Health e-Plan comes to Portage Rotary
Small, who is a program consultant for Health e-Plan and the department of Healthy Living, Youth and Seniors has been traveling to different places across the province talking about Health e-Plan.
“Health e-Plan is an online interactive health testing tool that the province launched in June of last year. It’s free, it’s bilingual, it’s completely confidential and available to all Manitobans 18 and older,” said Small.
“Our goal for Health e-Plan is really just to help Manitobans and empower them to learn more about their current lifestyles, help them learn if they’re at risk for anything and show them what they can do to mitigate those risks over time,” said Small.
To create the program the province partnered with Info Tech to use their Wellness Checkpoint software. Wellness Checkpoint has been used around the world since the 1990s and has been used almost exclusively in the workplace up until now.
“Manitoba is the very first province to introduce Wellness Checkpoint to public consumers through Health e-Plan,” said Small.
Health e-Plan is broken down into four main components: the health and wellness assessment, goal setting, resources through My Wellness Connections, and the rewards program.
Users begin by creating a user profile. They are then asked a series of questions about demographics, body composition, and eating and exercise habits.
“One you’ve completed the health assessment your answers will be compared against national and international health standards and guidelines and your results will be shown graphically,” said Small.
From there users can look at reports and action plans, set goals, and track their progress. They will also be able to look at a section called My Wellness Connections.
“Based on your health assessment results and anything you’re at risk for and with your postal code My Wellness Connection will populate web links for organizations and programs all within your region. Also provincial and national resources will populate so you know what’s going on within the province and throughout all of Canada,” said Small.
Finally, users can sign up electronically for the Health e-Plan rewards program where rewards will be drawn once a week, and a grand prize will be drawn once a month.
Rewards include stress balls, reflector tags, pedometers, Canadian Tire Gift cards, and a grand prize of two Winnipeg Jets tickets.
For more information on the Health e-Plan visit www.manitoba.ca and type Health e-Plan into the search bar.
Story courtesy Portage Daily Graphic and Robin Dudgeon.