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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
October 2004 |
Welcome:
I'm not sick, but …
Wellness? For most of my life, I believed that wellness was the opposite of illness. So, if I'm not sick, I reasoned, I must be well. I seldom get sick. I haven't had the flu in decades, and the last time I had any "procedure performed" was a decade ago when a hernia was repaired, and no, it wasn't job related. Fortunately, I have been in good health for years and look forward to living past 90 like my maternal grandfather who died at the age of 94.
Recently, I had a wellness encounter with the newly instituted survey and health screening, part of the South Indiana Conference healthcare benefit with the Molloy Wellness Company. Since it didn't cost me anything out-of-pocket and was promoted as a preventive measure for my own wellbeing, I had nothing to lose except an hour or so of time. I went. I got poked, and my findings were analyzed on the spot.
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Without an annual determination of our wellness, the dollars spent on health-care coverage are only an expensive and sometime radical solution to poor health practices over the years. |
In the confidential consultation carried out in the Sunday school room of the host church, a young energetic technician presented a stack of papers that contained a rundown of my physical health. Up to this time, I was feeling pretty good. But then she told me that my "health-related" age was 67. Whoa. I'm only 58! What's wrong? I have elevated blood pressure, high triglycerides and contain 25 percent body fat with 18 percent being normal. She was polite by not saying I had to eat right, shed a few pounds and exercise more. She didn't have to say anything. Everything I needed to know for now was in a ten-page "Health Risk Analysis" report. It said it all. Nonetheless, she advised me to see my doctor and gave me a letter to the doctor with all the stats.
The survey-screening results got my attention, and I am thankful that the South Indiana Conference invested in my wellness. No, I'm not sick, but I'm not healthy either. I had to come to terms with the facts, ten-pages of them, that I wasn't well either - "health-related" age 67.
The good news is that I can correct most of my un-wellness with moderate exercise, watching what I eat, sleeping eight hours a night, taking relaxation seriously - I love to work - and shedding 18.8 pounds of fat. I've done it before; I can do it again. I also was asked to commit myself in writing to more exercise before I left the screening site.
In 35 years of employment, this was the very first time that my health-care coverage carrier took the initiative in surveying my health and showing me how to maintain wellness beyond illness. I look forward to another screening next year to see if I have progressed in my wellness or choose to remain at risk.
In the meantime, I see that the North Indiana Conference will be taking a similar approach to ministers and other church employees in the north part of our state with wellness screenings (see page 4). Health screenings are much more than containing escalating health-care cost among Indiana's clergy; this approach takes active interest in the wellbeing of clients. One can have excellent health-care coverage, but without an annual determination of wellness, the dollars spent on health-care coverage are only an expensive and sometimes radical solution to poor health practices over the years. I applaud both of our Indiana conferences for providing a new approach, not only to health-care insurance but to the physical wellbeing of ministers and other church professionals.
Yes, I could have done the same thing with an annual visit to the doctor for a physical, but I wasn't thinking wellness. I was only thinking that I was not sick. I grew up with a mindset that said you go to the doctor when you are sick. My grandfather was fortunate. I hope I am as fortunate and at least have a better chance of living to a ripe old age through wellness.
Also to assist Together reader's wellness, Todd Outcalt will continue to write his column "Body, Mind, and Spirit." In this issue Outcalt talks about goal setting.
To assist those who unfortunately might have a heart attack during a church activity, communications intern Brittany Brown has written a story about a new trend among Indiana churches of purchasing portable defibrillators to save lives.
Reading on, there are a number of viewpoints in this issue, but one you won't see is that of Bill Schwein. His "Nobody asked me, but …" column has retired, just as he has retired. We will miss his sometimes biting humor and matter-of-fact observations that have had a large following of readers over the years. Bill, we thank you for your insight, wisdom and the way you made us laugh, many times at ourselves. We wish you well in your retirement.
Welcome to the October issue of Together.
Daniel R. Gangler
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008