Did you know the Air Force has a dedicated Health Promotion Program? Military life brings one consistent thing, change. When things are always changing it can be hard to find consistent health and wellness resources for you and your active duty member. This is where Health Promotions can come to the rescue. Let’s talk about it.
What is Health Promotion?
“Health Promotion is the art and science of helping individuals, commands and the military community improve their health-related behaviors and outcomes.”
So, what does that mean? Great question.
Health Promotion is a resource available to active duty and their dependents. Its purpose is to assist the military community in creating and maintaining long lasting healthy habits/ behaviors. This is done by a Health Promotion Programs Coordinator (HPC) through evidence based programming. The concentration areas include nutritional fitness, physical fitness, sleep optimization, and tobacco free living.
Nutritional Fitness
Eating right is a huge aspect of being healthy and can be really hard to navigate. Nutrition or nutritional fitness dives into healthy eating habits. Most (but not all) Health Promotion Programs have a Registered Dietitian that works with the HPC to assist with nutrition education. It’s a great place to take your general nutrition questions, learn how to navigate grocery stores to stay on track, and supplement safety. If your base doesn’t have a HP dietitian, they’ll be able to point you in the right direction for more information beyond general nutrition information. Some additional nutritional resources are HERE and HERE.
Physical Fitness
When it comes to being active it can be challenging to know where to start. Health Promotion is here to educate you on the benefits of exercises and give general tips and tricks to incorporate more activity throughout the day. A lot of HPC’s have an in-body scan that can help track your progress throughout your fitness journey. Depending on the background of the Coordinator, they might be able to give more specific fitness advice.
Sleep Optimization
Sleeping is the one of the most slept on aspects of overall health (yes, pun intended). Your HPC can help reinforce good sleep habits and identify weaker areas to improve your overall sleep hygiene. Learning little ways to help improve your sleep can really make a world of a difference. Especially when military life brings a chaotic season.
Tobacco Free Living
Health Promotion can provide resources to assist you and/or your service member to quit smoking, vaping, or using smokeless tobacco products. Whether you’re ready to quit or looking for some assistance on your tobacco free journey, Health Promotion is here to help.
Just as each base operates a little differently, each HPC tackles these focus areas differently as well. Depending on the educational/ professional background the HPC has at your base, they might be able to dive deeper into some areas. All in all, Health Promotion is here to help Airmen and their families be the best they can be. “Transforming health for a resilient military community.”
Meet Emily
Emily comes from a large military family and has a deep appreciation for all the things military life offered while growing up. Her Dad served as a Navy Officer for over 20 years which took her family to 5 states (1 of them twice). Her favorite assignments were Leavenworth KS, and San Diego CA. Emily finds herself back in California working as the Health Promotion Programs Coordinator at Travis AFB. In this position she gets to combine her passions for health and wellness with giving back to the military community. When she’s not working, Emily loves to workout, travel, try new recipes and is looking to continue working on her PhD in Exercise Science.
