National Wellness Week 2012, Sept. 17-23

You don't have to be an Olympic Athlete to enjoy National Wellness Week. This week is designed to help us be more aware of our whole health and to engage in activities that support our wellness goals.

Locally, activities at The Main Place Recovery Center will include a Movie day 11:00-1:00 on Tuesday the 18^th, Wellness Olympics on 19th from 9:00-12:00 and 2:00-4:00 p.m., build your own Frozen Yogurt sundaes on Thursday at 1:30 and Friday WMR's Wellfest Ohio on the Statehouse lawn.

Monday - Wellness Overview - Engage in the Wellness Wheel. Get a group together over lunch and everyone works on their WMR Wellness Wheel. Share how the Wellness Wheel supports our wellness goals, what's changed since the last time I did my Wellness Wheel, and what new goals am I setting.

• In Columbus, peers will meet in the Columbus Commons located in downtown Columbus along High St at 12:30pm.  Bring your lunch, a chair (or a blanket), and a friend. We will supply copies of the Wellness Wheel to share.

Tuesday - Physical Wellness - Get together for a walk, a hike, a class of Tai Chi, or anything that gets you moving. Did you know that hoola hooping for 10 minutes burns 100 calories. Engaging your physical wellness can be fun!

• In Columbus, Peers from Central Ohio will meet at Scioto Mile at 10:30am and walk along the Scioto River and enjoy the scenery of Downtown. Wear comfortable walking shoes and bring your water bottle. For information about the Scioto Mile and directions, visit www.sciotomile.com .

Wednesday - Intellectual Wellness - Get together for a good dialogue, call a neighbor and play a game of chess or checkers, work the crossword puzzle in the daily newspaper. Do something to activate your mind in creative and challenging ways.

• In Columbus, join us for an interactive workshop on "Telling Your Story". We will gather at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Livingston Branch, 3434 Livingston Ave., Columbus, OH 43227 in the conference room from 12:30-2:30pm. Leaders from the WMR Community will facilitate a WMR experience for people who want to share their stories of recovery and wellness. Everyone has a story to share, but sometimes we need help getting our thoughts and feelings into words, art, music, or dance. This will be a deliberative process where participants can explore creative ways to engage others in the stories of recovery and wellness.

Thursday - Spiritual Wellness - Spirituality is the cornerstone of wellness and   
 recovery. We can engage in our spiritual wellness in multiple ways. We can enjoy a poetry reading, engage in a guided imagery experience, explore nature, or engage in prayer and meditation.

• In Columbus, WMR is planning an afternoon with a drum circle from 2:00-4:00pm at Southeast, Inc., 16 W. Long St., Columbus, OH 43215.

Friday - Social and Emotional Wellness - Plan to get together for coffee, ice cream or play a game of cards with family and friends. Any time we are in the company of others, we can experience social and emotional wellness. Be creative and let us know what you are planning for social and emotional wellness.

• In Columbus, Wellness Management Recovery (WMR) will host the First WellFest on the State House Lawn (corner of Broad St. and High St. downtown) from 11:00-2:00pm. Exhibitors will be on hand to share information and resources for wellness. There will also be live entertainment and wellness demonstrations. At 12:45pm, MHALC compeer members and Main Place Recovery Center members will engage in a community wide line dance. Everyone is welcome!

Saturday - Financial and Occupational Wellness - Check with your local  extension office to learn about resources they may provide in the community. The Extension Office at The Ohio State University offers a number of financial resources including publications entitled "Keep Track of Spending" and "Manage Your Money".

• You can find these articles and other resources at http://extension.osu.edu/topics/business/financial-resources .

Sunday - Environmental Wellness - Our health and well-being are directly tied to the health and well being of our environment. Today, we can work on cleaning out some old clutter, working in our yard, helping a neighbor with their yard, or taking a long walk at a local park. The Extension Office at The Ohio State University offers recorded webinars (online) on how to conserve energy. Enjoy one or more webinar by accessing their website at http://energizeohio.osu.edu/webinars. 

If you need more information or have questions, contact the WMR CCOE at info@wmrohio.org or by phone at 614-225-0980 ext. 1316.

Compeer and Wellness

Mental Health America of Licking County’s Compeer has an active “wellness” component as part of our program. It is locally based, not part of the International Compeer model. Our primary focus is community integration; however an emphasis is put on “wellness” at our twice monthly socials. We serve nutritious snacks or meals and provide programming on healthy lifestyles through our partnerships with the Licking Memorial Hospital, the Licking County Health department and other not-for profits that provide speakers or support materials. Mental health education is part of our programming and we encourage Compeer members to participate in the other 8 programs and services offered by our MHA agency, including Support Groups. Several members do participate in both.

We were one of “100 Pioneers” receiving a SAMHSA grants this spring as part of a new tobacco education/session program. Our winning project is adding a screening and referral process that asks all Compeer program volunteers and consumers when joining the program about their tobacco usage. Individuals using tobacco are referred to 1-800 quit line assistance or a local hospital program. We also provide education about the high prevalence of tobacco addiction and special needs of individuals who experience mental illness.

This past year, we received a grant from Walmart Foundation to purchase cooking supplies and healthy, easy-to-use cookbooks for each member from the American Heart Association/ American Diabetes Association. A consumer volunteer was invited to teach cooking lessons using the book.

We also created our own cookbook from recipes submitted by consumers, staff and volunteers to encourage healthy eating and to empower the consumers. They liked the idea and are working on a second, better book. We were able to donate the cookbooks to our agency auction fundraiser and contribute to the efforts to support our own program.

We attended a LMHS sponsored Women’s Health Informational Fair and health screenings. We occasionally bowl for exercise.

To encourage us to walk more, we received walking maps of the downtown area near our meeting place and pedometers, as part of a Licking County Health Department Program. Those who are able will be participating in an MHA agency sponsored walk on August 22nd.

--Kristen Frame

Compeer Coordinator

The Swedish Chef Writes About Good Communication

“Wellness” has entered the vocabulary with a vengeance.

A term that once used to be reserved for natural food stores and yoga classes, it has escaped to infuse corporate culture. Many businesses have wellness coordinators and wellness plans. We are being told that we need to have well children and eat well and live well.

Well, well, well….

The emphasis on wellness is driven, at least in part, by the need to control health care costs. The thinking is that if we cannot contain the cost, we can contain the demand by keeping people well.

And it makes sense, up to a point. All of us would like to stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible, but until we have our first real scare, until we are forced to confront that we are not as fit, or as agile, or as flexible as we once were, most of us think about our health as an abstract concept: like saving for retirement.

Right now, the airwaves are chock full of infomercials for weight loss and exercise programs because their producers know that we have each made a promise to get fit and get healthy in the new year. The programs are full of chiseled this, tight that, and tanned everything: ideal physical types who exist only at Central Casting. They are hired to represent our hopes and our fantasies of who we think we are and who we can become if we buy whatever the announcer is selling.

The truth is that most of us have a relationship with our bodies that is based on fear: we fear going to the doctor, we fear pain, we fear losing our hair, we fear the truth. Coming in a close second behind fear is shame. We learn to be ashamed at an early age when we are unable to achieve mastery over our bodies: we have “accidents” and we get “boo-boos”. We are constantly being blamed for operator error. We don’t know how the our bodies work, we don’t have a lot of experience with it and we are constantly being blamed for doing it wrong. The same holds true at the end of our lives: we find ourselves losing control, having accidents and getting boo-boos. And where there is shame and embarrassment, there is secrecy.

Of course we try to delay the inevitable by looking for magic and shortcuts. Ninety days to a bigger, smaller, thicker, thinner, stronger, shinier, more natural-looking you. The books tell us that we’re too fat, we’re thirsty, we should eat wheat grass, we should take up ballroom dancing, we should lift weights, we should not lift weights, we should climb stairs, cross-country ski, take enemas, do yoga and breathe better. And, on the very next shelf are an equal number of books advocating for precisely the opposite.

With all of this noise, is it any wonder that doing nothing and taking our chances is the default position that the majority of us take when it comes to our health?

It doesn’t seem to matter what we do, we’re going to be wrong and our doctors are still going to yell at us.

Training through fear and intimidation is what we call “negative reinforcement.” Much like in the classic driver education training films, if we focus on the carnage and the wreckage and the blood on the highway then that will scare us straight and we will take better care of ourselves.

Being afraid of your doctor is surrendering your power in this most critical of relationships. If you are concerned about being scolded by your doctor for not passing on that extra slice of birthday cake then you might be inclined to not tell them about other symptoms you are experiencing. There are already significant limitations on your healthcare provider with respect to the amount of time they can spend with you and failing to be an equal partner in that all-too-brief conversation limits their ability to help even further.

Education is a good first step, but being aware is not always a good indicator that a person is going to take action, even if it’s in their interest to do so. I’ve been overweight my whole life and yet I still haven’t met a cookie that I didn’t like.

Most of us do not make major purchases without first having a clear idea of what we want out of the transaction. When we buy a car we at least know the color and number of doors we want. When we buy a television, we know what size and what features we are looking for. We should be no less involved in our purchase of healthcare. In 2007, the average American spent almost $8,000 on healthcare. Can you imagine the TV you could get for that kind of money?

The encouraging thing about the economic recession is that we have less money to spend on things and a unique opportunity to invest in ourselves. One of the virtues of having less is that we have to do more for ourselves. There is no “they” to step in and make our decisions and set priorities, there is only “us.” And as health insurance becomes a memory for more and more Americans, we are going to have to get involved, protect the health we have and prevent the illnesses we don’t.

This means taking a second look at what it means to be well.

Being well doesn’t mean that you have to look like those models on TV, but it does mean that you have to work on increasing your capacities. If you can walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded then you have to work on walking up two flights; if you can play with your grandkids for a half-hour without needing oxygen then you need to work on going for 40 minutes; and you can accept that at least one of the people who cut you off in traffic does not hate you personally then you can work on accepting that there might be two such drivers out there.

A key component in this personal wellness stimulus is attitude: being able to accept that your health—physical and mental—keeps changing and that you have to adapt in order to be well. For many of us, this process of continuous adjustment can be a challenge and for some it can be overwhelming. If you are looking for resources to help adapt, please call us and we will help you help yourself.

--Graham Campbell, Associate Director
Mental Health America of Licking County

Stormy Weather

What an amazing weekend we had here in Licking County. All the excitement in Heath last Friday, Hurricane Ike hitting down in Texas but it’s effects being felt all the way up here just a few hours later, Sunday’s Kid’s First Fest at Geller Park. Next weekend we have the Jaycee’s Parade. So much is going on for the children and youth in our community….but there is also so much violence to consider.

Whether it is intentional violence, acts of violence to hurt others, or the violence of Mother Nature, children are often anxious & unsure of how to deal with these situations. Parents need to be especially aware of the stress that their children may feel during difficult times. Don’t play off their fears, but take them seriously and talk openly about their feelings. All the events shown on television, about the war, the weather, or just nightly news and lame programming can truly affect the way we look at our world.

There are times when this anxiety is normal, even appropriate. Stress is not always a bad thing, but it can have lasting affects if not handled properly. Emotional and physiological reactions vary depending on a child’s age. The same holds true for adults. Most children can bounce back quickly with support in their homes, schools & communities. There are however, warning signs that should not be taken lightly and might indicate that professional intervention is necessary.

For children: be honest, provide reassurance about what they are witnessing and feeling. Help them make sense of what they see or hear. Do not criticize your child’s feelings, but encourage open discussions so your child can feel safe talking about them. Do not overexpose children to violent images.

Most importantly, never hesitate to seek professional help when needed. MHA provides many helpful services in Licking County: support groups, educational programming, advocacy and more. We want our children to be strong, safe and free, but we also want them to be empowered and aware of some of the negative aspects of every day life. Raising healthy, helpful children is such a chore but also such a blessing. Weare proud to be able to help – please check in with us if you have any questions about feeling too stressed, too overwhelmed or scared about the goings-on in our world. We are here to help you in bringing wellness home…

--Jan GreeRiver

Dir. of Prevention & Programs