SYRACUSE — Healthy Syracuse, a community coalition stemming from a partnership between the YMCA of Greater Syracuse and the Onondaga County Health Department, has developed program that focuses on wellness in the workplace.

Wellness isn’t about just fitness and nutrition, says Cheryl Pusztai, executive director of the YMCA’s downtown branch.

“It’s really about the overall well being of the employee,” Pusztai says.

When asked to define wellness in the workplace, Pusztai says it’s taking steps to prevent what she called “absenteeism” and “presenteeism.” 

If people aren’t feeling well, it either results in absenteeism or a lack of presenteeism, which Pusztai describes as employees “showing up for work but they’re not producing because they’re not well.”

Both are attributed to stress, a lack of physical activity, tobacco use, alcohol and substance abuse, and a lack of good nutrition, Pusztai says.

Area employers got their first taste of this program at the Syracuse Worksite Wellness Conference held on March 20, an event which BizEventz, a sister company to The Central New York Business Journal, helped organize.

Healthy Syracuse origin

The YMCA of Greater Syracuse and the Onondaga County Health Department in 2010 applied for funding from the Atlanta, Ga.–based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as part of the CDC’s healthy-communities initiative.

“[The CDC funds help] communities to build capacity around developing … coalitions that assess health needs of their community and then create action plans to improve the health of their community,” Pusztai says.

The CDC awarded the organizations a grant of $36,000, so they then recruited officials from organizations such as the city of Syracuse, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse University, the American Cancer Society, and the American Heart Association to assess the health of the Syracuse community.

The newly formed Healthy Syracuse group conducted a “broad assessment” through area schools, work sites, the community at large, health-care organizations, and community-based organizations, Pusztai says.

From the data, Healthy Syracuse decided to focus in on three areas, according to Pusztai.

“Youth wellness was an opportunity for improvement, so we’ve been working with the Syracuse city school district around their policies on wellness,” she says.

Healthy Syracuse also determined that tobacco use was a “consistent” problem that needed addressed; the third area is adult obesity, Pusztai added.

Healthy Syracuse then figured it would target the way people spend a good portion of their day.

“Work sites, specifically, came out as an opportunity to have the greatest impact because individuals spend the majority of their workday at the work site,” she says.

That time spent at work could include eating at least one, perhaps two meals, so there’s a targeted audience on which the group could make an impact, Pusztai adds.

Healthy Syracuse then decided to organize the Syracuse Worksite Wellness Conference because group members saw a need for local companies to have additional education on worksite wellness.

“If people know what worksite wellness is and they’re doing it, how could they do it better,” she says.

The March 20 event generated feedback that indicated an interest and a need for an annual event on the topic to provide resources and education for employers who want to emphasize worksite wellness for their employees.

But Pusztai emphasizes Healthy Syracuse is only serving as the facilitator for its workplace-wellness initiative.

“So, Healthy Syracuse didn’t serve as the experts; at the conference, we brought in the experts,” she says. 

The speakers at the conference included Dr. Rajiv Kumar, who spoke about innovations that are transforming corporate wellness and Dr. Cynthia Morrow, Onondaga County Health Commissioner, who talked about engaging companies in the “prevention agenda,” according to the agenda for the conference.

Pusztai is part of a 16-member steering committee that leads the Healthy Syracuse coalition. Other members include Judy Sokolowski, manager of employee-health services at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center; Kenneth Foresti, health and wellness consultant at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield; and Kathy Turner with the Onondaga County Health Department.

Health Syracuse includes a worksite-wellness subcommittee.

Nancy Smith, a local health consultant, leads the worksite-wellness group, and Pusztai also sits on the subcommittee.

The subcommittee has a total of 12 members, including Michael DiGiovanni, corporate-event director at the American Heart Association; Suzanne Brisk, wellness coordinator in the student-health office at Upstate Medical University; and Susan Furtney, who leads the University Wellness Initiative at Syracuse University.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com