Employee engagement crucial for True Health mission

One of the ways True Health New Mexico attempts to engage its own employees in their wellness is through a grassroots program designed by the employees themselves. “You don’t need to need to spend a lot of money to engage employees in wellness activities and still realize the health benefits,” said Dr. F. Kiko Torres, True Health chief medical officer. “A grassroots program starts at the ground level and gets input from employees on what interests them is easy and inexpensive to launch. When people have the chance to help design the program, they’re invested which encourages participation. The other essential element is commitment from the leadership to support participation in the employee wellness initiatives.” True Health’s Wellness Warriors is an employee-driven group with significant participation across the company, said Jenny Ballantine, executive assistant and chair of the group. The idea is to hold programs on-site and make them easily accessible. “It’s a grassroots work group with voluntary employee membership with representatives from every department,” Ballantine said. “We focus on promoting worksite health and wellness in all areas — mental, physical and social.” One of the more popular and easy ways THNM promotes health is by providing a weekly fruit basket in the break room. “We host a monthly lunch-and-learn, or sometimes we take it easy and enjoy a monthly lunch-and-laughs; just to bring everyone together,” she said. “If you feed them, they will come. We provide a healthy lunch to promote lots of participation.” The sessions have included financial wellness by a representative from Sandia Area Credit Union, to visits from acupuncturists and naprapaths talking about complementary care. “When you spend 40-plus hours a week here, you want to have work/life balance, and we try to provide that,” Ballantine said. The Wellness Warriors also do quarterly fund-raising activities. The group has one coming up with the National Alliance on Mental Illness on May 11 at Balloon Fiesta Park. “Supporting the National Alliance on Mental Illness is tied in with our mission,” Torres said. “It aligns with our core belief that true health is more than your physical health. True health is also composed of your mental health and your social health.”