Conference to Focus on Workplace Health

With an eye toward the workplace of the future, health experts will gather at Cal State Northridge on Tuesday to discuss ways to improve workers’ well-being in the next millennium.

The conference, “Breakthrough: Visions of Wellness in the 21st Century,” will focus on the issues of health maintenance, disease prevention, lifestyle changes, community health and health care trends.

In the past, most corporate health care initiatives involved an annual briefing on health insurance plans or an occasional cholesterol screening. In the future, corporations are more likely to target workers’ health-care issues specifically and develop strategies to meet them.

“Corporations now understand that workers are living longer,” said Leslie Godwin, conference co-chairwoman. “They are beginning to make plans accordingly by developing programs to combat heart disease and cancer as well as to encourage workers to undertake a daily routine of moderate exercise.”

The conference will open with a keynote address by Robert F. Greaves, retired co-chairman of the board of directors, president and CEO of Health Systems International, a leading health-maintenance organization.

Other speakers are expected to discuss such topics as “The Changing Face of Worksite Wellness,” “The Business Case for Wellness, Now and Into the Future,” “Intranet: Your Way to Employee Health and Productivity,” “Keeping Our Communities Healthy” and “Health Care Trends and Their Anticipated Effect on the Workforce.”

The session will run from 7:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the Grand Salon of the University Student Union located near the center of campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. The cost of the conference is $40 for health-care professionals, $60 for the public and $25 for full-time students.

For information, call Godwin at (818) 880-4486 or Tere Filer at (310) 391-4552.