Whether you’re looking to lose weight, manage a long-term health condition or age more gracefully, the solution is closer than you may think. Located in the Blatt P.E. Center, Campus Wellness provides programs and services for faculty and staff to deal with all areas of their health, including activity, weight loss and illness management. Nearly all programs are free of charge.
Programs for faculty and staff tend to take a holistic approach on overall mind, body and spirit wellness.
“We always hope that at least employees can experience some kind of mind or body improvement,” Tina Marie Devlin, the faculty and staff wellness coordinator said. “We don’t focus on numbers here, like ‘how much weight did you lose?’ It’s more about how you feel.”
Each fall and spring they aim to offer something a little different, based on the success of their previous programs.
“We use feedback and evaluations from our previous programs that we’ve initiated, and that feedback governs what we do,” said Devlin. “Everything we put in place has a purpose.”
They also examine staff capacity to consider how many programs and services they can execute well.
One of their key goals, however, is to offer a variety of programs to employees.
Out of the programs Campus Wellness is offering this spring, Devlin’s favorite, is the healthy aging initiative, which is targeted to employees aged 40 and older. As part of this initiative, Campus Wellness will offer free screenings for skin cancer, hearing loss, high cholesterol and other issues throughout April.
“We’re providing free screening, and these are screenings that employees might have to pay a lot of money for somewhere else or there insurance wouldn’t cover or they would have to miss work,” Devlin said. “These screenings are convenient and affordable to our employee population, and they’re often needed.
Campus Wellness is also providing a type two diabetes management program called “Sweet Success!” This is a six-week program beginning on March 3 focusing on lifestyle changes for faculty staff.
In terms of physical activity programs, Campus Wellness operates Gamecocks on the Move, a free faculty, staff and student walking and running program to provides resources and support for 5k training.
They are also in charge of a Heart Beat Pedometer Challenge, which Aisha Haynes of the Center for Teaching Excellence is participating in for the third year in a row.
“It really motivates me to get out and go above and beyond with the steps I take,” Haynes said.
Choose to Lose is a free nine-week weight management program for faculty and staff only.
Carolina’s Tobacco Treatment Program is a free tobacco treatment program for faculty, staff and students.
Campus Wellness works to ensure that faculty and staff can enjoy these programs throughout the day, even with busy schedules. Gamecocks on the Move and the Heart Beat Pedometer Challenge are flexible programs that can be completed throughout the week.
The office also offers multi-week programs during lunch hours and extended office hours during the week.
In order to provide this services, Campus Wellness being preparing and planning months in advance. They place a heavy emphasis on collaboration and building good partnerships. They are constantly meeting with staff and campus partners in order to ensure that the organization in place and that the necessary resources and supplies are available.
Haynes has been participating in programs run by Campus Wellness since she was a student at USC, and she believes that they are able to help the Gamecock community on a regular basis.
“They are an asset to the university,” Haynes said.