Adair Nolan
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Dr. Nikhil Parekh
Research Mentor School/College/Department: VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System / NonUM
Program: UROP
Session: Session 3 (11:00am – 11:50am)
Authors: Adair Nolan, Samantha Sutton, Nikhil Parekh
Abstract
It has been known for years that all aspects of health affect one another, and that improved mental health can lead to better physical health (and vice versa). Yet there is still a lack of implementation of this knowledge in the medical field, leaving patients with incomplete or impersonalized care plans. Whole Health is a new model of care designed by the VA that focuses on every aspect of health to better treat veterans, and it is now implemented in VA hospitals nationwide. The goal of this study is to continue to understand how Whole Health affects veterans and to expand the mission of Whole Health to other communities, such as students and healthcare workers. Our team of 18 students designed a large survey, with questions targeting all 7 areas of Whole Health, and distributed it to college students, veterans and healthcare workers across the country. Currently, we are still in the data collection step of the project. By the end of January, we plan to start processing and analyzing the data in SPSS to find patterns and areas of health that are lacking in these populations. The target area me and my partner have identified (based on preliminary data) for our implementation is improving students’ body image and self esteem. We expect that increasing self-care and putting an emphasis on body function rather than body aesthetics can improve students’ body image, and further evaluation of the data will help us refine our ideas.
