Jamaica National Building Society holds inaugural health fair

JAMAICA NATIONAL Building Society (JNBS) and its subsidiary companies, the JN Group, recently held its first health fair, focused on presenting healthful lifestyle choices and addressing the impact of chronic lifestyle diseases, under the theme 'Your Health... Your Wealth... Lifetime Investments'.

The JN Group Health and Wellness Fair as a proactive measure to address health concerns is good for both employees and employers, said Leon Mitchell, assistant general manager at JNBS. More than 200 employees, pensioners and their families attended the JN Group Health and Wellness Fair at the Constant Spring Road offices in St Andrew.

"Healthier employees are more productive employees," Mitchell stated. The goal of the fair was to present lifestyle choices to JN Group employees, which would help them avoid illness, and to provide effective options for those who were addressing an illness.

Commendations in order

He commended the JN Group Human Resource Development Department (GHRD) for conceptualising the fair, with its focus on health and wealth as important lifetime investments.

In addition to health foods and exercise options, attendees were offered free blood pressure checks, blood-sugar, eye tests, as well as HIV screenings. Employees were also able to access other services such as ECG, urine tests, Pap smears and mammograms, at discounted costs.

Maximilian Campbell, GHRD executive, highlighted the impact of chronic lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and hypertension on the wider Jamaican society and some JN Group employees. He said that the wellness fair was organised as part of efforts "to make an additional investment, beyond health insurance packages, in the health of all JN Group employees, pensioners and their families".

"We need to assist our employees to manage their health concerns, as well as to temper their lifestyles, where necessary, to prevent the onset of illness," Campbell explained.

In addition to health checks and other screenings, persons were also exposed to a wealth of health information provided through a series of mini seminars which covered the areas: spiritual, nutritional, and prostate health; as well as financial wellness.