Wellness Inventory Profiled in Special Edition of Military Medicine "Total Force Fitness for the 21st Century: A New Paradigm"

Wellness Inventory Profiled in Special Edition of Military Medicine
"Total Force Fitness for the 21st Century: A New Paradigm"

In the special supplement to the August 2010 issue of Military Medicine, Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff calls for a "21st century definition of fitness that recognizes the importance of a more holistic paradigm that balances performance and readiness with health and wellbeing.

"Only in this balance can the resilience and mission of the force be sustained. The Samueli Institute collaborated with the Consortium for Human and Military Performance (CHAMP) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), Institute for Alternative Futures and the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to respond to this call. A group of over 70 scientists, health, social, community and spiritual leaders, and leaders from the front lines was convened to help frame, define and tell us how to evaluate and measure what we need to keep our service members resilient and flourishing in the current environment." Charged by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to define "total force fitness" and to identify metrics that can measure it, the article "A Survey of Multidimensional Health and Fitness Indexes" by Kimberly M. Firth, PhD, and Katherine Smith, MPH, discusses the findings of a brief assessment of the literature on existing, multidimensional measures of wellness.
The aim of the survey was to select several exemplar indexes that can serve as a model for developing an index to assess, in a holistic, multidimensional way, the state of an individual's health and fitness that goes beyond just the absence of disease or injury. The Wellness Inventory was one of four "exemplar" assessments selected to be featured in the article. Read about the Wellness Inventory in "A Survey of Multidimensional Health and Fitness Indexes" (pp 110-117) in Total Force Fitness for the 21st Century: A New Paradigm.

We are honored to have had the Wellness Inventory featured in this manner, as a representation of a tool that recognizes the importance of a more holistic paradigm that balances performance and readiness with health and wellbeing" and may be of service to those serving in the military.
The Wellness Inventory is a comprehensive holistic assessment and life-balance program, designed to help people gain personal insight into their state of physical and emotional wellbeing. The program offers motivation, guidance and tools to transform this new awareness into sustainable lifestyle change, and a renewed sense of health and wellbeing.

The Wellness Inventory assessment is multidimensional, measuring 12 key aspects of physical, emotional, behavioral, nutritional, spiritual, and social wellness.
Specifically, the Wellness Inventory measures: self-responsibility and love, breathing, sensing, eating, moving, feeling, thinking, playing and working, communicating, intimacy, finding meaning, and transcending. It was chosen as an exemplar in the Survey of Multidimensional Health and Fitness Indexes, because "in addition to meeting all the inclusion criteria, it is very comprehensive in nature, is adaptable, and has a strong focus on health rather than disease."
The Wellness Inventory identifies a person's areas of strength, the specific areas in which they are most motivated to change, and guides them in creating a wellness action plan based upon their personal motivations. Finally, the Wellness Inventory provides tools, resources, services to help individuals reach their wellness goals and bring more balance into their lives.
The Wellness Inventory Assessment & Life-Balance Program is licensed to organizations (corporations, hospitals, healthcare organizations, integrative medicine centers, wellness centers, spas, fitness centers) as well as to health and wellness professionals and coaches.
We also train professionals to be wellness coaches and to gain proficiency in the use the program with clients through our Wellness Inventory Certification Training. The 14-week training is approved by the International Coach Federation for 28 CCEs and is delivered as a live phone teleclass, with 3 concurrent classes in both the fall and spring. The next classes start February 15, 16, and 17 and September 13, 14,8 and 15, 2011.
More on the Certification Training         Listen to Interview with Certification Training co-creators.
Background
The original Wellness Inventory assessment was the creation of wellness pioneer John W. Travis, MD, MPH, recognized as a key founder of the early wellness movement. Dr. Travis was a protégé of Lewis Robbins, MD, creator of the Health Risk Assessment (HRA), while a resident in preventive medicine at Johns Hopkins and working with the US Public Health Service. In the early 1970s, influenced by the work Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Dr. Halbert Dunn, he decided to dedicate his life to inspiring wellness rather than treating patients.
Dr. Travis opened the first wellness center in the US in 1975 in Mill Valley, CA, and created the first wellness assessment (Wellness Inventory) for use as a whole person intake for clients of the center. This work at the Wellness Resource Center was a forerunner of the coaching model, in which clients were considered the experts in their own lives and encouraged to form a co-creative relationship with the center's wellness facilitators. Bobbie Burdett, a co-founder of the Wellness Resource Center, and co-creator of the original facilitation process, is Director of Training for the Wellness Inventory Certification Training.