Promoting Provider-Based Wellness Counseling in Primary Care With the WILD 5 Program

Background: Wellness, defined by physical, mental, and social well-being, is declining across America. Uniquely positioned to do, primary care providers could reverse this trend, yet only one in three patients report that their provider spoke to them about modifiable lifestyle factors that could improve their overall wellness. One barrier to lifestyle counseling identified by providers is the lack of a systematic approach to lifestyle counseling. The WILD 5 Wellness program is a workbook intervention that brings awareness to five facets of wellness: exercise, nutrition, sleep, social connectedness, and mindfulness. Methods: Patients in a primary care clinic in a metropolitan area completed questionnaires for one week regarding how often their providers spoke to them about each of the five factors of WILD 5 Wellness. Following the initial patient data collection, the project introduced the WILD 5 Wellness program to the four providers and their support staff at a staff meeting. They were encouraged to try this program for themselves. Eight weeks later, at a follow-up staff meeting, providers and staff were further trained to use the WILD 5 Wellness program with their patients and were given an informational flyer tool for use in counseling patients regarding the elements of the WILD 5 program. Following this training, patients again completed questionnaires regarding wellness topics covered by their providers. Before and after the intervention, providers completed questionnaires regarding their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors surrounding wellness counseling. Results: Completed questionnaires did not demonstrate a significant change in the frequency of wellness counseling offered by providers; however, the practitioners liked the idea of the WILD 5 program and chose to use it as a Medicaid quality improvement project moving forward. Conclusions: It is unknown if the WILD 5 Wellness program is a feasible way to increase provider-based wellness counseling, and the program's general usability and efficacy are uncertain. The required use of WILD 5 for Medicaid compliance should increase provider-based wellness counseling to all patients in the clinic, however this project's results do not support this assumption.