Resources to support your social well-being
Building social well-being includes developing and nurturing positive relationships with our colleagues, family, friends, and community. It also involves deepening our sense of connection, inclusion, and support. Research shows that building our social well-being can reduce stress and enhance our health and longevity, and that healthy relationships may be the single most important determinant to happiness.
Hoos Well provides resources to help you foster healthy relationships, reduce loneliness and isolation, and feel more connected.
UVA employees and spouses on the UVA Health Plan or UPG Anthem Health Plan can invite loved ones, neighbors, and non-health plan subscribed members of the UVA community to join you in personalized challenges, interactive social groups, and evidence based Journeys and Healthy Habits activities in the Hoos Well Portal, provided by Virgin Pulse.
Through scientific podcast-style lessons and guided meditation practices in an award-winning app, Healthy Minds @Work helps you develop skills to build connection and enhance your relationships and social well-being. Spark Kindness, a 3-week well-being challenge, guides you in developing the skill of kindness for yourself and extending it to others in the workplace.
It takes a village to continue to improve the culture of well-being at UVA. That’s why we have Hoos Well Champions located throughout the University, who energize their teams and departments around well-being, lead a healthy lifestyle by example, spread the word about Hoos Well programs and benefits, and serve as liaisons with Hoos Well staff.
Access these and other on-demand resources in eM Life, a mindfulness website and app that are free to employees and spouses enrolled in the UVA Health Plan or UPG Anthem Health Plan:
Watch these recordings of webinars presented by Hoos Well and UVA FEAP as part of our monthly emotional well-being webinar series. Please note that watching recordings of previous webinars is not Hoos Well reward-eligible.
Hoos Well partners with UVA HR and other UVA entities to offer additional resources to help you build social well-being.
Volunteering is a great way to improve your emotional, physical and social well-being. Research shows that more than 90% of volunteers report greater happiness and an enriched sense of meaning and purpose in life. UVA provides up to 16 hours of paid Public Service Leave per calendar year for employees to perform eligible volunteer work, so that we can strive toward President Ryan's vision to not only to be great, but also to be good.
Struggling with loneliness and building connection? UVA's Faculty and Employee Assistance Program (FEAP) offers employees and their families confidential assessment, brief counseling, referral, and follow-up at no cost to the employee for a wide variety of personal concerns. Hoos Well also partners with FEAP to offer educational webinars on topics including how to reduce loneliness and build healthy relationships.
Building a more connected society is about returning to who we were ultimately designed to be—beings who are connected to and need one another. We evolved over thousands of years to rely on each other. Strong social connections were essential to our survival. So when we experience connection, it feels like home. It feels good. Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, 19th Surgeon General of the United States "Loneliness On The Job Is A Public Health Crisis": Former Surgeon General Reveals What This Means For You
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