Dr. Salah Al Yafie, Acting Director, Health Promotion and Non Communicable Diseases at MoPH. Pic: Baher Amin/The Peninsula
The Workplace Wellness Program by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has made a positive impact on large number of employees across the government and semi- government sectors, said a senior official at the Ministry.
The programme with a potential to reach a large percentage of the people in Qatar encourages a healthy and safe work environment, said Dr Salah Al Yafie, Acting Director, Health Promotion and Non Communicable Diseases at MoPH, speaking at an event recently.
Workplace Wellness Program was launched by the MoPH in 2014, in line with the Health Strategy 2018-2022 and its priority area ‘Healthy and Safe Employees.’
“Since its launch the Workplace Wellness Program has been very successful. The Ministry has invited all ministries and governmental and semi-governmental institutions to participate in the program as numerous organisations have expressed enthusiasm to participate in it,” said Dr Al Yafie.
“The programme has been implemented in 12 institutions and MOUs have been signed with several organisations to improve, monitor and evaluate the health status of employees in efforts to implement a systematic plan to add as many partners as possible to the program within the objectives of the National Health Strategy 2018-2022 and its vision,” he added.
He said that Qatar’s public health strategy, through one of its four pillars, aims at empowering the community to improve health for all Qataris by educating them to make better health decisions that ensure their well-being.
Dr Al Yafie added that it also aims to improve local participation by providing health program to support all The National Nutrition and Physical Activity Plan, in particular the health in the workplace program.
The Workplace Wellness Program aims to detect and prevent risk factors for chronic non-communicable disease, control infectious diseases.
“The programme is based on an integrated plan that includes needs assessment, a follow up comprehensive action plan in collaboration with the participating organization, the implementation of the activities, and ongoing monitoring and a follow-up evaluation,” said Dr Al Yafie.
“The focus of the program is on how to prevent chronic non-communicable diseases. This is achieved by focusing on healthy nutrition, physical activity in the work environment and outside. The program also addresses cessation of tobacco consumption, alongside increasing the awareness of how to overcome daily stress,” he added.
Additionally, the wellness program in the workplace brings numerous benefits to the health of employees by enhancing the health and safety of the work environment, raising staff confidence and morale, reducing work pressure, increasing job satisfaction and increasing health protection skills.
According to the National Health Strategy 2018-2022, about 55% of government and semi-government organisations will have access to an occupational health-based workplace wellness programme
