Personal Wellness Profile
Health Assessment Program

Purpose

The Personal Wellness Profile is a general health assessment and profiling application that measures overall health and well-being. This assessment tool is designed to:

• Provide a comprehensive health and lifestyle assessment based on the most current scientific guidelines for optimal health and disease prevention.
• Help people make healthy lifestyle decisions and make appropriate use of medical services.
• Provide a systematic approach to assessment of an organization's use of medical services.
• Information gained can be used to design appropriate intervention programs emphasizing modifiable risk factors for disease.
• Provides a way for employees to identify existing healthy behaviors to continue good health practices.

Process

Specifically, the PWP Comprehensive Plus provides a robust wellness based health assessment that addresses all major lifestyle factors, personal and family history, symptoms, functional health status and quality of life, health interests, readiness for change and self-efficacy. Participants complete a questionnaire, and participate in a 30 minute clinical and fitness testing. Screening participants are given an appointment to meet with the health educator to review their PWP results.

Screening information is processed using Wellsource Inc.'s PWP computer software program. combined, the questionnaires and clinical data generate a comprehensive 19-page personal wellness profile report. Participants meet with a health educator to review their health scores in 15 wellness categories. Particular attention is given to scores indicating higher than normal risk factors for disease and referrals to a physician's medical follow-up are suggested with indicated.

Additionally, the health educator aids participants to identify and evaluate their readiness for change. The educator also assists individuals to develop simple and measurable objectives to move progress in the change process. Individuals will be encouraged to send a copy of their Physician Summary Report to their PCP. PWP participants will also be referred to internal and external health promotion, disease prevention, or disease management intervention programs/services when indicated.

Recommendations for six month or yearly follow-up PWP is highly encouraged, especially for individuals with high and multiple risk factors.

All information from the Personal Wellness Profile is confidential. No information from individual reports will be given to insurance carriers or employers.

How To Sign Up?

Personal Wellness Profile sessions will be scheduled in the Fall of 2007 at various USM locations. The next and final session of this round is Portland on November 27th and 28th, and December 7th. For more information, call M.C. Jones at 228-8432 or email djones@usm.maine.edu