PERSONAL AND FAMILY WELLNESS PLANNING

Wellness:  Your key to long-range physical and financial health

Economic times are difficult, and few families can afford to ignore expenses.  You’re likely to have already explored ways to save money and improve your financial security.  You may have clipped coupons, modified vacations, shopped at resale stores, cooked more meals at home, and possibly even refinanced your mortgage or acquired a more fuel-efficient vehicle.

But have you considered one of the least expensive, most effective means of boosting your financial stability for years to come?  A few uncomplicated, inexpensive lifestyle changes to improve your health can help prevent costly medical problems now and in the future.  Small changes can pay big dividends.  Money not required for medical expenses can be used to balance the budget in far more satisfying ways!

Wellness is not only a matter of feeling great, although that’s a wonderful, often life-changing “side effect” of making good, healthy choices.  But even a modest wellness program can improve both your physical and financial health by helping to:

• Avoid unnecessary and expensive medical interventions, decreasing the burden on both your own budget and the health care system.
• Give you the energy and focus to make you a more valuable employee, at a time when employee productivity is being scrutinized.  That same energy can be used at home to search out local food sources, explore healthier cooking options, and participate in vigorous, low-cost outdoor family activities.
• Prevent or delay one of today’s most critical and fast-developing health problems:  prediabetes and diabetes, with their sad reality of ongoing deterioration and lifelong treatment.
• Decrease the use of preventable medications and expensive emergency room care – a critical “plus” for those who are battling the loss of jobs and health coverage. 
• Lessen your impact on the environment, via reduced medical waste and medications that find their way into soil and water.
• Allow elders to remain active and independent as they age.  Wouldn’t you rather be an active, vigorous grandparent – as opposed to incurring huge expenses as a frail, dependent resident in a care facility?

Steps in Your Own Wellness Program

Your good health is a contribution each person can make to your own family and community.  Some things you can’t change – your age, your genetics, and your history – but you CAN control your current choices, and reduce your risks for serious, costly medical problems.  Start today with one or more simple steps, each of which can reap huge rewards.  All of the following are doable, even by people who’ve never considered a wellness program (see below for further information and resources): 

• Exercise.
• Control your weight.
• If you smoke, quit or cut down.
• Control stress.
• Don’t skip prescribed medications or preventative care.

1. Exercise.  Even 30 minutes of exercise, three times per week, can have a real impact on many measures of health (blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol levels, etc.).  Ten minutes three times a day works just as well as a 30-minute session.  A quick walk after lunch, anyone?  Hike up and down a stairway for a few minutes?  Walk the dog just a little farther?  You can reap even greater benefits by increasing the duration and intensity of exercise – but the main point is to become more active at whatever level you can manage.

Resources:

Healthy Communities Walking Program by Chelsea Community Hospital.

The goal of this program is to reduce the occurrence of preventable chronic diseases, particularly those that are associated with being overweight, by assisting the residents of Chelsea, Dexter, and Manchester in the pursuit of physical activity and healthy eating.  Phone the Healthy Communities Information Line at 734-475-6121 or visit http://www.cch.org/healthycommunities/.

See this site for a walking map of the Manchester community.

Small Step Program is a site with tips for becoming more healthy and active.  Visit http://www.smallstep.gov/.

Running Fit Program in Manchester provides children, 5-12 years of age, a one-day opportunity for six weeks to participate in a variety of games, sports, and swimming.  Running Fit will be held on Fridays beginning June 26 and ending July 31.  Youth will also receive new fitted athletic shoes to use for the program.  Availability on a first-come, first-served basis.  Phone the Community Resource Center for applications. 

Manchester Community Schools Fitness Center, 710 Main Street (behind the Middle School), phone 734-428-9711, and then press 7.

Chelsea Wellness Center, phone 734-214-0220 or visit http://www.chelseawellness.org/.

Exercise with Class is a workout center open 24/7.  It is located in the former Pleasant Lake School at 11700 Pleasant Lake Road.  The center offers circuit resistance/training machines, elliptical bikes, and treadmills.  Phone Lois Milkey, Proprietor, at 734-428-7294 or email her at farmmawandbaw@aol.com.

1. Control your weight.  Starting now:  avoid further weight gain.  If you’re overweight, even a modest five- to ten-pound loss can improve your cholesterol levels and blood pressure.  The goal isn’t to look like a celebrity – it’s to use moderate exercise, healthy meals, portion control, and other methods to avoid the kind of “creeping” weight gain that places you at risk for costly medical problems.

Resources:

Overeaters Anonymous meets every Tuesday from 7 to 8 pm at Exercise with Class (which is located in the old Pleasant Lake School), 11700 Pleasant Lake Road.  Use the east side entrance. For more information, phone Liz at 734-665-3487, or email her at annamon2@gmail.com.

1. If you smoke, quit.  If you can’t quit, at least cut down.  Lots of resources are available to help you with this!  You’ll benefit not only yourself, but also your family and friends – and even your pets, who are affected by second-hand smoke too.  You’ll feel better, and save the cost of cigarettes PLUS the cost of treating smoking-related medical problems.

Resources:

Tobacco Prevention & Cessation Programs, visit http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/departments/public_health/ph_hltindex.html/tobacco.html.

1. Control stress.  In today’s world, that may sound unattainable, but there are many free or inexpensive techniques you can use to help you manage life challenges with less cost to your own emotional and physical well-being.  The expense of dealing with stress-related health problems is FAR greater than preventing them in the first place.  Exercise, classes in yoga and tai chi, and various mental/emotional health resources can assist you in developing healthy options for coping with the realities of your own life.

Resources:

Washtenaw Community College offers wellness classes for area seniors at the Manchester Senior Center.  Visit http://www.wccnet.edu/lifelong-learning/audience/view/seniors/.

Please see Outside Agencies under the SERVICES tab for additional resources.

1. Don’t skip preventative medical care or prescribed medications.  Doing so could result in far greater costs down the road.  If you don’t think you can afford the expense (for example, if you don’t have health coverage), contact a clinic or agency that can direct you to care priced on a sliding scale.  And always ask your doctor and pharmacist whether there is a low-cost generic substitute for an expensive medication.

Resources:

Low-cost medical resources:

Hope Medical Clinic, phone 734-481-0111 or visit http://www.thehopeclinic.org/.

Saint Joseph Mercy Neighborhood Health Clinic, phone 734-544-6900 or visit http://www.sjmercymedicalgroup.org/body.cfm?id=40/.

Low-cost dental resources:

Community Dental Center, phone 734-998-9640 or visit http://communitydental.dent.umich.edu/.

U-M School of Dentistry, phone  888-707-2500 or visit http://www.dent.umich.edu/.

Reaping the Benefits

Your success, down the road, can be measured in all the costly things you’re less likely to need as the months and years go by:  diabetic supplies; ramps into your home; walkers; wheelchairs; hospital stays; stroke rehabilitation; risky coronary surgery; the hassle (and uncertainty) of applying for disability benefits; confinement to your home; home health care services, dialysis, etc.  It can also contribute to reduced healthcare costs for your community, state, and nation.

You can’t avoid all medical problems, but through “living well,” you can greatly increase the odds in your favor.  You can give yourself and your family a better shot at living strong, healthy, productive lives, and doing so will benefit more than just you.  Stay tuned for future articles that will help you make good wellness choices… right here in our community!