SHIP stories
The Statewide Health Improvement Program
(SHIP) works to improve health through better
nutrition, increased physical activity and
decreased commercial tobacco use and exposure.
Work places are a key area in which SHIP works
to improve health. As of June 2011:
• SHIP has helped over 870 employers lead
worksite wellness initiatives. Currently, these
efforts reach over 138,000 employees across
the state and set the stage to reduce obesity
and tobacco use, improve productivity and
help contain health care costs.
• Twenty-one worksites have implemented
tobacco-free grounds and twenty additional
sites are working to implement this strategy.
Businesses help employees get
and stay tobacco-free
Transforming work places to become tobacco-free
in Olmsted County calls for a big picture approach.
“We’re trying to create an environment where it’s
easier for people to quit smoking,” says Michelle
Haugen, a county public health educator. She says
new tobacco-free policies in place or in process are
designed “not to target the smoker but to target the
environment.”
Making quitting easier would be of great help to
smokers at Custom Alarm. Among the company’s 75
employees, “a couple” have committed to quit smoking
but not yet succeeded, according to human resources
manager Dawn Rainey. Custom Alarm has made its
campus completely tobacco-free, and, with the help
of SHIP, the transformation to a no-tobacco policy has
been effective, according to Rainey. She did not have
to “start from scratch” but instead had SHIP’s guidance
in introducing the new policy over six months.
Hy-Vee is another Olmsted example of businesses
changing policy with an eye on health. With the help
www.health.state.mn.us/divs/oshii
of SHIP, Registered Dietitian Kaitlin Anderson of the
north Rochester Hy-Vee grocery store was trained in
the American Lung Association’s Freedom From Smoking
program. She offered classes to Hy-Vee employees;
six signed up and, after the eight-session course, have
successfully quit smoking. Changes to the workplace
environment make it easier for these new nonsmokers
to continue their quest for a healthier lifestyle. They
have eliminated the designated smoking area and
established a tobacco-free campus policy.
According to Haugen, so much of the work of
decreasing tobacco use depends on businesses “We
provide resources, funding and technical assistance,”
she says, “but it’s the people in the worksites who are
making a difference for a healthy environment.”
***
SHIP is working to make the healthy choice the easy
choice in Minnesota. Find out how at
www.health.state.mn.us/ship