C01: Health and Wellness Awareness – Above Green

(Required)

INTENT

Promote a deeper understanding of factors that impact human health and well-being.

SUMMARY

This WELL feature requires projects to provide a guide to occupants that highlights the relationship between health and buildings, a description of the WELL features pursued by the project, educational materials on a variety of health topics and annual communications about available health resources and programs.

ISSUE

Health literacy is influenced by a host of personal, sociocultural and system-level factors. These include age, socioeconomic status, mental health, cultural background, language and communication abilities, prior health experiences and how healthcare delivery and education systems deliver care, health information and health education. The link between health literacy and health outcomes has been documented at a global scale and is considered one of the key factors contributing to health disparities. Low health literacy has been linked to lower use of preventive care (e.g., flu shots), poor management of chronic conditions (e.g., high blood pressure) and lower self-reported health. These adverse outcomes have enormous economic implications. It is estimated that low health literacy costs the U.S. economy $100-240 billion each year.

SOLUTIONS

In order to help address health literacy factors, when creating educational materials that communicate health information it is critical to consider the population the materials are intended to serve. Projects should engage with their audience in the sourcing or creation of these resources to gain a better understanding of occupant needs. Providing easily accessible educational materials on diverse, locally relevant health and well-being topics, including how a project will pursue WELL features, can help individuals engage in better health behaviors and support employee health, well-being and comfort.

IMPACT

By supporting awareness of health and wellness programs and policies and enhancing health literacy, projects can encourage engagement in WELL features and support overall health and well-being.

REQUIREMENTS

Part 1

Provide WELL Feature Guide

Verified by Professional Narrative, Photographic evidence

For All Spaces

Materials and communications are provided to allow occupants to familiarize themselves with and benefit from features that are achieved by the project, including:

A guide (prominently displayed and/or made widely available to all occupants) describing the WELL features pursued by the project.
Information that explains the impact of the built environment and other environmental factors on occupant health, well-being and comfort.
Annual communications (e.g., emails, modules, trainings) to occupants about available health education, resources and policies available to them through WELL features pursued by the project.

Part 2

Promote Health and Wellness Education

Verified by Professional Narrative, Educational Materials

For All Spaces

All occupants are offered a digital and/or physical library of health and wellness educational materials that meets the following requirements:

Covers ten unique evidence-based health topics.
Topics are tailored to the health concerns of building occupants (based on available regional, local and building-level demographic and health-related data) and should focus on primary prevention. Topics can include any aspect of health and wellness covered in WELL in addition to any other health topic relevant to the occupant population.
If physical, library is open during regular business hours.

Note: Projects should use Appendix C1 for guidance on which unique evidence-based health topics may be covered in the educational materials.

Education must be culturally appropriate and literacy level appropriate. Education can come in the form of trainings, brochures, videos, posters, pamphlets, newsletters and/or other written or online information. All educational materials must be checked annually to confirm information is relevant and up-to-date.