Susquehanna Health – The LifeCenter

Overview

For more than 25 years, The LifeCenter has been a friendly, relaxing place to learn about living a healthy lifestyle. The LifeCenter aims to increase awareness and prevention of a wide range of chronic and acute health conditions. With an emphasis on wellness and achieving a healthy lifestyle for all, The LifeCenter’s offerings include daily heart rate, oxygen level, and blood pressure screenings; consultations on nutrition, weight management, cholesterol management, and stress reduction; health screenings for bone density, body fat percentage, hearing, vision and BMI tests; height and weight checks for infants, children and adults; referrals to special services and community agencies; self-care reference materials for general health issues, weight management,  pre-surgery wellness, nutrition, and healthy aging; a Safe Sitter program for teens, and physician- led informative programs, discussions, and question/answer sessions on various health topics.

An integral part of The LifeCenter is the recent creation of the Cancer Survivor Program and the ongoing Susquehanna Striders Program in collaboration with the Williamsport YMCA. Cancer is the leading killer of area residents, and the Cancer Survivor Program allows patients the chance to reclaim their health and well-being. The Cancer Survivor Program is a holistic twelve-week recovery program where participants have the opportunity to build supportive relationships and improve their quality of life. The Susquehanna Striders, a free walking program, is a response to the need for low-cost, low-impact physical activity. As the total miles walked accumulate each month, a Strider earns special incentives such as gift certificates, coupons, and prizes from area retail and food merchants.

Impact

The LifeCenter served 28,841 people in 2015 to improve health and wellness. Susquehanna Striders currently consists of 560 members who have walked a cumulative total of 1,206,629 miles while increasing their health and wellness along the way.

Lessons Learned

Susquehanna Health has learned that proactively addressing patient conditions enhances outcomes and leads to faster recovery while decreasing health care costs to the patient. Providing education where the community congregates is a huge factor in the success of The LifeCenter.

Future Goals

The LifeCenter will maintain current programming related to all existing community services. It also will expand new community benefits services in areas of community-assessed needs such as pre-surgery wellness and a healthy eating program for children to address childhood obesity. To date, the Cancer Survivor Program was able to help 88 cancer patients and their families for a more complete recovery. The goal is to continue offering this program in upcoming years.

Contact: Valerie Trego
Senior Development Officer
Telephone: 570-320-7465
Email: vtrego@susquehannahealth.org