SALISBURY — Community leaders working to build healthier workplaces and reduce healthcare costs will gather Thursday for a training and networking session at the Country Club of Salisbury.
Novant Health Rowan Medical Center and the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce, with support from Novo Nordisk and collaboration with the Rowan County Health Department, are presenting the third and final Prevention Academy, together with the nonprofit organization Prevention Partners.
More than 50 wellness leaders from nearly 20 North Carolina and South Carolina employers who are using WorkHealthy America, Prevention Partners’ signature product, will attend the event. The academy is designed to help them craft employee policies, benefits and environments that create healthy workplaces.
“The Prevention Academy gives employers and wellness leaders the opportunity to learn from each other,” said Hannah Prentice-Dunn, Prevention Partners’ product support coordinator. “They bring back what they have learned to their workplaces to strengthen their efforts, which will reduce their healthcare costs and improve their employees’ lives.”
New this year, in response to requests for help managing employee stress, will be a featured speaker on resilience in the workplace.
Dr. Wayne Sotile, director of the Sotile Center for Resilience and a former faculty member at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, will speak on “Shaping Resilience: The Key to Stress Management in a Changing Workplace.”
“Last year’s Prevention Academy really helped to energize and organize us,” said Nekita Eubanks, human resources relationship manager at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.
RCCC’s work on employee health efforts during the past year earned a Gold Star for tobacco-free excellence, one of four topic areas in WorkHealthy America.
“I am thrilled at the progress our local businesses have made through the Rowan Prevention Academy and the WorkHealthy America program,” said Dari Caldwell, president of Novant Health Rowan Medical Center. “The commitment of our businesses to improving health and wellness of their own employees is paramount in making our community a healthier place to live and work.”
Novant Health, headquartered in Winston-Salem, is a four-state network of physician clinics, outpatient centers and hospitals, including the hospital and many physician practices in Salisbury.
Novant’s network consists of more than 1,200 physicians and 26,000 employees at nearly 500 locations, including 15 medical centers and hundreds of outpatient facilities and physician clinics.
Prevention Partners works nationwide to build healthier communities through a suite of products that guide schools, workplaces, hospitals and clinics to address the leading causes of preventable disease: tobacco use, poor nutrition, physical inactivity and obesity.
Novo Nordisk, headquartered in Denmark, is a global healthcare company with more than 90 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care.