Included in this concluding batch is yet another wellness program debacle regarding eating disorders. The irony is, this one takes place at an addiction facility.  I’ve always maintained that, along with facts, integrity, math, data, employees and me, another thing the wellness industry has no appreciation of is irony. Examples:

• The most recent Koop Award for the best wellness program went to Wellsteps, who according to their own data made employees worse;
• Vitality pitches its weight-loss program even though by their own admission they couldn’t get their own employees to lose weight;
• The wellness industry’s own trade association, whose job is to show wellness saves money and improves morale inadvertently admitted that wellness loses money and damages employee morale.

This final set of case studies concludes with a statement from an actual named, LCSW who specializes in the treatment of eating disorders.

Links to previous installments:

• Part 1: Recovering executive with anorexia nervosa begs not to be weighed…DENIED
• Part 2: Recovering technologist with bulimia told to “fit into his skinny jeans”
• Part 3: Recovering employee with anorexia nervosa told “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” and advised to eat only half her lunch.
• Part 4: Recovering employee with bulimia and a severe grain allergy penalized for eating too many natural fats, as correctly prescribed by her dietitian…and begins purging again.

Joan

The school where I work recently instituted a wellness program.  In order for our insurance premiums to not increase, we had to go through a series of tests:  total cholesterol, blood pressure, BMI, LDL cholesterol and fasting glucose.  If we did not “pass” 4 out of 5 of these biometric screenings, we had to go through six weeks of phone therapy and then have the screenings done again after that time.

If, after the six weeks of phone therapy, the results did not change, our insurance would go up about $50.00/month.

The whole experience was a nightmare.  They conducted the screenings in the music room at school, with different tables and stations set up.  About 10 or 12 teachers and staff members were in the room at one time, so there was little privacy.

We moved from one station to the next as each of our results was written down and passed to the next person.

When we got to the end, a wellness “counselor” went over our results.  The lady saw my triglycerides number and immediately asked, “Does diabetes run in your family?”  “Is obesity an issue in your family?”  I asked why.  She said that a high level of triglycerides means that the body has “too many fat cells” and that I am at an “increased risk.”

To someone who has struggled with an eating disorder, as I have, this was tantamount to saying “Because of your high triglycerides, you are fat.  You are obese.”

Being weighed is always a humiliating and shameful experience for me, as it is for many people with eating disorders, and it can trigger exacerbations of my disorder (treating professionals familiar with eating disorders are well aware of this phenomenon and structure treatment accordingly).  To have to be weighed in front of my peers made that experience even worse.

This biometric screening triggered my disorder.  I was in tears by the time I got to the last “counselor” and had a very hard time controlling my feelings.  Right after this, I needed to get into my classroom and be with my kids.  I had to “suck it up,” until the end of the day.

It was horrible and it makes me wonder what is in our future in regard to all of this.

Katie

My workplace, an addiction treatment facility, has an employee “wellness” program.

If employees want to obtain the insurance “wellness rate” (the lower of two rates available to employees), we are required to start every year in January with a “health fair” and a “know your numbers screen” where they check weight, blood pressure, glucose levels and cholesterol.  Then we are “advised” by a registered nurse to exercise more and eat less (as if that had never occurred to anyone previously).

This year, the medical assistant drawing my blood engaged in numerous behaviors that would trigger most people with an eating disorder.  She informed me she “used to be as big as” I am until she “got bypass surgery.”  Despite mentioning several times that I see a nutritionist who recommends that I not weigh myself or know my weight, I was asked to guess my weight before I stepped on the scale.  I turned around when I stepped on the scale to avoid seeing my weight, but the assistant nonetheless chattered on about my weight.

I was reminded of embarrassing weigh-ins with school nurses and weight loss programs before I was exposed to eating disorder recovery.

This year we are also assigned to a “wellness team” where everyone is supposed to wear pedometers every day and log their steps weekly on a website.  Everyone can see everyone else’s steps on the site and a competitive spirit is encouraged.

I am especially saddened and concerned that we have this potentially damaging environment that encourages obsession with weight and numbers in a facility that treats addiction, where one would hope we would be steered away from, rather than toward, the process of addiction to disordered eating.

Rhonda Lee Benner, LCSW

I have worked with hundreds of patients over the 13 years during which I have worked with people with eating disorders.   In the past two years, I have seen a number of patients who were quite negatively impacted by the wellness programs at their place of work.

In one instance, a patient with binge eating disorder reported that she would be financially penalized if she didn’t set weight loss as a goal and make progress toward this goal. However, this was in direct conflict with her treatment goals to stabilize eating and set any goals for weight loss aside.  This patient could see how focusing on weight loss increased her binge eating; however, she felt shame and anxiety as a result of these pressures put on her by her employer.  She did not feel that as a larger-sized person she could speak up about this injustice.

In another instance, a patient reported that her employer required her to complete a health screening or be charged $600.00, and when she didn’t meet the health targets she was given an opportunity to still get the monetary “rewards” by meeting with a dietician three times.  She was also informed that she could get a “Healthy Weight Improvement Reward” by losing five pounds since her last health screening. Again, this is a patient with binge eating disorder whose condition is destabilized by focusing on weight loss. She too felt that as a larger-sized person she could not speak up about how this program could cause her harm.

What now?

Next week, and with the help of others, we will ask, what does this all mean? What can be done to prevent or discourage wellness vendors from harming employees?

And once again, kudos to the good guys, the vendors who are not implicated in this series at all, and indeed would never do such things to people:

American Institute of Preventive Medicine, Health Advocate, HealthCheck360, It Starts with Me, Limeade, Redbrick, SelfHelpWorks, Sterling, Sonic Boom, Sustainable Health Index, US Health Centers, US Preventive Medicine