October 13, 2023
There is a behind-the-scenes army of about 120 champs bringing joy and wellness to the workplace across London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC).
This small but mighty group of wellness champions enrich the lives of their colleagues and promote healthy living at work to inspire others to prioritize their well-being, says Vanessa Case, the health and wellness specialist who coordinates the program.
“Having a wellness champion in a unit helps to create a community within the team and supports fostering a more positive and collaborative work environment,” she says.
For three years now, Emily Mol and Penny Healey have been co-champions for Victoria Hospital’s Medical Imaging Department and organizing various events such as Halloween costume contests and decorating office doors for the Christmas season that have helped to breakdown silos within the department.
“More people have friends in the different areas of the department,” says Emily Mol. “Through the wellness activities, people have had the chance to learn more about what their colleagues do and who they are.
“True friendships have developed because of all of these opportunities,” she says.
Healey says participating in these activities is part of the department’s culture now. “It gives people something to look forward to and it gives them something to collaborate on.”
The wellness champion program was born out of a Wellness Response Team created in January 2021 and tasked with checking in with directors across LHSC on the well-being of their teams in the midst of the COVID pandemic. The response team, which was part of Human Resources and Workforce Wellness, provided resources to help improve the well-being of staff and physicians.
Over the next seven months, the team evolved into the wellness champion initiative with ten dozen champs across the organization.
“They help to broaden the mission of the Where Wellness Works program by ensuring that wellness initiatives feel personal and meaningful, and that awareness is built at the unit level,” Case explains. “They also help improve the overall well-being of employees, help to foster a positive work culture and contribute to a healthier and happier workforce.”
And that is the key reason Mickey Price is a wellness champion. She works in Medical Imaging at University Hospital and, together with her colleague Nicole Slegers, organizes wellness challenges with small prizes.
“When we take better care of ourselves, we can show up as our best selves,” she says. “When we feel better, we feel more energized about being at work, being there for the patient and it makes the environment a much more of a pleasure to work in.”