Poor Planning & Execution Often Tank Wellness Programs

A new study reported in the Journal of American Medicine confirms that schools, employers and parents hoping to promote health and weight loss by cutting out sugared soda drinks need to ensure that other sugary drinks also are eliminated from the menu. See School Soda Bans Don’t Work.

The study highlights a common failure of many wellness efforts –  good intention with poor execution.  The reported findings of the study affirm what many others already show:  Even American’s trying to eat healthy don’t know how to make good choices. 

The study findings are illustrated by the wellness misstep shared with me by a friend.  Several years ago, the friend substituted juice drinks for soda, believing that juice drinks were “healthy.”  Instead of his customary eight cans of diet coke, he drank a glass of apple or orange juice.  Two weeks later, he was transported to the hospital after going into diabetic insulin shock.  Lesson learned, he reported: sugar is still sugar even when consumed in juice. 

Like my friend’s misplaced wellness effort, too many school, workforce, government, parent, community and individual wellness efforts fail from poor execution.  

Of course, let’s get on the wellness bandwagon and help others around you do the same.  To ensure that the effort is not wasted, however, let’s plan and act to promote the success of the effort by understanding clearly and specifically what needs to be done and putting in place all of the elements to support the success of the efforts.

We invite you to continue the discussion and help develop real meaningful health and health care system improvements by:

  • Joining Project COPE: Coalition for Patient Empowerment here to exchange ideas, tools and other solutions and other resources for helping patients, employees and their families live healthier and deal with their health and the health care treatment; and 
  • Join the Coalition for Responsible Health Policy here to participate in the discussion and collaborate about policy and other reforms that can help promote the mission of improving health care and our health care systems in the U.S. 

Other Helpful Resources & Other Information

We hope that this information is useful to you.   If you found these updates of interest, you also be interested in one or more of the following other recent articles published on the Coalition for Responsible Health Care Reform electronic publication available here, our electronic Solutions Law Press Health Care Update publication available here, or our HR & Benefits Update electronic publication available here .  You also can access information about how you can arrange for training on “Building Your Family’s Health Care Toolkit,”  using the “PlayForLife” resources to organize low cost wellness programs in your workplace, school, church or other communities, and other process improvement, compliance and other training and other resources for health care providers, employers, health plans, community leaders and others here. If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail by creating or updating your profile here. You can access other recent updates and other informative publications and resources

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