FORT SILL, Okla. -- Fort Sill has a new weapon for those who are fighting the battle of the bulge, and other issues of health and physical fitness.
The new Fort Sill Army Wellness Center, located on the Graham Resiliency Training Center campus, helps integrate the RTC's wellness programs with the functional fitness programs at Rinehart, Goldner and Honeycutt Fitness centers on post, and in turn links them to health care services at Reynolds Army Community Hospital.
Wellness centers are a new program from Medical Command and supervised by Army Public Health. Nurses and health educators administer the primary prevention program, which ideally occurs before diseases, injury or disability develops.
"The main focus of our program is the health and wellness of Soldiers," said Allyson Pritchard, Fort Sill Army Wellness Center director.
"These prevention programs provide care in response to referrals from primary health care providers when patients are diagnosed with those medical conditions. In addition to referral from an Army health care professional, individuals can self-refer to the AWC program, or commanders can refer their Soldiers when there are health issues that need to be addressed. One of the most common issues is failure to pass the APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) or failure to meet height-weight guidelines."
Soldiers can receive a referral from their primary care providers, from failure to pass the Army Physical Fitness Test, by referral from a unit commander and by self-referral. Also, Army dependents, retirees and DA civilian workers can access the program through primary care provider referrals and self-referrals."
Pritchard explained the concept of the Army Wellness Centers started several years ago at military posts in Europe. Then, several large stateside posts forts Bragg, Hood, Bliss and others developed similar programs but each post tailored them to fit its particular interests. That caused problems when Soldiers transferred to a new post that didn't offer the same programs.
"So the Army decided to establish standardized AWC programs at 38 posts across the US and overseas by the end of fiscal 2015. We're just launching the program at Fort Sill and we feel very fortunate to be one of the early posts to establish this program."
A retired Army lieutenant colonel with 20-years' service, Pritchard worked in physical therapy and health education in combat and at posts around the world. For her, the AWC provides a tremendous way to connect the health care system at Fort Sill with the Army wellness programs and with the garrison's emphasis on combat efficiency, Soldier fitness and retention.
There are six core programs that make up the AWC's program health assessment review: physical fitness testing, healthy nutrition, stress management, general wellness education and tobacco education/cessation.
"It's like plug-and-play for the Soldiers, so when they leave here and go to Fort Leavenworth, or Carson or Bliss, they know they can have the same programs. It's all documented in their secure electronic medical records, which helps us communicate with primary care managers, and also we have what is called the Soldier Fitness Tracker," Pritchard said.
She said Soldiers register through the fitness tracker, and information about their progress goes into their health assessment review. This gives the AWC staff and other medical providers a record of the client's past medical history.
Through biometric screening, metabolic testing, biofeedback and stress tests, the AWC staff prepares health assessments which enable them to recommend various health care programs to help clients improve their health state.
"We use the fitness testing and metabolic analysis to establish baseline data. Based on this data and factors such as age, height, weight and others, we can determine whether a person has a high or low metabolic rate just by testing the gases in their breath," she said. "We then determine how many calories a person burns in a day, based on the kind of work they do. That helps us determine how many calories a person should consume daily if they want to safely lose weight.
"We can also perform a health risk analysis and look at their stress levels and other factors. When they come in for testing or other interventions, we have them fill out a questionnaire for each of those core programs. This gives us documentation that goes in a secure medical record system through the Public Health Command, which all wellness centers can access under the client's private number. That way we can track all of the progress the client makes regarding health issues," Pritchard said.
"Our mission statement encompasses three aspects: integration, standardization and primary prevention. We connect with our health care providers, who primarily treat illnesses, while encouraging our population, especially Soldiers, to live a healthier lifestyle eat right; exercise; lower their risk for diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity; and quit using tobacco," she said. "AWC can save health care dollars, time at the hospital and it can save lives. There are no guarantees, but if people work on their health issues, they can live a longer, more fulfilling life. We want to prevent medical conditions that negatively impact a patient's quality of life. Some can only be slowed, while others can be totally reversed. The key point is that any actions you take to make a lifestyle change will have a positive effect on your health, and your life."
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