The Arkansas Department of Health supports worksite wellness by providing technical assistance and guidance in worksite interventions to promote health. This area is a resource for identifying trends and best practices in worksite wellness as well as for developing community and organization level worksite programs, systems, and procedures.

Arkansas Healthy Employee Lifestyle Program (AHELP)

Arkansas Healthy Employee Lifestyle Program (AHELP) is a worksite wellness intervention designed for State Agency, Boards, and Commissions. The mission is to create a worksite culture that supports healthy lifestyle choices for state employees.

• AHELP/CHELP Video
• AHELP Director’s Packet: First step for agencies to implement AHELP.
• ACT 724 2005: An Act to provide support of the AHELP intervention.
• AHELP Evaluation Report
• Healthy Choices at Official Events (HCOE) Policy

Community Health Employee Lifestyle Program (CHELP)

Community Healthy Employee Lifestyle Program (CHELP) is a worksite wellness intervention designed and is free to all Arkansas non-profit, for-profit, and local government worksites. The mission is to create a worksite culture that supports healthy choices for employees.

• CHELP Leadership Packet

Downloads and Resources

• Worksite Health ScoreCard: The purpose of this manual is to assist employers with using The CDC Worksite Health ScoreCard (HSC) to assess their health promotion programs, identify gaps, and prioritize high-impact strategies to prevent heart disease, stroke, and related conditions.
• Growing Healthy Communities Growing Healthy Communities (GHC) is a project developed by the Arkansas Coalition for Obesity Prevention (ArCOP) in 2009 to build capacity within local communities to reduce obesity by increasing physical activity, increasing access to healthy foods, and implementing environmental and policy changes that support healthy living.
• Wellness Council of America (WELCOA)
• Worksite Wellness Presentation

Breastfeeding Friendly Worksites

• Arkansas Act 621 – An Act to require Employers to provide unpaid break time and reasonable locations for expressing milk. (link to rules and regs breastfeeding page)
• Arkansas Breastfeeding Coalition (Arbfc)  – The Arkansas Breastfeeding Coalition is dedicated to protecting and promoting breastfeeding in Arkansas. ABC’s membership is composed of mothers, healthcare professionals, and others who are dedicated to breastfeeding.
• Le Leche League of Arkansas  – La Leche League International is an international, nonprofit, nonsectarian organization dedicated to providing education, information, support and encouragement to mothers who want to breastfeed. All mothers interested in breastfeeding are welcome to attend the monthly Group Meetings or to call a Leader for breastfeeding help.

Tobacco Control

• ADH Tobacco Quitline – One of the most important calls a tobacco user can make is to the Arkansas Tobacco Quitline at 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669). It is confidential, and it is free.
• CDC’s Tobacco Webpage – This Web site provides a variety of information on tobacco including data and statistics, effective policies, programs and campaigns, recommended strategies, and other resources for consumers and the health professional.

Nutrition

• CDC’s Nutrition Webpage – This site provides a variety of information on nutrition including data and statistics, programs and campaigns, recommended strategies, and other resources for the health professional.
• CDC Healthier Worksite Initiative—Nutritious Eating Toolkits – This site is designed specifically for worksites to encourage nutritious eating and contains checklists, guides, budgets, and other tools to aid in program planning, design, and management.
• CDC Healthier Worksite Initiative—Establish a Garden Market – This toolkit provides information on how to establish a garden market in a federal agency or other organization, and demonstrates how it works at CDC.
• Choosing Foods and Beverages for Healthy Meetings, Conferences and Events – This resource provides guidelines for selecting healthful foods and beverages for breaks or meals at workplace
  meetings, conferences, and events.
• Improving the Food Environment through Nutrition Standards: A Guide for Government Procurement – This resource provides practical guidance to states and localities for use when developing, adopting, implementing, and evaluating a food procurement policy.

Physical Activity

• Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans – This site provides information on the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. The guidelines address physical activity for Americans of all ages including special populations.
• National Physical Activity Plan – This site provides information on the U.S. National Physical Activity Plan, a comprehensive set of policies, programs, and initiatives that aim to increase physical activity in all segments of the American population. There is a section of the plan focused on business and industry.
• Worksite Policies – This Web page contains specific policies that affect health promotion at federal workplaces. Workplaces that are not federal agencies can use this information to generate ideas about how policies may impact health promotion in their organization.
• CDC’s Physical Activity Website – This site provides a variety of information on physical activity including physical activity guidelines and recommendations, data and statistics, recommended strategies, and other resources.

Weight Management

• ADH Obesity Prevention – Overweight and obesity are among the most serious health problems in Arkansas today and are at epidemic proportions in our state.
• Arkansas Coalition for Obesity Prevention (ArCOP) – The workgroup has compiled a comprehensive web-based clearinghouse/toolkit that is a resource for employers and human resource personnel.  The resources include a collection of best practice and evidence-based worksite intervention programs that are proven effective for employers to model in their worksite.
• CDC’s Overweight and Obesity website – This site provides a variety of information on overweight and obesity including obesity trends, economic consequences, state-based programs, recommended strategies, and other resources for the health professional.
• CDC’s Healthy Weight Webpage – This site provides a variety of information on achieving and maintaining a healthy weight including important information on weight assessments, balancing calories, health effects of overweight and obesity, and other resources.

High Blood Pressure and High Cholestrol

• Arkansas Blood Pressure Quality Improvement Program – The Arkansas Department of Health, Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Branch’s Blood Pressure Measurement Quality Improvement program was developed in June 2013 to bring health providers up-to-date on the latest standards of blood pressure measurement, protocols and equipment, to improve the accuracy and reliability of blood pressure readings and to empower providers to lower patient risk from uncontrolled high blood pressure.
• CDC’s High Blood Pressure Web site and CDC’s High Cholesterol Website – These two sites provide a variety of information on high blood pressure and cholesterol including trends and statistics, economic consequences, state-based programs, related CDC Web sites, recommended strategies, and other resources for patients and professionals.
• National Heart, Blood, Lung Institute – This site includes publications, fact sheets, Web sites, and interactive Web applications such as Your Guide to Lowering High Blood Pressure and Your Guide to Lowering Cholesterol with Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes.
• American Heart Association—High Cholesterol – This site will provide information about cholesterol including why cholesterol matters; understanding your risk for cholesterol; symptoms, diagnosis, and monitoring of cholesterol; prevention and treatment of cholesterol; and cholesterol tools and resources.
• American Heart Association—High Blood Pressure – This site will provide information about high blood pressure (HBP); why HBP matters; your risk for HBP; symptoms, diagnosis and monitoring of HBP; and prevention and treatment of HBP.
• Stanford Patient Education Research Center – The Chronic Disease Self-Management Program is a 2 ½-hour workshop given once a week, for six weeks, in community or worksite settings such as senior centers, churches, libraries and hospitals. People with different chronic health problems, such as high blood pressure or cholesterol, can attend together.

Diabetes

• Arkansas Department of Health Diabetes Prevention and Control  – The Diabetes Prevention and Control Program has provided services to professionals and communities since 1997 in an effort to reduce the burden of diabetes in our state. The program provides a wide range of support services such as technical assistance, quality improvement training, health care team scholarships, and health promotion through media messages.
• Diabetes At Work – This easy-to-use Web site helps companies to assess their need for diabetes education at the worksite. Users can download more than 30 lesson plans and fact sheets resources that can be used to inform employees about how to best manage their diabetes while at work and how to reduce their risk of further complications.
• The National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) – NDEP is a partnership of the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than 200 public and private organizations. NDEP translates the latest science and spreads the word that diabetes is serious, common, and costly, yet controllable and, for type 2, preventable. The resources do not have a copyright so may be co-branded.