SCHENECTADY Wellness effort doesn’t pay off Spotty participation dooms Police Department program BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
The Police Department’s 18-month venture into wellness coaching has left it with little to show for $42,000. And now Chief Mark Chaires plans to change the program in hopes of finding an effective — and less costly — way to improve officers’ health. The contract with Wellness Coaches USA, which is expiring, faced criticism from the start. When the City Council accepted the contract in 2007, residents and one council member suggested that police would do better to get health tips from their own doctors, or through private gym memberships, rather than taxpayer funds. But most of the council supported it, promising accountability that would prove whether or not officers used fewer sick days as they embraced wellness. Chaires said he would use that data to bargain with health insurers for lower rates. The wellness company promised results as well, saying that it gets a 95 percent participation rate in its voluntary programs. But neither promise came true. Chaires said the department has not yet been able to link any health savings to the program. He also said that only “some” of the city’s 166 officers signed up for the wellness company’s main offering: a personalized health-risk appraisal and fitness plan. A coach also spent every Thursday at the department’s headquarters, trying to talk up healthy living and get officers to sit down for brief consultations. But despite her best efforts, which included handing out fruit and bottled water at times, few participated. ............>>>>................>>>>..................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01100&AppName=1
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MobileTerminal
January 1, 2010, 8:58am
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Fruit and bottled water was their "best effort" ??? Any question why it failed?
So now MVP is gonna step in to help out. Isn't Gary Huges some big wig for MVP? Will MVP be donating their services?
Quoted Text
MVP will advise the committee and give wellness advice to the department.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Can anyone who knows anything about the Schenectady Police Department be surprised by the utter failure of the $42,000 “wellness” coach hired by the city 18 months ago to make any headway with the rank and file? What a complete waste of taxpayer dollars that little experiment proved to be. But even given the cops’ unwillingness to participate, the results needn’t have been so dismal. The cops’ lack of cooperation was predictable, if not justifiable. They were apparently concerned about details of their health records being leaked to their bosses — even though doing so would have been against the law. They’re also Schenectady cops — notorious for calling in sick, goofing off on the job, and not caring what the public thinks. So why would they want to do anything — even getting healthier — that meant having to show up for work more often? Administrators — including Mark Chaires, who pitched the plan to the city council before he was made chief — should have worked harder to get the rank and file to give the coach a few minutes of their precious time. The program was not only for the department’s benefit — to reduce absenteeism and medical claims caused by legitimate illness — but for the officers’ as well. Failing that, other city officials could have gotten at least something for the city’s investment by dispatching the wellness coach to other departments. While absenteeism is surely most severe in the police department, it’s not to say that workers in other departments don’t have problems related to unhealthy lifestyles or failure to get enough exercise — problems that the fi tness coach could have addressed. Before the council entered into the contract in June 2008, we suggested seeking some kind of performance guarantee from the company so that if cops’ attendance records and insurance experience didn’t improve, the city could get its money back. That wasn’t done, and now the council has virtually nothing to show for its $42,000.
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