Middletown Police Department detective Nathanael DeYoung and his wife both signed up for the officer wellness program by Northern Medical Center after attending an information session on Feb. 20.
The couple said the new program incorporates energy and emotions into the health equation and offers a different take on wellness than what they usually subscribe to.
“I realize how really your whole body is affected by not just what you put in your mouth and how many miles you go run, but also everyday stressors and how you react to them—this is something I don’t think either one of us ever really considered,” Jodi DeYoung told The Epoch Times.
The wellness program draws from the unique model at the Northern Medical Center by holistically addressing the physical, biochemical, energetic, and mental dimensions of a participant’s health, according to Dr. Damon Noto, a back and joint pain specialist at the center.
Program participants will first be evaluated so that personalized wellness plans can be developed, which encompass physical therapy, fitness sessions, nutrition and diet, stress management, Chinese acupuncture, and mental health, he said at the information session.
For three months, weekly sessions will be conducted between participants and center health providers, ranging from primary care doctors, Chinese medicine doctors, psychiatrists, and physical therapists to fitness experts; there are no out-of-pocket costs for police officers and their families, he added.
Patrick Cunningham, the patrol lieutenant at the police department, told The Epoch Times that he found the holistic health model interesting, especially the energetic dimension and its relationship to bodily pain, as presented by Dr. Jingduan Yang at the information session.
“Usually, a lot of police officers want a quick fix to pain, so they are going to take Advil, ibuprofen, or go to the doctors for something else,” Cunningham said. “But if we can look at it from another angle or viewpoint, I’ll definitely take advantage of it and give it a shot.”
Yang, CEO of Northern Medical Center and a fifth-generation Chinese medicine practitioner, said that though invisible, energy plays an essential role in our health—just like the air we breathe—and that imbalanced energy inside one’s body gives rise to health problems, such as pain.
For example, imbalanced energy in one’s liver and gallbladder could lead to fibromyalgia, a chronic disorder that comes with pain, fatigue, and sleeping problems, he said.
Acupuncture, he said, is one way that Chinese medicine can balance energy in a patient’s body and reduce pain.
Lauren Thoelen, the spouse of Police Lt. Jeffry Thoelen, also found the holistic health approach different from her medical training as an emergency room nurse and wanted to learn more by participating in the program.
“I don’t know the whole energy connection, and this is definitely a different way to look at health,” Lauren Thoelen told The Epoch Times.
Beyond the energy level, the program also looks at the mental dimension of one’s health, such as managing emotions such as fear, anger, and sadness.
Jeffry Thoelen said at the information session: “There are benefits here that a lot of people, myself included, probably would not pursue on our own. I have a busy schedule. I work a lot, and I have a family. I am not going to take the time to do that pain management; it is easy to medicate myself, take some ibuprofen, and deal with it another day. But this program gives us an opportunity for a one-stop shop to get a whole lot of issues taken care of.”
Middletown Police Chief John Ewanciw said the program would help the men and women of his department to have less stress and a more rewarding, fruitful, and successful career.
Noto said the center would conduct a study to measure the effectiveness of the officer wellness program and likely expand it to other agencies in the future.
