Workplace Wellness: Insights from an Occupational Medicine Physician

In this episode of Wellness Musketeers Moment, we are honored to host Dr. Linda Holifield-Kennedy, a renowned occupational medicine physician with over 17 years of experience in civilian employee health services at the Pentagon, and as a first responder to victims of 9-11, currently serving as the Senior Medical Advisor for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 

Join us as we delve into the significance of workplace wellness and the best practices that can be implemented to promote a healthy work environment and how it can benefit both employees and employers. Don't miss out on this informative and insightful discussion with one of the foremost experts in occupational medicine.

Here are some facts about the importance of workplace wellness:

• Employees who participate in workplace wellness programs are more likely to be productive, have lower absenteeism rates, and have lower healthcare costs.
• Employers who offer workplace wellness programs can save money on healthcare costs, improve employee morale, and attract and retain top talent.
• Workplace wellness programs can help employees improve their physical and mental health, reduce stress, and make healthier choices.

If you want to learn more about workplace wellness, I encourage you to listen to this episode of Workplace Wellness with Dr. Linda Holifield-Kennedy.

Transcript

Micro Musketeer Moment - Occupational Health in the Workplace 

[00:00:00] 

[00:00:06] Aussie Mike James: Hello and welcome to Micro Musketeers Moment, a short podcast episode from Wellness Musketeers. I'm your host Ozzie Mike James, a freelance writer and speaker with over 30 years of international experience managing leading corporate fitness centers in Australia and in Washington DC with the World Bank Group. Our special guest today is Dr. Linda Holyfield Kennedy an occupational medicine physician currently serving as the senior medical advisor for the US Department of Homeland Security with over 17 years of experience in civilian employee health services at the Pentagon and as a first responder to victims of nine. 

[00:00:51] Aussie Mike James: Dr. Holyfield Kennedy provides essential updates and guidance to D H S employees through town hall meetings, listening [00:01:00] sessions, and podcasts on current and emerging health threats, including Covid 19, heart disease, and cancer. Full disclosure here though, listeners, Dr. Holly Phil Kennedy is the wife of our fellow Muskier, Dr. 

[00:01:15] Aussie Mike James: Richard Kennedy, who she has been happily married to for over 33 years. Welcome, Dr. Holly, and Phil Kennedy. And first things, first, two quick questions. First, for ease of communication, do you mind if we call you Dr. Linda? And second, how have you managed to put up with Al Muskier Richard, for this long 33 years? 

[00:01:40] Aussie Mike James: When does the canonization process start to make you St. Linda?  

[00:01:44] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: Thank you, Mike. Thank you for that wonderful introduction. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you other Wellness Musketeers for inviting me to speak on your podcast. 

[00:01:57] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: I am Dr. Linda Hollow Kennedy, [00:02:00] and I will be talking today on the importance of workplace wellness. For the record, I'm speaking to you as an occupational medicine physician and not on behalf of the US Department of Homeland Security. So that being said healthy eating habits and exercise are important factors in wellness. 

[00:02:22] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: However, to be clear, there are other factors involved in workplace wellbeing. And they include career wellness. Do you actually like your job? Do you enjoy what you do? Social wellbeing? Do you have meaningful relationships and friendships both at home and at work? financial wellbeing. Are you managing your money well? 

[00:02:52] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: Community wellbeing, do you feel safe and enjoy the community that you live in? And [00:03:00] lastly physical and mental well-being. This, of course, is extremely important because we need to maintain a certain level of physical and mental health to allow us to be productive workers. Workplace wellness programs promote employee  

[00:03:20] "Aussie" Mike James: wellbeing. 

[00:03:20] "Aussie" Mike James: Terrific.  

[00:03:22] "Aussie" Mike James: How have you managed to put up with Richard for this long  

[00:03:24] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: yes it's certainly been a journey. He truly is the wind beneath my wings. He's a wonderful person and a great friend, and I think that's the biggest asset to us. He is my best friend. And we have a nice sort of working relationship as we're both positions and he makes me laugh. 

[00:03:51] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: every day. Every day is a comedian.

[00:03:54] "Aussie" Mike James: Great. Dr. Linda, let's start with a basic question first. We often hear the term [00:04:00] occupational medicine. , can you explain what the term occupational medicine actually means?  

[00:04:06] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: Yes, and thank you for the question. Occupational medicine physicians' mission is the health and safety of the workforce. 

[00:04:18] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: And that's according to. Organization, American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. So we are involved with workplace safety. We work with industrial hygienists and Safety professionals on other environmental issues that can affect workers' safety. 

[00:04:47] "Aussie" Mike James: Okay, great. That explains long-term turn we often hear. So I know. Presented to many community and corporate organizations promoting the importance of workplace wellness with [00:05:00] the emphasis on maintaining personal health, prevention of disease, et cetera. Can you describe what you talk about and what your key message is during these presentations? 

[00:05:09] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: I talk about. The importance of having workplace wellness programs in place. and given that the average person spends over 90,000 hours at work during their lifetime it's important that their health and safety are a priority of employers.  

[00:05:31] "Aussie" Mike James: So with that in mind, Linda what is a workplace wellness program? 

[00:05:37] "Aussie" Mike James: You often hear that term as well. So what is workplace wellness?  

[00:05:41] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: Yes. So according to the Department of Labor, a workplace wellness program is an employment-based activity or employer-sponsored benefit that's aimed at promoting health-related behaviors, and that would include primary [00:06:00] prevention. 

[00:06:01] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: which is preventing an illness or a disease. For example, immunizations against infectious diseases like flu, flu shots, or immunizations against COVID-19. These help to prevent these diseases. Also health promotion and disease management or second. Prevention is detecting disease early in its stages. 

[00:06:31] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: For example, promoting screening for breast cancer or prostate cancer.  

[00:06:37] "Aussie" Mike James: That's a good explanation for a term we often hear another term terms often here. What actually is a workplace culture of health? 

[00:06:47] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: Yes. I would give you the definition of one of our past presidents of the American College of Environmental Occupational and Environmental [00:07:00] Medicine Doctor. 

[00:07:00] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: T Warner Hudson and basically a workplace culture of health is a condition in which an employee's physical and psychological wellbeing is optimized by the environment and philosophy of the organization that they work in.  

[00:07:21] "Aussie" Mike James: Along those lines as well, what factors? Or important to promote a workplace wellness program? 

[00:07:27] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy:  Keeping in mind that the US workforce is aging, right? Yeah. 63 is the average age of retirement. So folks can opt to retire anywhere in their fifties to their 80. Many of our leaders in Congress and senators are in their eighties, okay? Prison. And as we age we accumulate chronic health conditions high blood pressure, [00:08:00] diabetes cholesterol joint issues. 

[00:08:04] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: So the workplace should promote an environment that supports a healthy and productive. aging workforce. And what was your question was what factors are important? I would say one of the most important ones is including preventive health screening or promoting preventive health screen. 

[00:08:29] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: Through weekly wellness tips lunch and learn sessions with professionals brown bag lunches to discuss high blood pressure. Type two diabetes, high cholesterol. These three factors can result in heart disease if they go uncontrolled. Vitamin D deficiency, right? That's an epidemic. 

[00:08:56] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: Most people don't realize that, but vitamin [00:09:00] D actually is needed for overall health. It can lead to osteoporosis. And that's because many of us vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin. Many of us don't get a. Sunshine. We're in the house, we're on our computers et cetera. 

[00:09:19] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: So that is important.

[00:09:20] "Aussie" Mike James: \ regarding vitamin D Yes. Is going outside in the sunlight, so to speak, that sufficient to get your adequate vitamin D or do you have to do some supplementation? It  

[00:09:32] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: depends on how much sun you get. If you live in the tropics or in Florida and you go outside  

[00:09:39] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: in your tank top and shorts where your body is actually being exposed to the sun, then probably you don't. But if you live more unlike the East Coast and they're during certain seasons of the year, you don't get out and get the amount of sunshine [00:10:00] that would be required. for vitamin D overall health, you would probably need supplements. 

[00:10:07] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: That is where preventive health screening would come into play, where you would encourage your workforce to go to see their doctor for their annual physicals, their preventive. Physicals and go through their screenings to determine if, in fact, they do need supplements.  

[00:10:29] Dr. Richard Kennedy: One of the things I'd say that's really important is also people need to understand what is considered a normal vitamin D level. and that is 30 to 100 in the United States is what we would use as the guide for vitamin D. And anything under 30 is considered low. When it's below 20, 

[00:11:00] We tend to. 

[00:11:02] Dr. Richard Kennedy: Put people on maintenance vitamin D supplementation for a period of time to get it up to 30, in addition to continuing to ask them to get as much sunlight as they can. All things  

[00:11:15] "Aussie" Mike James: being equal. I guess I asked that question in a bit of self-interest because being from Australia skin cancers can become a big problem. So I guess that's another part of the screening process for skin cancer. Yes. In fact, you get too much sun and you burn your skin sunburn. That is a risk factor for skin cancer staying out in the sun too long and getting sunburns particularly. 

[00:11:43] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: Younger people tend to try to get these really deep dark suntans and they really can be doing themselves a disservice because over time they could be putting themselves at risk for skin cancer. [00:12:00] But that's a very good point, Mike. Thank you dr. Richard, I wonder if you can wane just on some of the important points that Linda has talked about in promoting workplace wellness. 

[00:12:12] Dr. Richard Kennedy: Actually it's become more important in the current time that we've been in particularly, with everybody being remote because of the pandemic. It's actually been really important that the sort of brown bag lunches. Of course, now what you can do from home, but it, what it does is the, it's the information because most diseases, almost all diseases that are chronic, pretty much are and so when you do these workplace wellness programs and discussions, you help people to stay in touch with being aware of what healthy really means because it is changed over time. We [00:13:00] know that disease can strike, and then with what Dr. Kennedy has. Is that the aging population in this country, particularly in the developed world, is going higher and higher, and with it come all of those chronic diseases. 

[00:13:17] Dr. Richard Kennedy: So those problems that you take into account to do prevention for yourself and the best way is being aware and getting guidance, and that's why having a general preventive checkup is important.  

[00:13:31] "Aussie" Mike James: We've covered a lot of information there and I think really clarified a little about some of the common terms we hear about occupational medicine. 

[00:13:40] "Aussie" Mike James: Linda, in closing, is there anything you'd like to really stress as your key message regarding workplace wellness or workplace health? 

[00:13:47] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: It's extremely important. that organizations have a workplace wellness program. And because it actually [00:14:00] shows the employees that the employers care about their well-being and when employers give employees the space to take care of themselves this could encourage them to stay. 

[00:14:14] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: With the organization. The other thing is, that simply offering a wellness program is no guarantee of improving worker health. The workers have to be aware that the program actually exists and encouraged to use it. And then my last point would be, happy employees, are productive employees according to Forbes.

[00:14:38] D. Linda Holifield-Kennedy: And employee happiness is a result of good health.  

[00:14:41] Aussie Mike James: And what a great message to finish up on. Thank you for joining us and listening to today's Wellness Musketeers moment. A big thanks to our special guest, Dr. Linda Holyfield Kennedy, and of course to our fellow Musketeer and Dr. Linda's husband, Dr. Richard Kennedy entity. [00:15:00] Tune in for upcoming episodes to learn from global health leaders and trendsetting authors to gain the tools to improve your life and health. 

[00:15:08] Aussie Mike James: Work performance and live a more balanced quality of life. Please subscribe. Give us a five-star review. Share this recording with your family, friends, and colleagues. And give a contribution provided in our program notes to allow this podcast to grow. Please let us know what you need to learn to help live your best life. 

[00:15:29] Aussie Mike James: Send your questions and ideas for future episodes to David lis@davidendlessgmail.com. Thanks for listening, folks, and we hope you have a wonderful day. And once again, thank you very much to our special guest, Dr. Linda Holyfield Kennedy. For joining us today for this Wellness Musketeers moment.