Whole-Person Wellness

Holistic Approach to Employee Wellness

The Wright Centers for Community Health, Patient & Community Engagement, and Graduate Medical Education intentionally embrace and seek to engage an inclusive diversity of stakeholders to deliver our mission to improve the health and welfare of our communities through inclusive and responsive health services and the sustainable renewal of an inspired, competent workforce that is privileged to serve.

Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (JEDIB) inspire and unify us as noble and vital principles of our enterprise identity. We recognize the compromise and, too often, the absence of these ideal principles cause experiential and vicarious trauma within the health care delivery and medical education industries, our organizations, our communities, and our world.

We are deeply committed to becoming and thriving as a trauma-competent enterprise so that we may generate and support continuous internal organizational and external community progress in these humanistic realms to positively impact our care delivery and educational systems, and external environments.

Striving to empower individuals, families, and communities to own and optimize their health, we continue to focus on expanding access to affordable, high-quality, nondiscriminatory, whole-person primary health services and health care careers, while ensuring address of trauma exposure and complex socioeconomic determinants of health and barriers to health equity.

We deeply value and commit to energizing a therapeutic atmosphere that creates a sense of belonging, allowing and empowering individuals to reach their fullest potential and nurture their authentic selves, while honoring their life journeys and stories, and celebrating their unique and meaningful contributions.

November 2024

What you need to know about nonviolent communication

Nonviolent communication is honestly expressing ourselves to others and empathetically hearing others.

October 2024

Exploring the link between art and health for National Arts and Humanities Month

You are an artist. Yes, you!

Eliminating stigma, finding resources as we observe Recovery Awareness and Suicide Prevention Month

September is both Recovery Awareness and Suicide Prevention Month. Just about everyone has been impacted by one or both of these topics.

August 2024

The movement-wellness connection

“Movement” is an all-encompassing term that includes both fitness and general physical activity we participate in every day.

Defining the ‘E’ in JEDIB

Let’s unpack the E in JEDIB: Equity.

Learning why words matter

Our words have an impact. How we address one another can either connect us or pull us apart.

Shining a light on mental health in May

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. But what is mental health really?

Exploring how wellness fits into ESG concepts

How does ESG relate to wellness? Read on for a breakdown of the key points and their significance.

Using an intersectional lens to fight health care inequities, discrimination

Intersectionality is a popular buzzword these days. But how many people really know what the word means and why it’s important, especially to combat health care inequities?

Learning about Employee Assistance Programs

Employee assistance programs improve wellness in and outside work.

January 2024

Reflecting on New Year’s resolutions past, present, and future

What comes to mind when you think of self-care? Spa days? While that can certainly be self-care, there is a common misconception about self-care.

December 2023

Facing ourselves and growing within

The deeper self awareness one has, the deeper we can meet others. Remember cultural humility is a lifelong process.

Indigenous Heritage

Let us celebrate and lift this culture. Let us recognize the many communities spread out across the world and the beautiful contributions attributed to our society.

Finding the ability in disability

As health care professionals, regardless of whether we’re focusing on medical or social needs, we must shift our thinking about how to be effective disability advocates.

Suicide prevention

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, so why aren’t we discussing it more? Stigma can have a dramatic impact on starting the conversation.

Link between wellness and DEI

Each dimension of wellness is interconnected and can contribute to a healthier lifestyle. For instance, if we can become more in tune with our emotions and embrace all feelings, this can deepen our spirituality, as well as influence our social health.

Religious Diversity

For each of us, the way in which we find meaning can look different, and it often is influenced by our unique backgrounds, cultures, and the traditions of our families and communities.

An inclusive mindset creates a sense of community

We all deserve to be heard and to be seen. When this happens, our light is illuminated. Social belonging is a fundamental need. Our mental well-being is impacted in an immensely positive way if we feel a sense of community and connection through ourselves and others. When we experience belonging and inclusion, we are able to be our true and authentic selves.

Sanctuary Toolkit: Need a check-in?

At the beginning of April we talked about Community Meeting, the Sanctuary meeting opening procedure during which we ask one another in turn how are you feeling, what is your goal, and who can you ask for help?

Let’s End the Stigma

According to National Alliance on Mental Illness, 1 in 5 U.S. adults will experience mental illness at some point in their life. Even if you do not fall into this statistic, each and everyone of us will experience challenges that impact our mental health.

Sanctuary Toolkit: Safety Plans

I was going to start this one by just saying everybody look at your plans.

Sanctuary Toolkit: Community Meeting

The Sanctuary tools are the concrete activities or rituals individuals and organizations use to inoculate themselves against the effects of further trauma and chronic stress.

What are unconscious biases?

Unconscious biases. They are everywhere, and we all have them. These biases are social stereotypes or prejudices about certain races, ethnic groups, gender identities, sexual orientations, physical abilities, and more that individuals form outside of their own conscious awareness.

Our Sanctuary journey is underway

Where we’ve been and where we’re going. At this moment, almost 90 people have been deeply immersed in Sanctuary training.

The Seven Commitments: Growth and Change

Have you ever asked yourself what is an organization like The Wright Center? Yes, we care for patients and teach residents, while delivering upon our mission and vision.

The Seven Commitments: Social Learning

Learning can be scary. Seriously. In order to learn, we have to admit we do not yet know. As professionals, it is difficult to admit we don’t know something – particularly those in clinical and/or leadership roles.

We must all join the fight for gender equality and equity

For decades, gender equality referred to equal rights for women as compared to men: Equal pay for equal work, the opportunity to shatter the glass ceiling in corporate America, and reach the highest levels of success in any profession.

The Seven Commitments: Social Responsibility

At the root, to be socially responsible is to care for others. This is easy when the other person is someone we like. The trick is that this applies even to others we may not like.

The Seven Commitments: Open Communication

Open communication seems great and sort of a no-brainer, but it may be a surprisingly challenging Sanctuary commitment.

The Seven Commitments: Democracy and the Power of Agency

Nothing about you without you and you may get your say but not your way. This might be the briefest way to describe the Sanctuary commitment of Democracy.

Let’s talk about emotional intelligence – one of the Seven Commitments of Sanctuary

The Seven Commitments of Sanctuary are interconnected with the entire model.

One Man’s Perspective on Blackness in America during Black History Month

February is Black History Month. Do you ever wonder why February has been designated to honor the accomplishments of Black Americans and their contributions to our society?

The Seven Commitments

The Seven Commitments of Sanctuary are interconnected with the entire model. Safety in sanctuary refers to not only physical safety but also moral, psychological, and social safety.

Sanctuary Starts with Us

The rubber is meeting the road in The Wright Center’s commitment to the Sanctuary Model as the first of two five-day training sessions has been completed.

Future Focus: Intentions, Goals, and Culture Change

Here is to 2023 filled with whatever we need to know we’re cared for and supported.

Generational Diversity: An Exciting Time in the Workplace of Intersectionality

Si jeunesse savait, si viellesse pouvait” is a French proverb my mother often said to me when I was a child. French humanist Henri II Estienne is credited with this quote. It speaks to the idea that youth often lack experience and the elders lack the strength.

Loss and the Power of Community

As I write this, it is -4° Fahrenheit. That’s pretty cold, but the baseline of the universe is even colder: -455° Fahrenheit!

Emotion Management with Self and Other

December in the northern hemisphere comes with cold temperatures, hot drinks, dark afternoons, sparkling lights, and as much potential for joy as for hardship.

Safety as a ‘primary value’

New week, new challenges, and new opportunities. That last one can be easy to lose sight of if we are feeling tired, frustrated, in a rut, and so on.

Understanding the lifelong process known as cultural humility

Without thinking about it, we experience and participate in different cultures every day.

Trauma-Theory in Sanctuary

If you had time off for the recent holiday, welcome back. If you didn’t, here’s a sincere thank you for working and caring for your community.

Sanctuary as Whole-Person Wellness

Let’s put the most important thing right up front – may this holiday season be what you need it to be, whatever that is for you.

Understanding the essence of intersectionality

“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” These words, spoken by Audre Lorde, a noted prose writer, poet and civil rights activist, capture the essence of what is known as intersectionality.

Understanding microaggression through education

At one point or another in our lives, each of us has been in a position where we felt we weren’t welcome.

Our country is a melting pot of influential cultures

How many times have you heard a rhythm that made you want to dance even though you may not know the song?

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 101

As we embark on our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) journey together, it is important to speak the same language.

Disability Pride Month

As the vice president of Sponsoring Institution Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).