Summer 2022 Employee Well-Being Newsletter

SUMMER 2022 VOLUME 18 ISSUE 2

IN THIS ISSUE Creativity In The Kitchen Summer Wellness Scavenger Hunt Rec Services Highlight Iowa City Bike Library Wellness Grant Spotlight Burnout And Mental Health At Iowa liveWELL

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staff

UI WELLNESS

UI Wellness is a unit of UI Human Resources.

Megan Hammes

Senior Director, UI Wellness megan-hammes@uiowa.edu 335-5424 • E119 CRWC

Carla Melby-Oetken

Health Coach carla-melby@uiowa.edu 353-2975 • E119 CRWC

Jacob Frederick

Well-Being Specialist jacob-e-frederick@uiowa.edu 467-4848 • E119 CRWC

Sandy Stewart

Well-Being Specialist sandra-stewart@uiowa.edu 353-2973 • E119 CRWC

Melanie Cuchna

Well-Being Specialist melanie-cuchna@uiowa.edu 467-4618 • E119 CRWC

Jean O’Donovan

Secretary jean-odonovan@uiowa.edu 353-2973 • E119 CRWC

Our new UI Strategic Plan calls on all of us to “Embed Well-Being and Mental Health into all aspects of campus culture to better support students, faculty and staff.”

We encourage you to act on ways to infuse kindness, respect, and health-promoting behaviors into your time on campus. liveWELL invites you to share these stories with us so that we can help spotlight great work being done. We’d love to showcase your efforts in an upcoming edition of the liveWELL newsletter.

To quote President Barbara Wilson from a May address to campus: “Summer is a time when the pace of work may be a bit slower or more flexible, so please take advantage of that by spending time with friends and family, by enjoying your favorite warm-weather leisure activities, and by taking that vacation you’ve been promising yourself. You need it for your well-being, and we want you to be healthy and refreshed for the year ahead.”

Megan Hammes, MS, MCHES Senior Director UI Wellness/University Human Resources

Mary Heath

Secretary mary-heath@uiowa.edu 353-2973 • E119 CRWC

Diana Kremzar

Family Services Director diana-kremzar@uiowa.edu 335-3558 • 121 USB

Kelli Jackson Amato

Well-Being Specialist kelli-jackson-amato@uiowa.edu 467-4917 • E119 CRWC

Layout and Design by Student Life Communications Printed by UI Printing Services on recycled paper

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liveWELL inspires a culture of well-being and campus excellence, providing employees with the opportunity to thrive.

IN THIS ISSUE

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SUMMER WELLNESS SCAVENGER HUNT

CREATIVITY IN THE KITCHEN

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REC SERVICES HIGHLIGHT

IOWA CITY BIKE LIBRARY

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WELLNESS GRANT SPOTLIGHT

BURNOUT AND MENTAL HEALTH AT IOWA

PHA WINNERS

University Human Resources provides leadership in shaping an equitable and inclusive culture that drives diversity, excellence and innovation by supporting talent, engagement, and the employee work experience.

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Creativity In The Kitchen It is perfectly acceptable to try things out “to taste” with a recipe to see what suits your palate. Cooking is an activity that can fill your creative outlet. Many people report getting into a flow state when working in the kitchen, like other hobbies where you simply lose track of time experiencing the joy of preparing your food.

Creativity reduces anxiety, depression, and stress, and it can also help you process trauma. Therefore, cooking is so much more than physical nourishment.

Chermaine Hung, MD, Internal Medicine Resident, submitted this Chinese recipe as a part of her participation in UI Internal Medicine Grand Rounds in January that featured a panel talking about Healthy Eating Around the Globe. Check out the Spring 2022 liveWELL newsletter for a recap and other recipes.

This recipe was passed on to Dr. Hung from a family friend, Mrs. Chui Bo Chan. These recipes have never been written down and the ingredients are not exact.

Dr. Hung recommends seasoning to taste.

liveWELL recommends adding some seasonal color with your favorite veggies: red bell pepper, shredded carrots, scallions, and shredded purple cabbage would sauté perfectly with this recipe!

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Soy Chicken Drumsticks: Submitted by:

Chermaine Hung

MD, Internal Medicine Resident

Ingredients: • Chicken drumsticks • Dark soy sauce • Light soy sauce • Chicken broth • Rock sugar • Ginger, cut in thin slices

Instructions: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Wash drumsticks and trim fat. Pat dry with paper towels.

Pierce chicken with fork several times.

Add salt and pepper onto drumsticks. Marinate for 20 minutes.

In a pot, add 2 parts dark soy sauce, 1 part regular soy sauce.

Add chicken broth and rock sugar. Add ginger. Bring mixture to a boil.

Season to taste.

Add chicken drumsticks. Add cooking wine. Bring to a boil again.

Reduce heat to medium. Cook for approximately 10 minutes before turning off heat.

Insert a fork into the drumstick.

If juices are bloody then chicken is cooked.

Voila! Delicious and a work of creative art! Send your photos of being creative in the kitchen to livewell@uiowa.edu with your name and what you made, and we will feature you on our @UIowaLiveWELL Social media accounts. We will also send you a liveWELL lunch bag!

@UIOWALIVEWELL

liveWELL has a resource page dedicated to Nutrition and Weight Management. Many recipe links and campus programs are offered. Check it out! liveWELL

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June 1 - August 31, 2022 The annual Campus Wellness Scavenger Hunt is featuring beautiful trees and green spaces on the UI campus. Some of these trees are also featured on the Pentacrest Museum’s Tree Walking Tours which inspired us “going green” this summer! Get in some physical activity while learning about the benefits of spending time in nature and observing the unique beauty and history of these destinations on our UI campus.

PENTACRESTMUSEUMS.UIOWA.EDU/TREE-TOURS Faculty and staff can earn liveWELL points for visiting each of the ten destinations and answering the bonus code question in My liveWELL Portal in Employee Self-Service.

Weekly emails to participants are coming to a close; however, you can see all of the content and still register for the program at:

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The Student Experience and Academic teams in the Graduate Management Programs with Tippie College of Business had a fun team-building activity in May visiting four stops on the Summer Wellness Scavenger Hunt.

“As a team, we had so much fun exploring the campus.

With only an hour, we were able to visit four different stops on the map. Being outdoors, being together, and connecting through this fun activity was a perfect team-building experience!”

-Nathan Davis

Assistant Director, Cedar Rapids Graduate Management Program

liveWELL has sent this crew copies of Iowa native, Dr. Suzanne Bartlett Hackenmiller’s book The Outdoor Adventurer’s Guide to Forest Bathing!

SOCIAL MEDIA

Challenge If you would like a chance to win a copy, send us (email: livewell@uiowa.edu) a picture of your Summer Wellness Scavenger Hunt experience, whether on-campus, virtual, solo or with a team. We will post your photo to our @UiowaLiveWELL Facebook and Twitter pages. We will randomly award book copies to participants!

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Recreational Services As a faculty or staff member, you have the opportunity to use Recreational Services on the University of Iowa campus.

Recreational Services Overview Recreational Services has four facilities on campus with convenient hours and unique opportunities to stay active.

Facilities include the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, the Field House, Fitness East, and the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Complex.

Within these facilities, there is access to over 25,500 square feet of cardiovascular and strength training equipment, indoor tracks, a climbing wall, swimming pools, basketball/ volleyball courts, a multipurpose court, badminton courts, and racquetball/squash courts. We also have Group Fitness classes (in-person or virtually), Intramural Sports, Personal Training, Rowing, Small Group Training, Swim Lessons, Tennis, and so much more!

Whether you are looking for yourself or your family, we have something for everyone.

We truly are your destination for recreation!

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Destination For Recreation

Your

What do our members think?

Variety is important for my motivation and enjoyment, and being a member of Rec Services provides many options.

Also, the staff fosters a supportive community. I’ve always felt welcome in all activities, no matter my skill level. You couldn’t find a place with better staff and equipment.”

- Jeremy Dombrock

Senior Application Developer

Do you know about the Recreation Membership Incentive Program?

Faculty/staff have the opportunity to earn an incentive worth 50 percent of their monthly recreation membership fee (monthly membership = $39/month; incentive = $19.50/month) by participating in the liveWELL Personal Health Assessment (PHA) survey and using campus recreation facilities at least four times per month.

More information about the program can be found here:

TRY US OUT! If you have never used our services before, email us, and we will give you 4 FREE visit passes that you can redeem at any of our facilities! For more information about our programs and services, visit our website at recserv.uiowa.edu

or email us, at

rec-services@uiowa.edu liveWELL

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COMMUNITY

Spotlight

Iowa City Bike Library Making biking accessible in our community (and beyond) The Bike Library: • Provides reconditioned donated bicycles to the community at low cost • Teaches cyclists how to maintain their bikes with one-on-one and class instruction • Provides spacious, welllit work benches with specialized bike tools at low or no cost for all manner of bike projects • Sells a vast selection of used bike components at low cost to people refurbishing their own bikes • Is a one stop destination for donating or recycling anything bike related, including bikes, bike parts, clothing, racks and trailers.

Donated bikes may be refurbished, salvaged for parts, or recycled. Excess bikes are distributed to partners in Mexico, Mali, and Ghana.

• Organizes and conducts community rides suitable for bikers of all skill levels

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DID YOU KNOW? The Bike Library is a volunteer powered, non-profit, community bike shop that has operated in Iowa City since 2004.

It serves the community by repairing donated bikes and offering them to the community at a low cost. They promote an active lifestyle, environmentallyfavorable transportation, and employs biking as a means to achieve broader community building.

Social Determinants of Health, Safety and DEI-focus • Providing bikes and bike repair to disadvantaged persons at essentially no cost • Sponsoring free bikes and helmets, mentored rides, and bike repair experiences for at-risk youth • Holding weekly bike repair sessions that are welcoming to the LGBTQ+ and Women/Trans/Femme communities • Developing initiatives directed at Spanish speaking people including hiring a native Spanish speaking Shop Coordinator, and creating a Spanish/ English workspace • Empowering people new to cycling with encouragement programs that help sustain active lifestyle habits • Turning used and donated bikes into commuter vehicles

“The Bike Library is a huge asset to our community.

I know of many personal stories of hospital employees getting bikes at the BL and using their services, and their testimonies could provide an introduction to an online or print article.”

-James D. Rossen, MD Professor of Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Division, Medical Director, Adult Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory

Develop Social Connections in an Inclusive Environment Through Volunteering The Bike Library is a volunteer-run, community bike shop.

There are in-house and outreach programs happening every day of the week. You do not need to be a bicycle mechanic to contribute to the mission on getting more people on bikes.

Learn more at icbikelibrary.org/volunteer-portal.html.

Wellness Grants

Support Local-Level

We l l-Be i n g

Denise Jurca, Departmental Administrator for Anatomy & Cell Biology, coordinated with Facilities Management to find space to do a local community garden just outside of Bowen Science Building (BSB). She was awarded a $500 Wellness Grant to help defray the costs.

Citing the health benefits of community,

being outdoors, and then, of course, fresh vegetables and herbs, this was a true labor of love to embed well-being into the day-to-day experience of all who work and take classes near BSB. Denise hopes to organize a salsamaking contest when the harvest is ready!

Consider applying for Wellness Grant funding for your department.

Learn more at:

Denise Jurca, Dennis Dunnwald, Ashley Goll, and Lindsey Rhea of Anatomy and Cell Biology smile after a hot afternoon of planting

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BURNOUT:

DISTURBANCE AND SUCCESSION Dr. Eean Crawford, Tippie College of Business Cover photo image credit: NPS/Jim Peaco

[This article was originally published April 2022 as a part of the “Trending Topics” at the Mental Health at Iowa website. It has been shortened from its original version. The full article including links to more information can be found at:

Disturbance When I was a young boy, my parents took our family to Yellowstone National Park. It was shortly after the 1988 fires that burned nearly 800,000 acres (about 36% of the park). My most vivid memory of that trip was seeing burned forests that extended for miles. I still see it in my mind, exactly as Ecologist Monica G. Turner described it: “Blackened tree trunks creating a stark and seemingly desolate landscape.”

This type of event is known in ecology as a disturbance. Disturbances alter the state and trajectory of an ecosystem and can shape ecosystem dynamics long into the future.

This is particularly the case for disturbances that are large, severe, and infrequent that capture the public attention and challenge our understanding of an ecosystem.

I see the disturbance of the COVID-19 pandemic creating similar damage and challenges to our human ecosystem. This disturbance has been large, severe, and infrequent. The aggregate loss of physical health, life, and livelihoods has been both unknowable and tragic. Similar to the stark and seemingly desolate landscape

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of burned tree trunks after the Yellowstone fires, we are witnessing a stark and seemingly desolate landscape of burned out individuals following the pandemic.

Burnout results from prolonged and elevated stress—not just your own but stress in the environment around you. It involves three main kinds of depletion: • Exhaustion: depletion of your mental, emotional, and physical resources • Cynicism: depletion of your social connection to and belief in other people • Inefficacy: depletion of your belief in yourself According to Gallup, burnout among workers was already elevated before the pandemic and has now shot up to record highs. Globally, seven in 10 people report they are struggling or suffering. Prior to the pandemic, the World Economic Forum estimated burnout was already costing $322 billion per year in turnover and lower productivity. To put that in perspective, a stack of $322 billion in $100 bills would rise 205 miles, nearly reaching the orbit of the International Space Station. And surely the cost is higher now!

Succession I’ve been back to Yellowstone three times since my childhood—each time about a decade apart. Over that period, I’ve witnessed something miraculous: regeneration of the forest. At first it was a green carpet of seedlings popping up amidst charred remains of tree trunks. Today, it is a lush and thriving landscape of lodgepole pines as far as the eye can see.

In ecology this is known as succession.

It’s the process in which a new natural community replaces an old one.

Succession is dramatic following a disturbance large enough to disrupt an entrenched ecosystem with little change in its composition and few opportunities for new species to establish themselves.

One aspect of the Yellowstone fires I found fascinating was the reaction of the lodgepole pine cones. According to the National Parks Service, one of the two types of cones produced by lodgepole pines, which make up nearly 80% of the park’s forests, is serotinous. Serotinous cones will not release their seeds until the resin sealing them melts, requiring a temperature of at least 113°F (45°C). This adaptation helps ensure seeds do not disperse until fire creates conditions that favor the establishment of lodgepole pine seedlings: diminished litter on the forest floor and plenty of sunlight through an open canopy.

As for succession following the pandemic and our pervasive burnout, I don’t know what comes next. I don’t know what the solutions will be to such widespread burnout. But I am currently thinking about it in a way similar to the regeneration of the Yellowstone lodgepole pine forests. I maintain hope that over the coming years and decades we, too, will witness something miraculous. Perhaps we have now had sufficient disruption to our entrenched ways. Perhaps we are currently seeding our human ecosystem with new thinking. Perhaps we are establishing conditions (clearing sufficient “litter” from our floors and opening our “canopies” to more sunlight) that will allow newer and healthier ways of living and working to grow.

We are a society in search of recovery. As a start, we are becoming increasingly willing to talk about well-being and burnout. We are beginning to learn how to have appropriate and caring conversations about life outside of work. Instead of asking a stock, “How’s it going?” and quickly moving on to business, we are learning to ask, “How are you really, really doing?” and then be quiet and listen.

We are increasingly aware as managers to be responsible for ensuring employees have realistic expectations, support, and manageable workloads. We are willing to consider doing less with less, rather than more—to believe that we can better solve problems through subtraction than addition (taking away, rather than adding, complexity).

And while we wait for this process of succession to play out in the coming years, consider visiting the University of Iowa’s Caring for Self & Managing Burnout to explore ideas to deal with the burnout you are experiencing now:

MENTALHEALTH.UIOWA.EDU

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Ali Sulaiman

Physics and Astronomy

“I will use the money towards a hiking baby carrier for my three-month-old daughter.”

Jessica Glinski

Department of Nursing

“I will be spending my winnings on a self-care day which includes a massage and facial! Thanks, liveWELL!”

Jenna Harris

Internal Medicine

“My winnings will be spent on my newborn!”

Patricia Banes

Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences

“Thank you so very much. What a surprise. Here is a picture of me and my husband. My story begins with liveWELL. I was lucky enough to get accepted into the 10-week Weight Management program (Wondr Health).

I lost a total of 55 pounds…. which changed my whole way of eating for the better. It is a great program, and I am so grateful to liveWELL that this program was offered. Thanks so much!”

TAKE YOUR PERSONAL HEALTH ASSESSMENT FOR A CHANCE TO WIN!

your 10-minute at your Employee Self-Service website.

HOWAccess TO TAKE YOUR survey PERSONAL HEALTH ASSESSMENT The PHA is available to faculty and staff in 50% or greater, regular positions.

Access your 10-minute survey at your Employee Self-Service website.

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

The PHA is available to faculty and staff in 50% or greater, regular positions.

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Updated 01/2022

It's time to Recharge+ is a new resilience program for 2022. This program uses the resiliency evaluation measure (REM), a validated assessment, to provide you a snapshot on your current level of resilience and immediate feedback on how you can improve. Opt-in to receive tailored text messages in three key domains (reset, rethink, reconnect).

Reset

your life’s meaning and purpose liveWELL Tip

Take an inventory of your time. What distractions are keeping you from the things that really matter?

Rethink

your mindset liveWELL Tip

Being in nature or even viewing scenes of nature (think screensaver), reduces anger, fear and stress and increases pleasant feelings.

Reconnect

through strong social connections liveWELL Tip

We all want someone to lift us up in times of trouble. Who can lift you up?

How to access Recharge+ STEP 1 Visit Employee Self Service > Benefits & Wellness > Personal Health Assessment and Recharge+. Note: You must have completed the Personal Health Assessment at least one time during your employment to access Recharge+.

STEP 2 Complete Recharge+ and opt-in for text messages.

Note: You must confirm your first text message to continue receiving messages from Recharge+.

STEP 3 Complete Recharge+ again after 30 days to see how your resilience has improved.

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For upcoming events, news articles, and links to many health and well-being programs including an overview video, please visit: hr.uiowa.edu/employee-well-being We offer: • Emotional and Mental Health Support • Resilience Resources • Financial Well-Being • Physical Health • Workplace/Department Resources

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IN THIS ISSUE

Wellness Heroes + PHA Winners

You can opt-in to receive a free paper copy of the newsletter at the My LiveWELL Portal in the Benefits and Wellness section of Employee Self-Service.

• In the My LiveWELL Portal, click on “My Current Programs.”

• Scroll down the page until you see the option to enroll in the program: Register to receive a paper copy of the liveWELL QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER. • Click “Register For Program” to start receiving paper copies of the newsletter.

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University Human Resources liveWELL Program E119 CRWC, Iowa City, IA 52242 319-353-2973 livewell@uiowa.edu

WE WELCOME YOU Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact liveWELL at 319-353-2973.