CommonHealth Wellnote

December 4, 2024 / Get Well

How can your Virginia State Employee Wellness Program help? CommonHealth’s programs and campaigns cover a variety of health topics and are available in a range of formats to meet the needs of different workplaces. Highly skilled Wellness Consultants provide the latest on stress, sleep, nutrition, exercise, and more for faculty/ staff meetings, special events, conferences, benefit fairs, safety meetings, lunch and learns, etc. They provide traditional, in-person presentations and displays as well as virtual presentations, on-demand videos, and seasonal health-related challenges that are fun and engaging. Visit the website to see how CommonHealth can help you.  If you’re looking to book an event in January, connect sooner rather than later to ensure you get a date that works for you. Click here to view this week’s CommonHealth Wellnote. Check out this week’s highlights below. 

NOTES:

  • Spotlight on Cultivating Connections: Tips to Managing Caregiving
    The task of caregiving comes with many responsibilities, and we want to ensure, as you navigate caregiving, you have a few tips to make the process a bit easier. A few helpful tips when caregiving include:
    • Take a moment to create a plan. The more prepared you are for the possibility of caregiving, the less stress you may experience when having to step into the role as caregiver.
    • Honor your emotions and feelings. While wanting to provide great care, when you work constantly you may neglect your feelings and lose momentum in caregiving,  which can make the process more difficult for you and your loved one.
    • Ask for help. Upon taking on the task of caregiving, oftentimes, it is easy to expect too much of yourself. To avoid burnout, it is important to ask for help and outsource tasks when possible to ensure that you are able to take the best care of yourself and your loved one.
    • Build a support system. Creating a system of support for yourself and your loved one helps you to feel empowered to provide the best possible care, have dependable family and friends to help you and have encouragement to do the things for yourself that keep you healthy while providing care.
    • Try It This Week: Create a Care Plan. A care plan is a form where you can summarize a person’s health conditions, specific care needs and current treatments. A care plan allows the caregiver to be organized, keep all important information in one place and ensure consistent care if there are multiple caregivers. Click here for more information and resources from the CDC.
  • Benefits Buzz: EAP for Eldercare
    Managing eldercare can be challenging. All health plans offered to state employees include an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which can help you find eldercare resources to assist you on your caregiving journey. Check out this handout to find your EAP’s contact information and learn more about how they can help.
  • Additional Eldercare Resources
    • The Caregiver Corner on the Eldercare Locator website is a dedicated hub for caregivers seeking support and information. It offers practical advice on a variety of topics, including how to find local services for in-home care, navigate complex healthcare systems like Medicare and Medicaid and manage the challenges of dementia care. Additionally, it provides resources for understanding veterans’ benefits and legal assistance, as well as guidance on reporting elder abuse. This comprehensive resource is designed to empower caregivers with the knowledge and tools they need to provide the best care possible.
  • AARP Family Caregiving Guides are designed to help develop and implement a caregiving plan for a loved one or friend. The guides include:
    • Information on how to have vital conversations
    • Ways to assess your loved one’s needs
    • Tips for organizing important documents
    • A roundup of federal and national resources
    • Information on caring for yourself
    • Checklists, medication charts and contact lists.
  • Keep Moving for Your Health
  • Turkey Trot Wrap-Up & Moving Forward!
    • Thanks for participating in the 2024 Turkey Trot! Whether you reached the 25-day activity goal or not, we hope it encouraged you to move more. Aim for at least 20 minutes daily to improve your health!
    • Completed the Challenge? Enter the prize drawing through this brief survey. Share your accomplishment on Facebook’s Engage Anywhere group (join first if needed).
    • Didn’t Complete the Challenge? Reflect on your progress in November. Did you maintain or increase activity compared to previous months? That’s a win! Share it on Facebook’s Engage Anywhere group (join first if needed).

For questions regarding this week’s communication or the CommonHealth program, please reach out to your respective campus coordinator below:

A young African American woman embracing her mom, holding an ipad

Submitted by:
Faith Redd-Walker, Office of Employee Wellness and Wellbeing, employeewellbeing@nvcc.edu