The fact that the mind and the body cannot be separated results in an inseparable relationship between physical and mental health. Despite the fact that the connections are striking, integration of the two fields in worksite wellness programming still has not occurred in any meaningful way. Worksite wellness practitioners need to better understand the connections between physical and mental health so they can intervene more effectively with employees to improve the outcomes in both areas.

It is important to address the integration of physical and mental health for the following reasons:

• The individual employee's mental health status or the presence of a mental illness such as depression or anxiety can affect an individual's ability to undertake health promoting behaviors that address their physical health status. It is therefore critical that individuals have a better understanding of the integral link between all aspects of their health.

• Chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, or cancer can have a profound impact on an individual's mental health.

• An individual's mental health status affects an individual's ability to participate in their treatment and recovery from a chronic disease.

• Family members and caregivers of people with chronic diseases are also affected psychologically thereby potentially resulting in their neglecting their own health.

Integrating all aspects of health within a worksite wellness program requires partnerships and integration at multiple levels. Integration and partnerships allow the partners to leverage their strengths and resources and to work on common goals. Integration needs to occur at the program level, the policy level, between vendors and potentially between the employer and community based resources.

The elements necessary to support integration include:

• Making the business case through the collection, analysis, and dissemination of data on the interrelationships between all aspects of employee health. The data should also show how integration and partnerships can better advance the employer's core mission and objectives.

• Developing a champion at every level within the organization. While integration requires leadership and motivation from the top, it is best to have a champion at each level to initiate, implement, and sustain the integration.

• Forming an integration management working team to sustain the integration effort. The integration effort cannot be sustained if it is only the work of just a couple of people.

• Developing integrated interventions that are based on identified needs or gaps where positive outcomes and early wins can be achieved. Early on, look for interventions that are simple, targeted, and within the scope of the missions, resources, infrastructures, processes of the partners' existing program initiatives.

• Monitor, measure and evaluate integrated initiatives by establishing goals, measures and collecting the appropriate data. Evaluation could include process, output and outcome types of evaluation strategies. They could include assessing improvements in access to and satisfaction with care, services, or programming, determining the effect of policy changes on outcomes or services, and making the case for cost-benefit and/or cost-effectiveness.

Programming is one of the key areas where integration can and should be implemented. The four levels we see for physical health programming can also be applied to other health areas as well. These are: awareness, education, lifestyle change and policy/environmental change.

The traditional core physical health programming topics have included physical activity, nutrition, sleep and stress management. These four core programming areas also have implications for mental health as well. This makes the leap to integrated programming real easy. Prevention and self-care activities are also areas where integration can be applied.

Good mental health is fundamental to maintaining good physical health. Ultimately, there is no health without mental health. A worksite wellness program is a necessary and ideal venue to support program integration.

 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 

The reason why organization development programs are so popular (and important, too) is that it allows a company and its workforce to improve. Every organization is a system that has a lot of elements, and each of the parts (or elements) of a company should work harmoniously and collaboratively. By implementing well-conceived development plans, a company will be able to let all its elements work in complete harmony.

Organizational development, in general, involves the formation of countless strategic plans and the implementation of the correct ones only. These plans and policies will be implemented to affect the following aspects (of a business):

So, now, it is time to read up on the tips that have to be kept in mind while carrying out development plan.

The first step of any organizational development plan is to streamline the existing communication strategies. An ideal communication strategy must not be limited to giving and getting feedback only. The strategies must transform the way the company works and makes the workforce more empowered; in short, these strategies must enable the employees to initiate communication systematically and strategically as well.

The company's management should ensure that several change management policies are in place. These strategies must be designed keeping in mind all those old guards who are an asset to the company (because of their skill sets) but who oppose such managerial changes.

Before implementing the policies, plans and strategies that will initiate continuous improvement for a company, you must analyze and acknowledge the impacts of each change. The impacts of a change may be positive or negative. Performing such analysis to study the future changes is necessary to separate the ones that should be implemented from those that should be discarded.

Last but not least, you will have to acknowledge each and every fear that harbors the mind of your employee. Each change has to be implemented for the employees only, so it is better if you know the change that will carry adverse effects on them and the ones that they are ready to embrace. By having such information, you will be able to understand that what all changes need to be implemented and what all implementations have to be ignored (at least for the time being).

 
 

 

Meditation in the workplace is actually not a new concept, and has been incorporated into the workplace since the early 1960's.  However, as the mental health of workers starts to come more into play, as the corporate culture intensifies, performance enhancing techniques, such as meditation, is starting to gain wider acceptance.  As a more enlightened management style begins to take shape in larger Fortune 500 companies, as well as smaller firms all over the world, the need to replace ineffective patterns of working, as well as improve employee mental health, is at the forefront of many workplace initiatives.  And this is no truer today than in the pharmaceutical industry, where monotonous, but highly specialized laboratory work, can lead to disaster if the laboratory workers are not as sharp, and mentally focused as they can be.  This is where meditation comes into play.

With meditation training in the workplace, employees no longer need to feel the anxiety of being imprisoned at work, or the claustrophobia that is associated with monotonous work.  The ability to train your mind to stay calm, under any circumstance, is at the forefront of what meditation is about, and how it can be used in a practical way to raise awareness as well as a heightened sense of calm at the workplace.  Just practicing deep breathing exercises for 5 minutes before every shift, can have a tremendous impact on your employees state of calm and mental health throughout the day.  Studies have shown that individuals who take time to meditate before, or during work, sustain higher levels of productivity, as well as more happiness and job satisfaction.

Many pharmaceutical companies, as well as pharmaceutical consulting firms, are recognizing the profound benefits of meditation in the workplace, and advise that other companies start to look into it as well.  They have found that individuals who are encouraged to meditate at work, experience a greater sense of calm, not to mention a greater willingness to contribute as well as communicate with other workers.  They have higher job satisfaction, and are more likely to be more productive.  These benefits are not only good for the average employee, who might incorporate meditation into their professional lives, but it is smart for the company as well.  The benefits from practiced meditation can mean better productivity, which means a better return on your investment, better