Pro-Change director Sara Johnson, Ph.D. was recently invited to present a full-day workshop for IBM’s Global Well-being Services and Health Benefits Division.
The workshop outlined strategic approaches to elicit employee behavior change and drive smarter, more cost-effective use of health services and greater attention to healthy living. Attendees reviewed a definition of “proactive health consumerism” and the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change, which demonstrates that individuals progress through a series of distinct stages en route to adopting and maintaining health behaviors.
Dr. Johnson presented examples of the Transtheoretical Model’s successful application to multiple behavior change (e.g., weight management). These findings support the notion that different intervention and communication strategies are needed to engage and impact people in different stages. Current activities within Global Health and Well-being that leverage a stage-based approach to promoting proactive health consumerism were discussed, and participants then were challenged to outline intervention strategies that employ a stage-based approach to promoting proactive health consumerism among employees.