In response to the recent deaths of six beloved members that were due largely to cardio-pulminary disease and smoking, program members and staff decided to create a “Wellness Committee” to explore ideas and resources for helping members in our community to live longer, healthier lives. It is a shocking statistic that individuals with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) often have life expectancies that are 25 years shorter than people without SMI. Research has been done to determine the reasons for this and have found several contributing factors including:

•  Smoking
•  Sedentary lifestyle
•  Poor Diet
•  Side effects from medications that contribute to Metabolic Syndrome (MS) and cardiac problems
•  Substance Abuse
•  Lack of regular physical health monitoring in conjunction with psychiatric care provision due to lack of coordination in service provision, or poor follow up.

Additionally, physical illness can also have negative effects on an individual’s psychiatric well-being. Based on research and examples of previously implemented wellness program models, our wellness committee designed a tentative four pronged approach to helping our program members live longer and healthier lives:

Thank you to Ritchie Vargas, Stephen Quinn and Barry O’Toole (not pictured) for collecting and refurbishing donated bicycles for the club!

Opportunities for wellness education: Elm Brook Place hosts a number of speakers on topics such as nutrition, Diabetes, smoking cessation, physical fitness, and metabolic syndrome. We also utilize NAMI’s “Hearts and Minds” and the BU “Food Education for People with Serious Psychiatric Disabilities” curriculum for wellness.

Opportunities for exercise exist at no cost to program members through the use of in-house exercise equipment such as “Expresso” recumbent bicycle machines, as well as twice weekly free partial memberships and transportation to the North Suburban YMCA in Woburn which offers a full range of cardio and Nautilus machines, and swimming pools. Elm Brook also now has bikes on-site that you can sign out for the day to ride on the Bike Path. Please let us know if you are interested in being a Y member! Try out our new Expresso Bikes in the coat and locker room! Sign out a bike for the day and enjoy the scenic bike path!

YMCA Health and Wellness Director Justin Cammarata provides a thorough orientation to the Fitness Center for Elm Brook members

Wellness study participant Mike enjoys his new "Wellness Warrior" T-shirt, baseball cap and water bottle."

Opportunities for better nutrition within the program and at home: The program’s culinary unit makes lunch for approximately 40 to 50 people a day. The culinary unit will focus on creating weekly menus that are low in saturated fats and high in nutritional content. The program snack bar will also switch to low fat nutritious snacks and beverages. Additionally the culinary unit will create healthy frozen dinners weekly to sell for $1.00 that members can take home for dinner. Visit our Culinary Unit to purchase our healthy frozen dinners!

Smoking Cessation Group: One program member and one staff have received “Freedom from Smoking” facilitator training through the American Lung Association. They facilitate a series of 7 week smoking cessation sessions for members interested in quitting smoking. Information on the effects of smoking as well as the cost savings of quitting will we available to members who are in a “pre-contemplative” stage of considering quitting. Please join us if you are considering quitting – we want to help!

On-going Support and motivation:
A wellness group meets weekly where our community can celebrate their successes, share ideas and tips for healthy living and wellness and support one another. Join us on Thursdays at 1:00pm in the conference room!

Wellness Program Study: We have recruited over 25 members to participate in our study to measure the effectiveness of the program. Participants received a free “Wellness Warrior” Athletic T-Shirt, baseball cap and matching Aluminum sports bottle as a gift for their participation. The Wellness project is open to all members at no charge and regardless of study participation. The following information is taken from participants before and six months after full program implementation: • Weight • Waist circumference • Blood pressure • Smoking status • Fasting blood glucose • HDL/LDL • Wellness knowledge and status self-report survey