Press release from Mission Health:
ASHEVILLE (Sept 13, 2018) – A collaborative effort among Mission Health, Asheville Regional Airport and GE Aviation will bring quality, evidence-based and individually responsive healthcare to workers in the aviation industry.
WNC Aviation Worker Wellness Project will improve access to affordable, high quality healthcare and wellness programming for WNC aviation workers and their families by implementing a proven worksite health and well-being program.
“Mission Health is proud to partner with Asheville Regional Airport and GE Aviation in building on their work to improve the health and well-being of their employees and their families using our proven wellness program, MyHealthyLife WellConnect,” said Laurie Stradley, DrPH, Director of Wellness for Mission Health.
This innovative worker wellness project, to be conducted with more than 450 employees combined from Asheville Regional Airport and GE Aviation, is modeled after Mission’s own MyHealthyLife WellConnect worker wellness program, serving more than 11,000 employees. This health-management and wellness program encourages employees to improve their health using personalized assessments and targeted interventions to support lifelong health and well-being that may include:
- Telehealth
- Nutrition counseling
- Online wellness activity tracking and competitions
“We value all of the employees of the Greater Asheville Regional Airport Authority, and we are proud to offer a comprehensive wellness program to provide a focus on health,” said Lew Bleiweis, A.A.E., Executive Director. “We are pleased to be involved in the WNC Aviation Worker Wellness Project administered by Mission Health, and look forward to the enhancements this partnership will bring to our organization.”
Mission Health System Foundation, Inc., will serve as project administrator — distributing and accounting for all funds to support project activities and key personnel, overseeing all financial and programmatic reporting, and ensuring compliance with all programmatic and government regulations.
This project will be headquartered in Buncombe County and will be serving workers from the counties of Swain, Graham, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Yancey, Jackson, Burke, Macon, Henderson, Haywood, Avery and Transylvania.
Rural residents are challenged in accessing the limited healthcare available. Seventeen of the 18 counties in the service area are designated by the federal government as medically underserved, which means too few primary care providers, high infant mortality, high poverty or a high elderly population. Seventeen-point-eight percent of the total population is uninsured. Preventable chronic conditions are a major contributor to the decline of the health of American workers.
“GE Aviation is partnering with Mission Health to enhance the health and well-being of our employees. We are grateful for the support of the Appalachian Regional Commission to carry out this exciting initiative in workforce wellness programming,” said Michael Meguiar, Asheville Plant Leader, GE Aviation.
The WNC Aviation Worker Wellness Project will utilize evidence-based practices to improve worker health outcomes. This project will increase the education workforce, knowledge, skills and health of residents to work and succeed in Appalachia, by improving access to high quality healthcare for workers.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.