April 24, 2012

We had a guest speaker today in class. We had Francie Astrom from WellWorks come in to talk to us. Francie is a registered dietitian who works as a community dietitian at the community center located at Ohio University. Francie has been working at Ohio University for over 15 years now and she is also a certified diabetes educator. Individuals that are allowed to use WellWorks are those who are employees of Ohio University or any of their dependents, retired Ohio University employees, Athens community members, corporate members in the Athens community or students who work at WellWorks or who are graduate students at the university. WellWorks is funded partly by the university itself, they set away so much money every year for wellness programs and then they are also supported by the membership fees that the members pay. So Francie is paid then through these sources. She sees anyone who pretty much walks in to talk to her. WellWorks is set up to help prevent any major complication, they are not a program that is for people who are trying to fix a disease that is already present. They do a lot of helpful programs like the Health Ohio Initiative, they give talks, set up grocery store tours, and they also do cooking demonstrations to help teach people how to incorporate healthy foods into their diets. The people that can go talk with Francie about nutrition can be people who want information, people who are being told they must go or spouses/partners that are making them go. However, even if they person does not want to be there she said they still usually walking away being more happy about the session than when they came in. I have worked in WellWorks as a workstudy person for my junior year. WellWorks is a great place to work and you really can learn a lot by working there. It is also a great atmosphere to be a part of.