Wellness Center

Vision

The UW Wellness Center is more than a physical space; it is a network of people, programs, services, and policies that work together to create and support a culture of wellness at UW.

Mission

The mission of the University of Wyoming Wellness Center is:

• To incorporate educational strategies and services that empower and support students, faculty, and staff to make informed and healthy decisions, thereby promoting academic, personal, and professional success.  

• To work collaboratively to identify, establish, and promote policies and activities that foster a culture of wellness and a healthy campus community.

• To encourage healthy lifestyles and to create an environment that promotes student recruitment and retention.  

• To provide opportunities for students to develop and sustain behaviors that contribute to their health now, and into the future.

Goals

1. Utilize data to assist with needs assessments, strategic planning, and evaluation of the Wellness Center.

2. Serve as a health and wellness resource to UW students, staff, and faculty.

3. Establish a university-wide wellness network.

4. Establish campus-level primary prevention efforts through education and outreach programs and initiatives.

5. Create health promotion services and programs to support individuals.

6. Develop, update, recommend, and encourage the consistent enforcement of health promoting policies.

Our Values

• Every student is a person

• Primary prevention

• Harm reduction

• Collaboration

• Data-driven decisions

• Evidence-based programs and policies

• Interconnectedness between the individual and the environment

Definition of Health

Health is defined in the World Health Organization’s constitution of 1948 as:

A state of complete physical, social and mental well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Within the context of health promotion, health has been considered less as an abstract state and more as a means to an end which can be expressed in functional terms as a resource which permits people to lead an individually, socially and economically productive life.

Health is a resource for everyday life, not the object of living. It is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources as well as physical capabilities.

Reference: Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. WHO, Geneva, 1986

Definition of Wellness

Wellness is a multidimensional state of being describing the existence of positive health in an individual as exemplified by quality of life and a sense of well-being.

Source:
The definition (above) was adapted from definitions by Bouchard, et al., (1990); Corbin, Lindsey, Welk, & Corbin (2002); Corbin, Pangrazi, & Franks, (2000); USDHHS, (2000).