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Wellness program

A commitment to wellness is more than a vague set of good intentions at the City of Vancouver Fire Department. All firefighters, captains, battalion chiefs and prevention employees are required to participate in a comprehensive health assessment program designed to head off medical calamities such as heart attacks and cardio-vascular disease.

 Medical professionals at Portland Adventist Hospital confidentially conduct annual wellness assessments. Specific areas of prevention focus include respiratory and heart functions, back injury avoidance and overall health screening. As a career, firefighting is one of the most hazardous and physically demanding. Historically, firefighters are most vulnerable to heart attacks, and are also subject to traumatic injuries and disability.

The Wellness program started in 1991 at Fire District 5. The intention was to take a proactive approach to preventing injury and disability among the ranks of firefighters – often sidelined by injury and exposure to toxic substances. After consolidation in 1994, the program expanded to include all members of the combined VFD and CCFD#5.

Terry Sott, a VFD battalion chief, is the department’s wellness coordinator and an unapologetic booster of the program. He helped design it, and used his experience and data from the program to write an Applied Research Project for the Executive Fire Officer Program of the National Fire Academy in 2004, and then his master’s thesis in 2006.

“I’ve seen this program work miracles. It worked one for me,” Sott says. In the early 1980s he underwent three back surgeries, and by 1988 he says, “It was clear to me that I was in a career-ending situation.” Instead, Sott dedicated himself to core strengthening, working out six days a week, and improved lifestyle choices. Today -- almost 20 years later -- he credits his dedication to wellness through nutrition, exercise and modified lifting techniques to his successful 28-year career in the fire service.

Confidentiality is a key component of the program, and Sott cannot mention names. However, “I’m aware of 20 or 30 success stories at the department where people have reduced or eliminated medication for hypertension or made other successful health changes. The benefits of the wellness program are incredible – possibly even life-saving.”

The wellness program includes a thorough heart function evaluation using a 12-lead EKG monitor depending on age and certain health parameters. An on-site Adventist doctor reviews heart activity while patients vigorously use a treadmill at increasing speeds and elevations using either a Bruce or Balke protocol (The scientific methods used for estimating or determining cardiovascular & aerobic fitness). The Adventist program also includes blood and urine tests; assesses upper, lower body and grip strength; lung capacity; sit and reach flexibility; and hearing. A written self-assessment measures nutrition, exercise and lifestyle habits such as smoking, alcohol use and how the individual handles stress. Each employee may have a private consultation with someone from Portland Adventist about his or her results, and to assist in making progress plans.

It’s believed that the program is cost effective. Sott says it costs the fire department from $300 to $400 per year for each covered employee. “National data shows that for every $1 an organization spends on a comprehensive health and wellness program, it can save between $3 to $4 in reduced injury, disability and sick leave related to the job,” Sott explains.

Sott compliments the department for supporting the wellness program and for “talking the talk and walking the walk.”  Together with motivated employees who value their health, the program is working, he says. To support the recommended exercise regimen, each of Vancouver’s nine fire stations features exercise equipment so on-duty firefighters can complete their required one-hour of exercise each 24-hour shift.

“Back in 1991 we had about 40 percent compliance with the letter and spirit of the program. Today it’s over 90 percent,” Sott says. While it may have taken a long time to change the culture around firefighter wellness, today’s firefighters reflect a big shift away from poor diet, scant exercise and the “good old days” when the firehouse ceiling was stained dark orange from tobacco smoke. Today’s firefighters – about one third of them paramedics – generally eschew unhealthy habits especially when compared to firefighters of 20-30 years ago.

“There are very few tobacco users in the organization,” Sott says. And the annual visit with the doctor and fitness staff at the wellness center is a constant component that challenges every one of the highly trained public safety employees to strive to protect and enhance their good health.

That means they win, their families win, and the taxpayers win.

Westlake, 8-15-07

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