Health services offer students a healthy dose of wellness

Students wanting to improve their health, change their lifestyle or just stay healthy need not look farther than campus for a professional resource and health services.

The Student Health Services’s wellness programs provide a variety of ways for students to change behavior, stop using alcohol and tobacco, prevent diabetes and stay healthy.

According to a statement on its website, the wellness programs offer, "services to students and employees that will enhance personal wellness and the ability to be successful in the five areas of health, which are physical, academic, emotional, social and spiritual."

Among the services offered through the wellness programs is a health risk appraisal. Emily Barker, wellness programs assistant coordinator, said she especially recommends the appraisal to students, as it allows them to find out their current state of health.

It consists of an online lifestyle questionnaire and eight fitness tests designed to assess body composition, strength, flexibility, blood pressure, cardiovascular fitness and lung function. The entire appraisal costs $15; the fee is $5 for the questionnaire portion by itself.

Another program, "healthquest" focuses on behavior change. Barker said the program is very personalized; students receive help either one-on-one or in small groups with a variety of personal health issues. The 12-week program costs $25.

Student Health Services also offer a walking program. Walking for wellness gives students the opportunity to work one-on-one with health educators to improve their health through walking. The four-week program costs $25.

Students may also buy a pedometer for $20 and complete the program online.

Pre-diabetic students at UVSC can participate in the diabetes prevention program. The 15-week course is much like healthquest, only with a focus on diabetics, and costs $35. Much of the fee covers the cost of glucose and cholesterol tests.

Student Health Services also provides an online alcohol assessment program and a stop-smoking program.

In addition to its wellness programs, Student Health Services also offers stress management workshops, appears at education fairs and offers free health and nutrition checks once a month in the Hall of Flags.

Student Health Services is located in SC 221. For more information on Student Health Services’s wellness programs, or to register for a program, students can visit www.uvsc.edu/studhealth