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At first sight, when walking into the Health and Wellness Center, you see countless displays. Things like: how too much sugar, fat and salt can affect your health as well as what happens to your lungs if you smoke.
These displays aren’t just to make the HAWC look pretty. Although they do make for interesting decorations, they are visual aids for informational purposes.
“Available to anyone with a common access card, we promote wellness and enhance force readiness by providing expert healthcare and prevention services to our military community,” said Lt. Col. Peggy Milam, HAWC flight commander. “We serve 47,000 beneficiaries in the Kaiserslautern Military Community.”
Along with the various health promotion displays, the HAWC offers many other nutrition, fitness and tobacco cessation classes and boasts two relaxation rooms.
“In one of our relaxation rooms we have a massage chair as well as soothing music and a light box for those who need a little light during the winter months,” said Master Sgt. Darren Banks, HAWC NCO in charge.
“We also have an aqua massage machine.” With a range of 200 to 300 people per week frequenting the facility and all it has to offer, the HAWC staff must stay flexible, Milam said. The classes range from Running for Dummies to Heart Smart, which are held in a classroom that seats 35 people.
“For the upcoming holiday season, we are offering our Battle the Bulge class to help those who want to avoid putting on unwanted pounds over the holidays,” said Banks. “We also have our Eat Right class, offered bi-monthly year round.”
In addition to the variety of classes offered, the HAWC has several high tech devices to assist individuals with their nutrition and exercise goals.
A Bod Pod which measures body fat percentage, a resting metabolic cart used to determine how many calories a person utilizes at rest and a running shoe station which evaluates a client’s feet and makes individualized shoe recommendations.
“Having the wrong pair of running shoes is like bringing a baseball to play basketball,” said Banks. “It just doesn’t work well.” For 2013, the HAWC staff is working to build a lasting relationship with the physical therapy staff.
“Many people go to physical therapy for an injury, get therapy then get released after their physical therapy goals have been met,” said Milam. “Following this, they often resume their pre-injury activities too quickly and many times end up re-injuring themselves.
We are working on building a bridge with the physical therapy clinic to prevent this. Clients will be referred to our exercise physiologists for post physical therapy conditioning assistance to promote a safe and healthy progression back to their ‘normal’ exercise routine.”
The HAWC has tobacco cessation options to include an interdisciplinary four-week class, online assistance or one-on-one counseling for anyone who would like to ‘kick the habit.’
“We travel to different units and schools around the KMC to educate the community about the harmful effects of smoking,” said Banks.
This ‘one-stop-shop’ provides state of the art assistance in changing or enhancing lifestyles and guides clients toward a balance of physical, emotional, intellectual and social health, said Milam.
For more information on prevention classes or to request a HAWC briefing at your unit or organization, contact the HAWC at DSN: 480-4292, commercial: 06371-47-4292 or like them on Facebook under “Ramstein HAWC.” For a complete list of classes, visit the HAWC “Happenings Calendar” on their Facebook page or stop by for a hard copy.
