What About Staff: Impact of HealthMatters Program for Direct Support Staff

Health Promotion for Staff

The health status and health behaviors among support staff providing daily support for people with IDD in community-based organizations (CBOs) is woefully undervalued. This training examines the health impact of direct care workers who participated in HealthMatters™ Program: Certified Instructor Workshop and implemented the 12-week HealthMatters Program for people with IDD whom they care for as part of their employment.

Training

This training discusses staff health and health behavior outcomes after they became Certified Instructors and taught the 12-week HealthMatters Program. Instructors discuss programs and organizational policies that can support health promotion activities for direct care workers across the following areas: 

  1. social/environmental supports for nutrition 
  2. positive expectations related to exercise and nutrition 
  3. eating fruit and vegetable 
  4. knowledge of fruit and vegetable intake recommendations 

Publication

  1. Impact of the HealthMatters Train-the-Trainer Program on the Health and Health Behaviors of Staff Supporting Adults With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (2019). Beth Marks, Jasmina Sisirak, Yen-Ching Chang, and Ryan Murphy, Workplace Safety and Health.June 2019, 57(3):242-258. https://doi.org/10.1177/2165079919828739.

Training Overview

The What about Staff? training discusses the health status and health behaviors among support staff providing daily support for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in community-based organizations. We present the results of a study examining the health impact of direct care staff who participated in a HealthMatters Program: Train-the-Trainer Certified Instructor Workshop followed by implementing a 12-week HealthMatters Program for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) that they care for as part of their employment. 

A total of 48 direct care staff were enrolled into either an intervention (n = 28) or control group (n = 20). Staff in the intervention group received an 8-hour HealthMatters Program: Train-the-Trainer Workshop immediately prior to teaching a 12-week HealthMatters Program for people with IDD. Relative to the control group, staff in the intervention group showed significant improvements in social/environmental supports for nutrition (F = 4.92, p = .032), exercise outcome expectations (F = 6.58, p = .014), nutrition outcome expectations (F = 8.87, p = .005), fruit and vegetable intake (F = 13.62, p = .001), knowledge of fruit and vegetable intake recommendations (F = 11.25, p = .002), and stages of change for eating fruits and vegetables (F = 6.86, p = .012). 

The training reviews strategies to develop and implement programs and organizational policies for health promotion activities for direct care staff.

 

 

Learning Objectives 

During training, participants will identify strategies to develop and implement programs and organizational policies that support health promotion activities for direct care workers including the following:

  1. improving social/environmental supports for nutrition and physical activity,
  2.  implementing programs to enhance knowledge and skills to eat more fruits and vegetables among direct care workers.

Instructors

 

Audience

People working with individuals who have intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.

More Information

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