SUMMARY
The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), Office of Public Health improves
workplace health through the Well-Ahead Louisiana WellSpot Designation
Program. Well-Ahead promotes chronic disease prevention efforts where
Louisiana residents live, work, learn, and play. As a result of Well-Ahead, 187
organizations have started a comprehensive worksite wellness program.
CHALLENGE
Louisiana is well known for its great
food, music, and legendary festivals.
Unfortunately, the state is also known
for poor health. According to the 2015
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System, 36% of Louisiana adults are
classified as obese and 33% are
classified as overweight. Less than
half (46%) of adults get enough
aerobic physical activity each week,
and 32% get no physical activity
during their leisure time. As a result,
Louisiana ranks poorly compared to
other states – 45th for physical inactivity
among all states and 50th for obesity in
the 2016 America’s Health Rankings
annual report. Louisiana also ranks 45th
for diabetes and 46th for cardiovascular
deaths. Worksite wellness programs
can help create environments that
reduce the risk for obesity and other
chronic conditions.
YOUR INVOLVEMENT IS KEY
Well-Ahead promotes chronic
disease prevention efforts by
coordinating the investment of
prevention funds and focusing
on systems-level health
interventions to reach residents
in a streamlined and efficient
way.
To learn more about WellAhead, visit http://wellaheadla.
com/
This initiative is partially
supported by the State Public
Health Actions to Prevent and
Control Diabetes, Heart
Disease, Obesity, and
Associated Risk Factors and
Promote School Health
cooperative agreement
(DP13-1305).
“The timing of the East
Louisiana Mental Health
Hospital’s Wellness Program
was perfect. We’ve seen so
many small changes over the
past year. It has been one of
the first programs that has
taken ‘root’ for employees, and
they feel appreciated.”
SOLUTION
In 2014, LDH launched Well-Ahead to encourage and support organizations in
creating healthier workplaces. These organizations include worksites, schools,
child care centers, hospitals, and universities. Organizations complete an online
assessment and choose wellness benchmarks specific to their organization type.
Examples of benchmarks include tobacco-free policies, breastfeeding policies,
worksite wellness programs, and nutrition policies. Each organization receives an
action plan, resources, and guidance on how to reach the benchmarks.
Organizations that achieve enough benchmarks are designated as a level 1,
level 2 or level 3 WellSpot, with level 1 being the highest.
RESULTS
As of September 2017, 187 organizations started a worksite wellness program as a result of WellAhead. All of these organizations
achieved at least a level 2 status by adopting a comprehensive tobacco-free policy and meeting at least five other benchmarks.
Examples include:
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System adopted a healthy vending policy that ensures at least 50% of the vending
options are healthy for its 14,000 employees, visitors, and over 2.6 million patients per year.
The East Louisiana Mental Health Hospital opened a new lactation room for breastfeeding mothers and offered 43 wellness events
and activities in the program’s first year for all 1,367 employees.
Rainbow Child Care Center and 31 other WellSpots created a healthy meeting policy to make healthy food options available during
employee meetings and events.
SUSTAINING SUCCESS
Well-Ahead will continue to offer technical assistance and online resources to
WellSpots across the state to create or improve health policies and worksite
wellness programs. Numerous resources provided to WellSpots are accessible
on the Well-Ahead Louisiana website. In addition, through partnership with
Louisiana Area Health Education Centers, Well-Ahead will continue to reach out
to organizations a
