Health Coaching

By: Bree Leyer, M.S., EP-C

At Babb, Inc., we recently announced our new health and wellness program for employees. Although some elements are remaining the same, we are excited about adding a brand new element to our program. Along with gaining awareness of their current health status through a robust biometric screening and a preventive exam with their physician, we are now offering the ability to meet with a health coach one-on-one to discuss individual health and well being goals.

Our previous program offered a healthy incentive for completing a biometric screening, a health risk assessment, and for seeing a physician for a preventive exam. Even though we had high participation rates (over 75% each year), we realized that we were creating awareness for our employees but were not offering enough support to help sustain any health behavioral changes. By going back to the drawing boards, we came up with a plan to offer individualized plans that would encourage sustained change, rather than offering a once a year snapshot of their health. Our employees have the opportunity to meet with a health coach at least twice during the 2017 year, with the option to meet additional times if interested. (I’m sure you’re thinking “ok, this sounds great for you but why should I do it?”)

Why Health Coaching? Below are some quick reasons as to why you should consider health coaching.

• More and more studies are showing that health coaching is becoming one of the most effective strategies to help reduce overall costs and improve health outcomes. [1]
• Individualized health coaching sessions offer the opportunity to discuss and design improvement plans that are specific to the individual, rather than a broad approach that may or may not apply to all.
• Studies have shown that health coaching has both immediate improvements in health and reaching goals as well as continual improvements even after one year of the health coaching sessions ending.[2]
• Health coaching can help employees improve their perception of their ability to perform their work, avoid burnout caused by exhaustion, improve how they feel about themselves and their work, and to become more resilient.[3]
• Health coaches can help an individual reach a goal in as little as one month with higher adherence to maintaining the changes for at least one year after the initial consultation.[4]

Interested in learning more about health coaching and the benefits it can provide for you or your company? Contact Bree Leyer at bkl@babbins.com for more information.

*Stay tuned for future posts with testimonies from the health coach herself and our employees!

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[1] David E. Wennberg, M.D., M.P.H., Amy Marr, Ph.D., Lance Lang, M.D., Stephen O’Malley, M.Sc., and George Bennett, Ph.D. A Randomized Trial of a Telephone Care-Management Strategy. New England Journal of Medicine. 2010; 363:1245-55.

[2] Sharma AE, Willard-Grace R, Hessler D, Bodenheimer T, Thom DH. What Happens After Health Coaching? Observational Study 1 Year Following a Randomized Controlled Trial. Annals of Family Medicine. 2016;14(3):200-207. doi:10.1370/afm.1924.

[3] Coaching for workers with chronic illness: Evaluating an intervention. McGonagle, Alyssa K.; Beatty, Joy E.; Joffe, Rosalind. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Vol 19(3), Jul 2014, 385-398.http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0036601

[4] https://www.twinehealth.com/blog/consumer-survey-the-state-of-health-coaching-in-2016