According to WHO statistics, the leading cause of death in Fiji is diabetes mellitus, followed closely by ischemic heart disease. These are both chronic but preventable illnesses – in other words, we can do something.
This year, we’ve taken a significant step towards improving our staff’s well-being by launching our own Wellness Program. Spearheading this initiative is Lea Chin, a Namotu regular and Fijian resident. With her extensive experience as a yoga instructor and a decade of community work in the Pacific, Lea brings a wealth of knowledge and a deep commitment to this program.
If we’re honest, the first priority is looking after and retaining our staff, many of whom have been here for decades and are like family. They start off like us all, young, fresh and fit, then time passes, life happens, and health deteriorates. Unlike our guests, staff on the Island spend their downtime or even their working hours in a reasonably sedentary state. Combine that with the high-sugar, low-nutrient diet so prevalent in Fiji, and you’ve got a recipe for chronic illness. If you’re one of our guests who’s been coming for decades, you’ll have seen the pattern for yourself and perhaps find it as heartbreaking as we do.
We conducted biometric testing at the beginning of the year to get a starting point and identify high-risk staff members. As you can see, there are a lot!
Lea has designed a comprehensive program that covers nutrition education, physical activity, and mental and emotional well-being. We kicked off in February with health screenings, which highlighted the importance of this program and gave us a baseline to track progress. We discovered the majority of our staff are in the high risk range for weight and nearly half have elevated blood pressure or blood glucose (or both) which is indicative of diabetes and heart disease. Since then, Lea has been conducting weekly workshops, collaborating with the staff kitchen to improve our food offerings, and bringing in health professionals to offer extra consultation and medical advice. We’ve also introduced challenges, prizes, and incentives to keep everyone motivated.
Now that the program has been running for six months, it’s time to assess our progress, redouble our efforts, and finish the year stronger, fitter, and healthier. See below for comparison graphs – we’re getting there!
WHAT WE’VE WORKED ON SO FAR…
- Biometric screening including blood glucose levels, blood pressure, waist to hip ratio & BMI to track physical progress and identify existing chronic illness
- Nutrition eduction workshops tailored to Fiji
- Namotu staff kitchen improvements – healthier snacks, more vegetables, more variety, replacing white rice with brown rice, replacing processed foods with whole foods, fruits and vegetables
- Diabetes and hypertension education with Anique Baldock (registered dietitian)
- Health checkups with Leena Zhou and team
- Mental health: stress management, identifying emotions, setting values
- Financial wellness: tracking our expenses to become more financially secure
- Weekly sport & recreation including volleyball, beach games and walking as well as encouraging staff to surf, swim, fish and enjoy the ocean
6 Months of Wellbeing Looks Like This…
In each category, staff have show improvement in their biometrics from February to July 2024.
- Body Mass Index (BMI): 14% decrease of obese staff
- Blood Glucose Levels: 8% increase of staff in healthy range <7.8 mmol/L
- Blood Pressure: 20% decrease of staff with systolic blood pressure levels higher than 140 mm HG
Goals for the Next 6 Months
- Reduce the percentage of overweight/obese staff (currently at 83%)
- Increase percentage of staff with blood sugar levels of 5.6 mmol/L or less (currently 56% fall into this range)
- Increase percentage of the staff with normal/optimal systolic blood pressure levels (currently 63% are in this range)