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07148 March 14, 2007
Board of Pensions launches 'Stewardship of Self' campaign
Effort will promote personal responsibility for better health
by Jerry Van Marter
PHILADELPHIA - The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Board of Pensions (BOP) is about to launch a new campaign to encourage and help Presbyterians take better care of themselves.
Outlined by Karen Babik - the BOP's director of communications, public relations, marketing and education - at the Board's March 3 meeting here, the "Stewardship of Self" campaign is designed to provide Presbyterians with communication and educational tools and to integrate the BOP's current healthcare, pension, death and disability, education and assistance programs "around a holistic and integrated approach" to better self-care.
"This campaign will help remind our members about the ways they can take care of themselves personally, vocationally, financially, and medically," BOP president Rob Maggs told the Presbyterian News Service. "We want to reinforce awareness of all the tools we make available. After that it's up to each of us to choose and use the ones we need."
The theme of the campaign is "Keeping Our Promises, Keeping Your Promises." Stew Beltz, the BOP's director of welfare benefits design and funding, said it reflects the board's determination "to personalize services and communicate them less legalistically and technically, while emphasizing individuals' personal responsibilities to be more accountable to themselves and their families and co-workers for their own obligations and behaviors."
Added Babik: "The effectiveness of the board's plans and programs can be increased as members understand how struggles in one area of their lives leads to undue stress, illness or hardship in other parts."
In addition to the traditional benefits offered by the BOP, Beltz outlined some of the more recent initiatives that feed into the "Stewardship of Self" campaign:
CREDO: a concentrated program of study and support for pastors around their spiritual and physical health, sense of call and financial condition.
"Preventive Incentive": a program that offers BOP plan members over 50 years of age $100 for undergoing a routine preventive check-up (commonly called an annual physical examination). A pilot project launched two years ago among pastors serving congregations resulted in a 39 percent response, far higher than the 23 percent of pastors who previously underwent routine check-ups. Based on that success, the offer has now been extended to all plan members over 50.
"EmbodyHealth": a web portal, designed in partnership with the Mayo Clinic, that provides access to a vast amount of self-care information. An online "health risk appraisal" will be available in the Fall of 2007 and a $25 dollar incentive will be offered to those who undergo the service.
Disease management: the BOP is in the second year of a disease management trial program in which it targets and works directly with plan members suffering with diabetes and cardiac disease. Based on the success of the trial with 2,643 participants, the board will expand its disease management program on May 1 to work with those suffering with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, lower back pain, depression, some types of cancer and 10 other identifiable conditions.
Babik said she believes the "Stewardship of Self" program will eventually benefit everyone. "Effective self care, in all of its forms, will not only help our members, it will also ensure that they gain maximum benefit from the benefits plan and programs [the BOP] offers," she said.
Keeping Presbyterians healthy is the primary goal of the BOP, she said, "but in the end, every person*every member plays an important role in looking after themselves."
For more information, visit the Board of Pensions Web site (http://www.pensions.org/).
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