brown rice and chicken cutlets, had given up cocktails, didn’t smoke, avoided sugar and excercised regularly, and wasn’t an ounce overweight. Of course I wasn’t at risk for diabetes, obesity-related diseases or lung ailments, my illness wasn’t something I’d “asked for” with poor health habits. The man giving the survey seemed surprised with my furstration, but did mention the prevalance of Lyme disease, a serious problem in our state. I followed up that ther are lots and lots of chronic illnesses that no one has ever heard of, and that, like Lyme disease, there are no push-button cures for.
The focus on wellness programs is a great opportunity to educate our employers and health care providers about the many chronic conditions that are NOT self-induced. If they can be forgiving and helpful towards those who refused to have common sense and follow health advice that’s been around for decades, they ought to be sympathetic to those of us who’ve done everything we can to keep on our feet.
Mary says
I am just very frustrated that my company will pay for wellness programs to prevent things like breast cancer, but will not pay for injectable medications for MS.
Rosalind Joffe aka cicoach.com says
Paying for medication goes under a different category for an organization – it’s employee benefit/insurance and whether they pay or not for that depends on the level of insurance they purchase for employees. Wellness programs are also a benefit and there, too, quality and amount will depend on what the employer purchases. I am surprised that your insurance won’t pay for MS medications since I’m not aware of any policy that doesn’t cover it, except the very basic. Is the wellness program forbreast cancer prevention a mammogram or is there more for that? Do they offer on-site check ups?
MD says
I would be quite worried from the implications of such programs. I suffer from chronic non-specific back pain. This is presumably one of the conditions that are preventable with exercise and healthy lifestyle. Well, I am a perfectly healthy weight, eat a healthy diet, do not drink or smoke, and exercise as much as I possibly can. Yet every time I see a new doctor, they immediately say things like “you are probably not exercising with your condition”. It can be really difficult to get medical professionals believe that I am not the root cause of my illness. In fact, after they go with me over the things I do, they come back to “you are doing everything you should”. I have also been to a couple of “living with chronic illness” courses which left me really frustrated since the normal group discussion questions were “what is preventing you from exercising” and “how can you make yourself eat healthily”?
So what would happen with a prevention program like that? What would be the implications for me if the program doesn’t work? I’d be really afraid that it would make me work double hard to prove to the company that, even though it is preventable in theory, this illness is not my fault in practice. Would I be forced to spend my very limited energy on courses that tell me what I already know? What would be the implications if the program doesn’t work for me? Or for others with chronic illness? It’s bad enough that many doctors have this “preventable” mindset that leads to stereotyping, it’s scary what would happen if the companies get it, too.
Maria says
I’m finding that the term “chronic illlness” is becoming a little watered down for most of the people I speak with. Chronic illness involves many diseases and can’t possibly be lumped into such a catch-all phrase that the media, medical providers and increasingly more insurance/employment-related organizations rely on.
Perhaps a new discussion about illness vs. disease is in order to reclaim our place in being heard. How many of us women have been told “it’s in your head?” Now, the emphasis on cognitive and behavioral foundations for the autoimmune illnesses (that affect women more than men) is simply a return to that philosophy. It’s the birth control non- coverage vs. viagra coverage all over again unless we begin to truly define what roles our conditions play in our daily lives. Behaviors do matter, but the fact that ultimately our bodies are what they are can either empower or hinder our abilities to live with them well and we need to be the ones creating those definitions.
Michelle Traub says
I can truly see both sides of this issue. As a dietitian I often gives wellness talks, yet I suffer with autoimmune disease. I recently wrote a blog post on this very issue http://webhealthwriter.blogspot.com/2008/11/myth-of-good-health.html (The Myth of Good Health). Sometimes I feel like a fraud telling people that eating well and exercising are the keys to good health because I practice those things and I still feel awful a good portion of the time. So, I make a point to stress that genetics play a big role in everyone’s health. When I mention this I can see people start to relax a bit. After all no one wants to be blamed for their poor health, even if they know they aren’t practicing the best habits. And, unfortunately, many “wellness” programs do come from a blaming point of view – and perhaps this is rightfully so for most people if 80% of illnesses are truly related to smoking, inactivity and poor nutrition.
I do believe that the overall idea of wellness programs is great because oftentimes in a group setting like a work environment people are willing to work together to adopt healthier habits. However, for the uninformed, it definitely does lead to potential discrimination against those who simply can’t make themselves well like those with chronic illness. It is also true for those who do smoke and eat unhealthy diets. Those people truly struggle with their addictions and simply being preached to by a counselor is not going to solve their problems. So, wellness programs do have a place, but seeing them as the way to erradicate absenteeism and cut costs is somewhat unrealistic.
Susan M. says
About 10 years a go I had been selected for a job I REALLY needed. I provided references which I had previously used, and naturally, told the individuals they could expect to be called. No problem. One of them was some one I had known for over 20 years; a former college professor whom I had become close friends with over the years. The next thing I knew, the woman doing the hiring, who had already offered me the job, began treating me as if we had just met, avoiding our next meeting, etc. When I (finally) essentially insisted on coming back in, she chit chatted with me and thanked me for coming in. again. I was so disappointed! When I called the above mentioned reference, as a friend, I was upset. I asked her if the woman had even called her, and she said “yes”, and that she had told her, that I was, “an excellent worker, that I had an ILLNESS, but that I didn’t allow it to effect my work!” I told me friend, that I now realized she was no longer being a reference for me, and was I correct? She said, “yes”. I told her that I just wished she would have told me that, before hand. FYI, so much for my prevention related efforts which, allowed me to “not let my illness affect my work.” This left me in a very damaging situation, when I had a chance to get out of it. I am sorry I sound angry, but I guess I have never “let it out” about how this impacted me.
Rosalind Joffe aka cicoach.com says
Susan – I can see how upsetting this was for you. I’m assuming that your friend knew you didnt’ want the illness “known” — and even if you did, that she would know there is no reason for her to bring it up. YOu said it left you in a damaging situation – That was 10 years ago. I hope that you have had the chance to interview and get a job again. No need to apologize for “sounding angry”. I hope that venting it here helps you to move on to find something again.
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