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Healthy Workplace
“LIVE WELL PAST YOUR 20(+)”
DOC Health Promotion Study
This federal funded research project has been named HITEC (Health Improvement Through Training and Employee Control) which is being conducted by researchers from UCONN Health Center and UCONN Storrs. The main goal of the project is to determine what type of workplace health intervention and ergonomic programs work best.
DOC has been selected as a research site because:
- Multiple studies show correctional staff suffer high amounts of stress in their job
- It has been shown that correctional staff exercise less, are more overweight, and were more likely to have high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels than the people who do not work in corrections
Two sites have been selected by the research team, Cheshire Correctional Institution and Corrigan/Radgowski Correctional Institution. It is the hope of the study team that our findings will eventually be used in all DOC facilities and be of benefit to all correctional staff. The study has the full support of the DOC unions, the wardens at each facility and DOC. DOC to show their support for the study has agreed to relieve staff from their post during work hours to participate. The study is open to all employees of the facility.
At Cheshire, the UCONN researchers will help teams of correctional staff members define ergonomic problems and barriers to health promotion. These teams with the help of UCONN researchers will develop and institute solutions to the identified problems.
The UCONN research team sees many benefits for the correctional staffs at either facility. We expect to see improvement in ergonomic risks and employee health at both sites. Participants will develop a healthier lifestyle and enjoy a better retirement after 20 years on the job. While much has been done for inmates sadly very little has been done for those society asks to watch over our prisoners. The project is a first in the United States and could become the standard for promoting a healthy correctional staff nationally.
The study will consist of interviews and focus groups with staff, a questionnaire administered 3 times over the next 30 months and a physical assessment given at the beginning and end of the study. All data collected will be de-identified, confidential and stored by the UCONN research team. DOC will not have any access to the data except for a final report of our de-identified findings.
Any questions or to participate, see Officers Bickford, Fontano or Riccio or contact the study manager, Jeff, at the UCONN Health Center, 679-1393, or DOCstudy@uchc.edu.
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