HEALTY STEPS 2000

Dr. Jeremy Barnes, right, and his students Tonia Best, left, and Mike Knobbe from Southeast Missouri State University, conducted a Healthy Steps 2000 seminar for city employees at City Hall.

Employees for the City of Cape Girardeau may have a healthier spring to their step as they enter the new millennium. Employees were offered the opportunity to increase their health awareness in a program called Healthy Steps 2000 directed by Dr. Jeremy Barnes, assistant professor of health promotion at Southeast Missouri State University.

The university offers a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Management with an option in health promotion. As part of that program, the final class is designed to allow students to put all the knowledge, skills, and abilities they have gained in their preceding classes into planning, implementing, and evaluating a health promotion program at a worksite.

Each year Dr. Barnes submits a proposal to HealthLink requesting funding for the program which includes a health screening for employees and then seminars based on participant need.

The City had been involved in the same program in 1998 and Dan Ward, Human Resources and Risk Manager for the City, had seen firsthand what a beneficial program it was. Ward participated extensively in the 1998 program.

"As a result of the program, the City contacted Health South, Universal and Main Street Fitness and contracted for a special promotion for City employees," said Ward. Because of the Healthy Steps program, Ward and his wife purchased a membership at Health South in 1998 and are still faithfully attending.

"This (the University program) is a very good wellness program for people who want to find out how to get and stay healthy," he said.

"About 100 employees participated in the initial screening this year," said Barnes. Such things as body composition, lower back and hamstring flexibility, muscular endurance, waist to hip ratio and body mass index, blood pressure and blood lipids are assessed. The individual and group results are used in planning the programs to be offered.

Kelly Platt, a University senior, is involved with the smoking cessation seminars. The seminars are intended to give people insight into how they became addicted and offer methods to help them quit.

Platt is also preparing to present a stress management seminar. Deep breathing exercises and ways to deal with different stressful situations will be discussed.

"If driving to work is what stresses you, then we'll discuss taking a different route to work," she said.

Denise Rausch, also a senior, is working with heart disease. The first goal is to explain what heart disease is, then to discuss risk factors and finally preventive techniques.

"Our goal is to get increased involvement in health and physical activity," said Rausch.

Seminars are also offered on physical activity and weight loss, nutrition and cancer risk reduction. Healthy snacks, door prizes and packets of handouts help to encourage attendance.

A portion of the program includes organized walking at the Osage Centre on Tuesday and Thursday. Walking is a favorite exercise of Karen James, a City employee.

James began walking on a regular basis as a result of the 1998 program.

"Now I'm a die-hard walker," she said. James said things have changed for the better since she began the program.

"There's a big difference in my cholesterol and my blood pressure's lower," she said.

Those are the positive results the program is intended to foster.

"We hope to give employees enough ideas and encouragement that they will change some aspect of their lifestyle and as a consequence will reduce their risk of disease," said Barnes.

Platt feels fortunate to have participated in the program. "This class allows us to use the skills we have learned," she said.

Although participation isn't as high as Ward hoped, he is still very enthusiastic about the program.

"Jeremy and his students are a really dedicated group. This is just a super program," he said.