The Health and Wellness Group is a working group composed of ASUWT Senators and a leading member of the Executive Board. We are here to advocate for student health and wellness needs on and off campus.
How do we define Health and Wellness?
We define Health according to the World Health Organization (WHO) definition that "health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." We look at this definition through a Biopsychosocial Model of Health in relation to UW Tacoma students.
We define Wellness according to the UW Tacoma Hendrix Wellness Wheel which recognizes eight interconnected dimensions of wellness including social, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, occupational, financial, environmental, and physical wellness.
Our Mission
We, the Health and Wellness Group of the Associated Students of UW Tacoma (ASUWT), in order to provide student representation, advocacy, and involvement, we pledge to:
Investigate and advocate for various aspects of campus life that affect student health and wellness;
Become familiar with student health services on campus and the potential barriers that exist when expanding/enhancing these services;
Gather student input and use this information to create specific health and wellness initiatives that are harm reduction focused, evidence-based, intentional, and upstream that meets a known student need.
Group Updates
Group Status: Active
October Update:
Researching Our Campus & Beyond: The group reached out and engaged with various on-campus departments to gather insights on student health and wellness to understand the existing landscape. In pursuit of best practices, this group also investigated how other colleges and universities are addressing student health and wellness, seeing if anything can be applied to UW Tacoma.
Mission Statement: To ensure this group remains focused and impactful, we have created a mission for this group. This will guide the steps and actions this group takes to advocate on behalf of students.
Reflection on Previously Collected Data & Our Path Forward: Delving deep into data collected by UW Tacoma Psychological & Wellness Services (PAWS) in Spring 2023, we've taken the time to reflect and comprehend the unique factors impact our student body. Based on the insights from the survey, this group recognized that there is a need for further data collection to best identify the needs of the student body surrounding Health & Wellness. Due to this, the group created an additional survey to be circulated next month! Please be on the lookout and participate - your feedback is critical!
