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FEATURE
ARTICLE:
PROMOTING HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Interview
with Dr. Karen Levin Coburn
Dan
Oltersdorf - ResidentAssistant.com
RA.com:
Why should RAs be concerned about promoting
health and wellness?
KLC:
All college students have to deal with stress-both academic and
social. Unfortunately, all too many students turn to unhealthy
coping mechanisms. The popular slogan "work hard, play
hard" usually implies a pattern of excess: studying without
sufficient breaks, rest, exercise or contemplation followed by a
jam packed weekend-too little sleep, too much partying and too
much alcohol. RAs spend a lot of time dealing with the
consequences of these unhealthy patterns-and are left to pick up
the pieces. Think how much time RAs spend dealing with the
consequences of alcohol abuse-vandalism, unplanned sex and date
rape, noisy halls and vomit in the bathroom. How many hours do you
spend counseling students who are exhausted and struggling
unsuccessfully to manage their academic demands? How often do you
deal with a steady stream of sleep deprived residents, complaining
of colds and flu, searching for relief from anxiety and stress?
How much time do you spend with tense roommates who get on each
other's nerves, making it more difficult for everyone to
concentrate on the work at hand?
Obviously, RAs
can't change everyone's behavior patterns and eliminate all
unhealthy habits. They can, however, play an important role in
supporting the academic success and physical and emotional well
being of their residents by keeping principles of Health Promotion
and Wellness in the forefront of their thinking. As is true in so
many of the challenges facing RAs, a pro-active approach is
invaluable. RAs are in a unique position to set the tone for their
community.
RA.com:
What can RAs do to promote health and
wellness?
KLC:
RAs are, first of all, role models. Finding balance in your own
lives is an on-going challenge. Balance isn't something you
achieve once and for all and then check off your "to do
list." Balance comes in those everyday interactions: it's
being able to say to a resident, "I need some quiet time now.
I'll talk to you after dinner." It's making the time for
exercise or recreation in your most pressured weeks, not just when
there's an obvious lull in your schedule. It's taking time to eat
healthy meals, rather than grabbing soda and chips from the floor
vending machine.
You send a
message when you invite some of your residents to come along when
you are going out for a run or heading to dinner during a
particularly busy time of the semester. You send a message when
you say,"I'm going to get some sleep. I can't really study
effectively on no sleep."
You can take
advantage of teachable moments in the way you respond to a student
who says, "I just finished my chem test. I'm going out to get
wasted." Or in the way you respond to a student who
says,"I haven't eaten a real meal in two days. All I've done
is study."
You can work
with your residents to set community standards that promote health
and wellness. And you can easily do passive programming that
becomes part of your floor's environment: a bulletin board with
lists of recommended Web sites, such as Go Ask Alice, an excellent
interactive question and answer web-site from the Columbia
University Health Service; a small library of books and pamphlets
in the lounge; posters and flyers that promote healthy behavior
and transmit accurate social norms.
When creating
the environment for your floor or planning programs, it helps to
keep the six dimensions of wellness in mind: emotional,
intellectual, occupational, physical, social and spiritual.
Keeping these six dimensions in mind inevitably strengthens
partnerships with other professionals on campus. RAs can join
hands in creative ways with members of their campus health and
counseling service, chaplains or ministers, athletic trainers and
coaches, career counselors , academic advisors and learning
specialists. If you are fortunate enough to have an office of
health promotion and wellness, you can tap into their resources
and expertise.
Last week here
on the Washington University campus one of our residence halls
hosted a "Loveline" program, patterned after the MTV
show of the same name. The physician who is head of our health
service played Dr. Drew, and a psychologist from the counseling
service played the female co-star. An RA played Adam Carolla. A
counselor from the counseling service played guest celebrity, Mark
Edwards of ER fame, and the GYN nurse practitioner played Dr.
Ruth. The students asked questions about sex, love , and
relationships much more freely than they might have in a more
serious format.. According to students-and the "cast,"
everyone learned a great deal and laughed a lot too!
As RAs you
already have more than enough to do. Promoting health and wellness
doesn't have to be an added obligation--one more thing on your
plate. As a matter of fact, integrating health and wellness into
your environment will support your own well being as well as that
of your residents. - Karen Levin Coburn
Karen Levin
Coburn is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Students and Associate
Dean for the Freshman Transition at Washington University. Dr.
Coburn is also the co-author of Letting Go: A Parents' Guide to
Understanding the College Years.
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