Goal: Integrating Lifestyle Medicine into the workplace through health and well-being offerings from employers.

This grant will enable HERO to leverage its thought leadership and expertise in research and convening to facilitate and accelerate the implementation of Lifestyle Medicine by identifying pathways for employers to

1. create the conditions for Lifestyle Medicine to be integrated into employees’ health and well-being offerings;
2. relate Lifestyle Medicine to key business outcomes;
3. consider how to extend the influence of their whole-person health initiatives into their communities; and
4. advocate with their health plans, brokers, and government officials for Lifestyle Medicine coverage.

Employers Can Play Important Role in Advancing Lifestyle as Medicine

This one-year project will involve the following activities:

• Ongoing input from a multidisciplinary Advisory Committee of Lifestyle Medicine experts;
• Mixed-methods assessments of various sized employers and employees in Ardmore, OK and Pawtucket, RI as well as “bright spot” employers who are innovators in Lifestyle Medicine; and
• Two inter-professional workshops that include key stakeholders from the employer ecosystem to identify insights about how best to promote the adoption of and enable employers to advocate for reimbursement of Lifestyle Medicine.
• The results of the workshops will be synthesized to inform the development and dissemination of actionable deliverables and practical resources for employers.

Ardmore Institute of Health works for a future where healthy lifestyles will be the preferred method to prevent, treat and reverse chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity. Since 1947 the organization has been promoting lifestyle change as a means to help people achieve a more healthy and fulfilling life. AIH provides grants to projects that support this mission as well as a free nutrition improvement program called Full Plate Living. Full Plate Living helps people add more whole plant-based foods to meals they’re already eating. It’s a small step approach that can lead to big health outcomes.

As a collaborator and convener, HERO’s door is always open to hearing from bright spot employers, and we welcome input for this initiative.

For more information or to express interest in participating, contact Karen.Moseley@hero-health.org

Webinar slides

Worksheet: Activating Employees as Agents of Change in the Implementation of Lifestyle Medicine

A Rationale and Framework for Activating Employers as Agents of Change in the Implementation of Lifestyle as Medicine article from Knowing Well, Being Well