WELLESLEY, Mass., July 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- This month,
Sun Life Financial U.S. (Sun Life) has solidified collaborations
with YMCA of the USA
(Y-USA) and the American Diabetes
Association (Association), supporting programs that offer employers
tools to help their employees live healthier lives. Sun Life has
supported diabetes initiatives since 2012 and has provided more
than $17 million in the U.S. and
globally to programs focused on diabetes prevention.
Sun Life is the primary sponsor for the Association's Wellness
Lives Here® Health Champion Designation, a program that focuses on
workplace health and recognizes companies who have made commitments
to fostering a healthier workforce through better nutritional and
fitness offerings. Sun Life is also collaborating with
Y-USA to support their Diabetes
Prevention Program, which provides support to adults at high risk
for developing type 2 diabetes as they learn and develop healthier
lifestyle habits to delay or prevent the onset of the disease.
"As an employee benefits provider, Sun Life offers services and
expertise to try and help employers keep their workforces healthy,"
said Dan Fishbein, M.D., President
of Sun Life Financial U.S. "Partnering with organizations like
Y-USA and the American Diabetes
Association is a great way for us to continue that effort.
Employers should invest in the health of their employees. It not
only increases productivity and decreases incidences of absence and
disability leave, but it also raises employee morale, and
ultimately, provides an environment where people want to work."
The YMCA's Diabetes Prevention Program is an educational program
that helps adults understand their risk factors and learn how to
develop healthier lifestyle habits, with the goal of delaying or
preventing the disease. The program's lifestyle lessons help people
to increase physical activity, understand and make healthy food
choices, and reduce their weight by 5 to 7 percent. The program is
currently available in 47 states (at 1,700 sites), across the
country, and with Sun Life's support Y-USA will be able to enhance efforts to enable
employers to offer the program in the workplace, as well as
nationally scale the program to more Ys across the U.S.
"The generous support from Sun Life is helping Ys all over the
country become more effective in working with local employers to
improve the health of their employees, prevent new cases of
diabetes and extend the ability of the Y to achieve its charitable
healthy living mission," said Jonathan
Lever, EVP, Chief Membership & Programs Officer for
Y-USA.
With the American Diabetes Association, Sun Life received its
first Health Champion Designation in 2015 and has supported the
program and its promotional efforts continuously since then. Health
Champion Designees must demonstrate their efforts to help employees
achieve better health and wellness in three areas: nutrition and
weight management; physical activity; and organizational
well-being. Within each area, organizations must meet specific
healthy living criteria, such as enhanced nutritional options,
organized physical activities, a smoke-free workplace, access to a
fitness center (either on-site or reimbursement for off-site
facilities), designated walking paths, and wellness services such
as stress management and disease education.
"Staying active and eating healthy are vital steps to managing
and preventing diabetes, and both can be directly impacted by the
workplace environment and culture. The Health Champion Designation
helps us recognize the companies and organizations that champion a
culture of wellness in the workplace by engaging people in healthy
lifestyle habits," said Alicia
McAuliffe-Fogarty, Vice President of Lifestyle Management at
the Association. "We thank Sun Life for their support of this
program and for their commitment to health and wellness at
work."
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 29.1 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, about 95
percent of whom have type 2. Education on nutrition and lifestyle
are a key component to fighting the disease, particularly since
many can be genetically predisposed, and therefore have a more
difficult time avoiding the diagnosis. Diabetes and poor disease
management can result in a host of even more serious health
conditions, such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease,
blindness and amputation. Employers are in a unique position to
play an important role in improving the health of their employees
by engaging in these types of programs.
In addition to supporting these national programs, Sun Life
offers the Team Up Against Diabetes grant program, which awards
funds to organizations that support, educate on, and promote
diabetes awareness. For more information on Sun Life's activities
supporting diabetes, visit www.sunlife.com/usdiabetes.
About Sun Life Financial
Sun Life Financial is a
leading international financial services organization providing a
diverse range of insurance, wealth and asset management solutions
to individuals and corporate Clients. Sun Life Financial has
operations in a number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United
States, the United Kingdom,
Ireland, Hong Kong, the
Philippines, Japan,
Indonesia, India, China,
Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of March
31, 2017, Sun Life Financial had total assets under
management of C$927 billion. For more
information, please visit www.sunlife.com.
Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New
York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the
ticker symbol SLF.
In the United States, Sun Life
Financial is one of the largest group benefits providers, serving
more than 60,000 employers in small, medium and large workplaces
across the country. Sun Life's broad portfolio of products and
services in the U.S. includes Disability and Absence Management,
Life, Dental and Vision, Voluntary and Stop-Loss insurance. This
includes the acquisition of the U.S. Employee Benefits business of
Assurant, Inc., in Q1 2016. For more information, please visit
www.sunlife.com/us.
Media
contact:
|
Devon Portney
Fernald
|
Sun Life
Financial
|
781-416-7151
|
devon.portney.fernald@sunlife.com
|
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SOURCE Sun Life Financial U.S.