HEALTH: CORPORATION'S NEW PROGRAM IS `HEARTFELT'

Employees at JCPenney got a chance Tuesday to learn a little more about their health.

With help from students studying health management at Southeast Missouri State University and the American Heart Association, JCPenney has started a worksite wellness program.

Harry Rediger, manager of the JCPenney store, said corporations and individuals today have a responsibility toward wellness.

"It not only aids in the health and welfare of the associates, but it can also drastically reduce health care costs for the company in the future," he said.

In fact, the cost factors alone make a wellness program viable in the workplace, Rediger said.

"We are concerned about the health of our associates," he said. "But we are also concerned about our business. To have good productivity and good attendance, we need to be healthy.

"And with the health care crisis and rising health care costs, wellness, prevention and early detection are more and more important."

Jacqueline Hooper, associate professor of health management and coordinator of the undergraduate health promotions program, helped her students initiate the wellness program for JCPenney.

This is the second year students in the health management/health promotion major have designed a corporate wellness program. Last year, they worked with Custom Designs in Cape Girardeau.

The program is part of the American Heart Association's Heart at Work program.

Through this activity, Hooper said, students in the health promotions program have a chance to take the skills they have learned into the community and get experience doing what they are training to do.

Graduates of the program most often work at corporations or hospitals doing preventive and educational programs similar to the one being designed for JCPenney.

"The students completed an organizational study to determine what the organization might need," Hooper explained.

Tuesday the students began the needs-assessment portion of the program with the screenings. Employees had their blood pressure, weight and body composition studied. Two blood tests, one for blood cholesterol the other for early signs of diabetes, were completed also. Employees also completed a questionnaire on their health and behaviors.

"Students will analyze the results and recommend an education program to reduce risks and improve quality of life for the employees," Hooper said.

Rediger said, "I envision different things like smoking cessation classes, nutrition, exercise."

When all the results are complete, students will also meet with employees to explain what the results mean. "Sometimes a doctor says everything is fine, but people don't know what fine is or how they can keep the results fine."

About 30 of JCPenney's 200 associates went through the program Tuesday. Additional screenings are being planned for more employees at the store.

An advisory group at JCPenney has been working with students to set up the program, and eventually it will take over the plan.

"We are interested in continuing to make more of our associates aware of their own personal wellness," Rediger said. "We need to be pro-active in staying well.

"I think every company and every individual person has to become aware of health issues more than ever before."

Rediger said the fact that representatives with the American Heart Association approached him and laid out a plan for the company helped convince him to give it a try.

"If someone just said we should start a wellness program, I don't know if we would have done it," he said. "But with a personal invitation and a plan to follow, it made sense."