Whole Health Programs
Celebrating 35 years
"As a physician, I find that Whole Health Educators are incredibly supportive in my attempt to help patients regain or maintain wellness. The Educators reinforce knowledge, motivate patient behavior, and have the time to help remove barriers to wellness. Whole Health Education is a very potent, valuable tool in helping patients transform their lives."
— Harvey Zarren, M.D., F.A.C.C.Principal Investigator, Whole Health Education Pilot Study
Union Hospital, Lynn, MA, a Partners Health Care Affiliate
The NIWH Whole Health Education® program is the product of a 35-year process that has impacted standards and guidelines for the practice of health care in all settings. It has also redefined holistic health education to include evidence-based research along side natural approaches to healing, health and wellness.
NIWH offers four (4) professionally accredited Whole Health programs which are only open to credentialed medical, allied health, health education, mental health, wellness and fitness professionals. These four (4) programs share the same CORE courses, but have different case-study and final paper research requirements.
- Whole Health Educator™ program with wellness coaching skills for allied health professionals and qualified entry level candidates
- Whole Health Educator™ for Nurses with health coaching skills and competencies for nurse professionals
- Whole Health Nutrition Educator™ program is open only to degreed or licensed nutrition, nursing, culinary or clinically trained professionals who can utilize nutrition education in their current profession
- Whole Health Coaching™ skills and competencies, includes Whole Health sciences and health education courses for clinically trained health and medical professionals
NIWH also offers several certificate programs that do not require the credentials, case-study or final paper research component the professional programs do. They are open to individuals who wish to obain more information on self-care and disease prevention.
- Whole Health Science Certificate of Study - Provides 12 whole health courses. Open to all who wish to have the knowledge and tools to prevent disease and live a long and healthy lifestyle. Learner has up to six (6) months to complete the 12 courses.
- Whole Health and Wellness Nutrition Certificate of Study - Provides 20 whole health and nutrition courses. Open to all who wish to have the nutritional knowledge and tools to prevent disease and live a long and healthy lifestyle. Learner has up to twelve (12) months to complete the 20 courses.
- Whole Health and Wellness Coaching Certificate of Study - Provides 26 health science and coaching skills courses. Optional health coaching practicum with a master certified coach mentor is available. Learner is not enrolled in the health insurance networks, nor eligible to receive the NIWH health insurance billing manual. Learner has up to twelve (12) months to complete the courses.
Only the comprehensive Whole Health professional programs provide automatic enrollment, upon completion, into the Healthways provider networks as a Health and Wellness Coach and Whole Health Advocate and or qualify the learner to provide patient health education services, which are health insurance reimburseable through a medical facility or physician led practice.
Whole Health Education
"The best way to find your self is to lose yourself in the service of others."
Mahatma Gandhi
Within Whole Health Education, Maslow’s five-stage hierarchy, Sir Isaac Newton’s Third law, Mother Theresa’s example of love-centered service, Buddha’s wisdom that “everything is everything” and the Golden Rule meld into a perspective that encourages an appreciation for patients as whole and unique human beings.
The NIWH Whole Health Education program combines one-to-one peer counseling with respectful listening, unconditional presence, the big picture of health ®,* Behavioral Engagement ™* and current evidence-based medical and alternative health information.
The NIWH organizational mission, in creating this transformational education model, is to invite people into the process of their own healing and self-care. It provides the basis for a new health care modality, Whole Health Education which expands on the context and contents of existing holistic health education programs.
Whole Health Educators and Whole Health Coaches are medical, allied health, wellness and education professionals trained in a Whole Person Health™ model of health education and behavioral change; this model invites individuals to understand how the physical, emotional, nutritional, environmental and spiritual aspects of their lifestyle affect their health and well being or impact disease states.
By 1980, this model of relationship-centered patient health education was being utilized at a Boston-area hospital in both in-patient and out patient clinics. In 1989, when funding for the clinic ended, Whole Health Education had experienced nine years of patient application and clinical formation which helped craft it into its present form.
In 1996, NIWH was contacted by Union Hospital, a Harvard affiliate hospital in Lynn, MA. The Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation, who became aware of Whole Health Education ® through a nurse extern at the hospital, wanted to bring the model to the Cardiac Rehabilitation Department for a Pilot Trial Study.
From 1997 until 2002, Whole Health Education was tested and utilized in the Cardiac Rehabilitation Department and a Department of Whole Health Education was established within the hospital’s medical center.
In 2005, the NIWH model became the mandate for “the practice of medicine in all settings”. Both the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) and hospitals and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) identified these key guidelines which include:
- patients at the center of their health care decision making
- care for the whole person
- evidenced-based health education
- Medicaid/Medicare initiatives, currently voluntary but soon to be mandatory, include patient education, prevention of disease states and “Pay for Performance” reimbursement guidelines for medical practices. “Pay for Performance” reimbursements are based on a physician’s documentation of patient education methods and disease prevention outcomes data.
- In 2006, John Reed, MD, then Chief Medical Officer of the Health Support division of Healthways, Inc., one of the country's largest health insurance networks, worked with NIWH to establish criteria for acceptance of Health and Wellness Coaches into their national networks. As a result, all NIWH graduates are enrolled into the Healthway’s national networks, and their Whole Health Living Network, as Health and Wellness Coaches and Whole Health Advocates
In addition to its success as patient education model, Whole Health Education is also a way of being in relationship with others. Union Hospital nominated Whole Health Education for the prestigious Fetzer Institute’s Norman Cousin Award, as a Best Practice in Relationship Centered Care.
The philosophy and application of Whole Health Education illustrate that, be it the practice of medicine or business, the micro-relationship of practitioner to patient or the macro-relationship of business to community, there is a rightness of relationship which serves the common good:
When we listen respectfully,
are fully present,
act justly and compassionately,
understand that we do not heal others,
invite rather than direct, and
recognize that each person possesses innate wisdom
we create healing and transformational relationships.
Whole Health Education demonstrates its transformational power in clinical and healing environments when patients, physicians and caregivers experience being known in a profoundly respectful way. It honors their emotional, social and spiritual selves, affirming that they are unique and irreplaceable parts of the human family. Whole Health Education represents a renaissance of relationship-centered care and has been called “a touchstone for the future of health care.”
It is an extraordinary privilege for NIWH to steward this humble and simple vision which springs forth from the collective consciousness of the human soul. It has evolved in its own time to befriend us, to remind us of how we can be with one another. It is a response to the heart’s longing for the rapture which comes from embracing our authentic self, for in each of us lie the seeds of potential for that wondrous possibility!
* the big picture of health is a Registered Trademark of the National Institute of Whole Health. Behavioral Engagement is a Trademark of the National Institute of Whole Health.
