Wellness efforts lauded

Utah first lady Mary Kaye Huntsman and the Utah Department of Health have honored 23 state and local government agencies for their efforts to promote wellness at their work sites. Agencies receiving the Healthy Utah Awards implemented healthy changes, including in the physical environment and employee behavior.

Each of the agencies honored has a wellness council, employees who spend an hour a month improving the health of their work site. They work on projects such as offering on-site healthy food options, tobacco cessation classes and stress management programs, among others.

The awards are sponsored by Healthy Utah, the Public Employees Health Program. Recipients in 2006 are:

Governor's Work Well Award: The Utah Department of Health, Cannon Health Building Wellness Council; Outstanding Program Awards: Mountainlands Association of Governments Wellness Council and Utah Department of Workforce Services Logan Office Wellness Council; Outstanding Policy Award: Price City Wellness Council; Outstanding Environment Awards: Central Utah Water Conservancy Wellness Council; Utah Department of Health 44 Medical Wellness Council.

Commitment to Wellness Awards were presented to Cache County; Central Utah Water; 8th District Courts; Davis Applied Technology Center; Eagle Mountain City, Ephraim City, Mountainlands Association of Governments; Payson city; Price city; Utah Department of Administrative Services Fleet Operations; Utah Department of Corrections Administration; Utah Department of Corrections at Gunnison; both the Cannon Health Building and 44 Medical Triangle groups in the Utah Department of Health; Utah Department of Human Services' Blanding, Murray and North Temple offices; Utah Department of Transportation Rampton Complex; the Utah Department of Workforce Services offices in Logan, Provo and Vernal; Wasatch County; and the Wasatch Front Regional Council.