Wellness Today
Nashville should strive to be a national leader in wellness
Health care is the business of Nashville. Our city is home to more than 250 health-care companies that represent diverse segments of the industry and operate on a multi-state, national and international scale.
Although Nashville has an impressive record of health-care enterprises and economic development, it doesn’t have nearly the same standing when it comes to its own health.
One Nashville-based company — Healthways — has decided that wellness also is a business. In 2008, it began a national health and well-being index. It now measures each state and 185 U.S. cities.
In the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, Tennessee ranks 42nd of 50 states, and Nashville ranks 63rd of the 185 metropolitan areas.
In March Madness terms, we’re not even on the bubble.
Historically, Healthways has worked to manage chronic disease and improve the health status of corporate populations and covered lives.
However, Healthways is extending its efforts to cover entire communities, and even states.
In January, Healthways announced it had taken over disease and care management, as well as health promotion and prevention for Hawaii Medical Service Association, the state’s largest insurer.
The programs, known as HealthPass and CareConnection, provide wellness support for about 700,000 lives, which is nearly
60 percent of Hawaiians.
Additionally, Healthways has been working with the tri-cities of Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach, Calif., to develop a systemic program to improve health and well-being for the entire community.
Finally, Healthways has entered into an agreement with the state of Iowa under which it will develop a 10-year program with the goal of giving Iowa the No. 1 well-being ranking of all states. The program will begin in the next 12 months and will have as its initial focus the six largest metropolitan areas in that state.
In the coming months here, Mayor Karl Dean will be standing for re-election. Likewise, Nashville has a new resident in Gov. Bill Haslam, who is known for his attention to personal health and fitness.
Perhaps it’s time for our public and private leaders to ask this inevitable question: If Nashville is our nation’s health-care capital, shouldn’t it also be one of the nation’s healthiest cities? Given the city’s health standing, the challenge is not insignificant.
The health-care knowledge, resources and requisite energy are present. Let’s begin a community dialogue on how our business leaders, as well as our nonprofit and government institutions, can make Nashville a national leader in well-being and health status.
Good Samaritan Mission debuts wellness program for preschoolers
One door may have closed at Good Samaritan Mission, but it led to the recent opening of another.
The mission, 14920 Balm-Wimauma Road, shuttered its day care program in August for financial reasons. The program had served the community for more than 15 years.
However, William Cruz, executive director of the mission, said the organization went back to the drawing board and restructured the day care program.
The result was the Feb. 21 opening of Good Samaritan Mission Wellness Preschool, which serves ages 3 to 5.
“In August 2012 we’re going to open it up to kindergarten students, and the goal is to add one grade level every year all the way up to fifth grade,” said Sarah Ashe, principal of the preschool.
Right now the wellness preschool employs three and has nine children enrolled, with a capacity to accommodate 37. That maximum capacity will grow to 90 students when the program begins expanding next year.
The school is open from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Cost is $120 weekly for 3-year-olds, but free for those 4 and 5. The curriculum includes Doors to Discovery – an early childhood program that focuses on the development of vocabulary and language – and My Father’s World, a Christian-based curriculum.
Additionally, children enrolled in the wellness preschool will receive one dental examination and two wellness checkups per year.
Cruz said these services will be free for the children and their families.
“The goal is to not only provide a high-quality education but to try and serve all the needs of the kids in the community,” Ashe said.
Rise and shine to wellness as a way of life – Day-long Calcutta Yoga Festival at ITC Sonar to draw from various schools of practice
Want to experience Madonna’s secret to that fab frame at 50? Or Jennifer Aniston’s mind-bo methods? Then rise and shine to the “yoga way of life” with Calcutta Yoga Festival 2011.
Part of the KKN presents The Telegraph Good Life Festival 2011, in association with Amity Kolkata bouquet, it is being held on Sunday the 13th from 7am to 6pm at the Pala banquets of ITC Sonar Calcutta.
The idea is to bring together some of the best yoga schools of the country, propagating different approaches to healthy living and positive thinking, all under one roof.
“Yoga is for overall well-being. What is important is how through the practice of yoga, wellness can be achieved by man. That is the aim of yoga,” said Birjoo Mehta of Pune’s Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, who will be opening the festival at 7.30am.
“This is a good concept to introduce yoga and reach out to a wider audience. It will give people an idea about what yoga is all about. The schools may be slightly different here and there, but the approach to yoga is the same,” he added.
About “60 practices” will be demonstrated in the two-hour sessions — 7.30am to 8.30am and 9.30am to 10.30am — by the institute from Pune.
Vijaya Magar and team from The Yoga Institute, Mumbai, “the oldest organised centre of yoga in the world”, will take the stage from 11am. The school’s closing session will be conducted by its director, Hansaji Jayadeva Yogendra.
Premsundar Das of Yoga Research & Rehabilitation Centre, Calcutta, will demonstrate a combination of “meditative postures”, “power yoga” and “therapeutic postures” with his team from 4pm.
“Promoting health… to feel good and look good is vital. Shobai ke niye bhalo thakbo. Healthy society and healthy nation. Wellness for the body and the mind for all is what I will emphasise,” said Das.
The Calcutta Yoga Festival will close with a session by Rishi Putra from the Bihar School of Yoga, Munger, who will be demonstrating “15 practices” including asanas and pranayams. “The practice of yoga teaches one to be healthy. Yoga is the science of health. It serves mankind,” rounded off Rishi Putra.