Wellness is the mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing of an individual. We know when a person is feeling “Well”, the person often feels a sense of happiness and will take action to maintain their health, allowing them to perform academically.
The Office of Wellness Education creates wellness programming based on SAMHSA’s 8 Factors of Wellness:
Social Wellness: The ability to relate to and connect with other people. It is the ability to establish and maintain positive relationships with family, friends and co-workers.
Physical Wellness: The ability to maintain a healthy quality of life that allows for engaging in daily activities without undue fatigue or physical stress. It is the ability to recognize that behaviors have a significant impact on wellness, and to adopt healthful habits while avoiding destructive behaviors.
Intellectual Wellness: The ability to open our minds to new ideas and experiences that can be applied to personal decisions, group interaction and community improvement. It is the desire to learn new concepts, improve skills and seek challenges in pursuit of lifelong learning.
Financial Wellness: The ability to maintain wellness through the availability to monetary goods. Financial wellness is a balance of the mental, spiritual and physical aspects of money.
Spiritual Wellness: The ability to establish peace and harmony in our own lives. There exists congruency between values and actions, and a realization of purpose.
Emotional Wellness: The ability to cope with the challenges of life. The ability to acknowledge and share feelings of anger, fear, sadness, or stress, as well as hope, love, joy and happiness in a productive manner.
Environmental Wellness: The willingness to recognize our ability to make a positive impact on the quality of our environment, be it our homes, our communities or our planet. Environmental wellness relies on having safety and security within the environment.
Occupational Wellness: To have personal fulfillment from our jobs or our endeavors while still maintaining balance in our lives. It is a desire to attribute meaning to our endeavors, making a positive impact on the organizations we engage in.
Our office is located in the Willard-DiLoreto building on the Willard side. We are in Willard 101 (Student Wellness Services). Our front door is by Zime Café where students take a right and enter the first door on the right.
8 a.m - 4 p.m.
Yes, we had therapy dogs from Tails of Joy come into the office every other Tuesday for the Fall 2023 semester.
All upcoming therapy dog event reminders will be posted on our Instagram @CCSU_WELLNESS.
Our open wellness area is an area designed to provide a place to do homework, sit and relax, make arts & crafts, or find out about resources on campus. The area has 3 tables and a dozen chairs, as well as an area for the arts and crafts.
We have coloring books, markers, pencils, kinetic sand, birdhouses on display, jigsaw puzzles, magazines for collages, feathers and beads for bracelets and necklaces, materials for stress bags, and much more.
The open wellness area provides a quiet space where all students are welcome to study.
Any students can volunteer to be a part of the program. We would encourage those volunteering to decide topic areas prior to their meeting for volunteering, but know many volunteers add on activities once the student learns of the scope of our work.
Jonathan Pohl, Ph.D (Wellness Programs Coordinator) at pohlj@ccsu.edu or Paige Dragon, BA (Wellness Programs Assistant) at st_pd7153@ccus.edu
Requests for presentations for residence halls, clubs and other student groups can be requested through Wellness Education staff. Jonathan Pohl, Ph.D (Wellness Programs Coordinator) at pohlj@ccsu.edu or Paige Dragon, BA (Wellness Programs Assistant) at st_pd7153@ccus.edu
Please include need the title of the program, topic area, approximate number expected to be in the audience, and if any special considerations need to be attended to.
Topic areas we have presented on in the past include Stress Management, Alcohol and Drugs, Suicide Prevention, Holidays and Stress, How to Create a Wellness Campaign, Budgeting, How to Manage Stress and Anxiety, Nutrition, Pre-Career Exploration, PTSD, 8 Factors of Wellness, and more.
Skillshare is an alternate activity for the SMART recovery group, but all students are welcome. We meet on Fridays at 1:00pm for the academic year and Skillshare has thousands of videos on various topics and skills. We show a short 15-30 minute video where students are taught a specific skill. Previous topics included but are not limited to: creative writing, creating clay figurines, painting, tips on baking, phone photography, budgeting basics, making blankets with chunky yarn, etc.
The Healthy Living SMART recovery group is for anyone in any type of recovery (substance misuse/behavior) as the group focuses on 4 pillars of support:
- Building and Maintaining Motivation
- Coping with Urges
- Managing Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviors
- Living a Balanced Lifestyle
This is a safe and supportive group that is aimed at maintaining recovery to enhance the student’s personal and academic lives. During the group, we discuss the highlights and challenges of the week, choose a topic the group wants to focus on, and utilize the SMART tools to enhance the 4 pillars of support.
Student Wellness Services typically hires 2 work study students each academic year as Peer Educators. These students are involved in many facets of the work and learn transferable skills to potential future jobs.
All Wellness Education events are free for registered Central undergraduate and graduate full-time and part-time students.
Students do not need an appointment to visit Wellness Education’s open area. The calendar is on the door to Wellness Education and appointments can be made for specific events. Most of our events occur throughout the campus and can be found on Today@CCSU and our Instagram.
Any registered full-time or part-time Central student at the undergraduate and graduate level are welcome to use our services.
We typically run our My Best Self health fair every February with Nursing Students. We focus on an interactive event on each of the 8 Factors of Wellness (Social, Physical, Intellectual, Financial, Spiritual, Emotional, Environmental, and Occupational) to invite students to improve their lives. The students are able to attend interactive tables that highlight each wellness factor and receive a larger promotional item such as T-shirts.
Every odd numbered year, we offer Fresh Check Day. Fresh Check Day is a nationally respected program of providing students with resources in a fun festive way. Statistically 10% of students are struggling. We encourage students to be active bystanders and have the 90% of students doing well to check in on those who are struggling.
Every even numbered year, we offer the Alcohol Awareness Fair. Staff and students presenting at the fair give accurate information about alcohol to students and let them make the choice. We have presentations on the Standard Drink, Blood Alcohol Concentration, Staying In The Green Zone - getting the positive effects without the negative effects from alcohol, signs of alcohol poisoning for safe partying, and the field sobriety test. Many times we have additional information on other substances, such as opioids and the public access naloxone on campus.
The Office of Wellness Education collaborates with a number of offices and student groups throughout the year. We enjoy expanding our horizons through these collaborations. Many of those invited to our health fairs have collaborated with our office on previous occasions.