Action Strategies Toolkit from RWJF

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has published an invaluable resource to help state and local policymakers make their communities healthier. The Action Strategies Toolkit from RWJF’s Leadership for Healthy Communities initiative describes a range of evidence-based strategies to promote health and curb childhood obesity. The strategies involve policy changes in several areas related to active living and the food environment, including land-use policies to encourage physical activity and incentives to attract supermarkets and farmers’ markets to neighborhoods with limited access to healthy food choices.

Download the full toolkit (PDF) or executive summary (PDF) from the RWJF website.

Podcast: Social Environment Shapes Health

In a recent podcast from Partnership for Prevention, Dr. David Williams, Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, discusses the work of the Commission to Build a Healthier America. Williams discusses what makes Americans healthy and what we can do to improve public health in the United States. He identifies two take home messages from the Commission that are relevant to our work with HEAT. First, all Americans could be healthier than they are. This is important because it reminds us that health equity matters for everyone, not just people in disadvantaged groups. Second, as Williams puts it, “Good health is not created in doctors’ offices and hospitals.” Williams describes our health care system as a repair shop; we need to focus on what causes people to get sick in the first place. It follows that we need to broaden the current debate about health care reform to include a focus on how the social environment shapes health and drives up health care costs.

Tune in to Prevention Matters for the full podcast.

Next HEAT meeting is August 25

The next HEAT meeting will take place on Tuesday, August 25, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Conference Room A (enter through cafeteria). We will get on update on recent activities and discuss plans to develop a Food Policy Council to address childhood obesity and the food environment. Dinner will be available from TMH catering for $5. Please contact Lance Gravlee to reserve a dinner or to suggest agenda items.

NIH: Community Programs to Reduce Childhood Obesity

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, (NHLBI), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has issued a request for information about studying community programs to reduce childhood obesity. According to the request, NHLBI plans to conduct “an evaluation study of communities that will examine outcomes associated with community programs to reduce childhood obesity through policy, environmental, behavioral, and educational activities addressing energy balance. The goal is to examine effects of childhood obesity programs by using a natural experiment al design. Results will be disseminated to inform national and local policy for reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity.”

The information NHLBI is requesting includes how “community” should be defined in this type of evaluation research, what data collection tools exist to measure the impact of childhood obesity programs, and the types of study designs that should be considered. NHLBI would also like to know about specific community programs and the approaches they use to address childhood obesity.

Responses are due by April 10. See the full request for information for complete details.

Next HEAT meeting is April 21

The next HEAT meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 21, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Conference Room A (enter through cafeteria). We will focus on funding proposals to support partnership development and to conduct community engagement workshops on obesity and the food environment. Lasagna dinners will be available from TMH catering for $5. Please contact Lance Gravlee to reserve a dinner.

Continuing Education for Health Equity

Like many communities around the country, we have used the PBS documentary Unnatural Causes to raise awareness and stimulate discussion about the causes of social inequalities in health. Now there is an online Continuing Education (CE) program for health service providers.

The online CE program for Unnatural Causes is produced by San Francisco State University and Community Health Works. CE credit is provided by the American Public Health Association and is available for physicians, registered nurses, certified health education specialists, and any provider whose board accepts CE credits for non-physicians. The program consists of a four-hour series that awards up to four CE credits per person for a cost of $50 per person. For more information, visit the program website.

Next HEAT Meeting is March 24

The next HEAT meeting will take place on Tuesday, March 24, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Conference Room A (enter through cafeteria). We will focus on discussing our NIH proposal to support partnership development. Lasagna dinners will be available from TMH catering for $5. Please contact Lance Gravlee to reserve a dinner.

Next HEAT Meeting is February 24

The next HEAT meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 24, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Conference Room A. We will continue planning for a community forum on health equity and discuss a new funding opportunity to strengthen community involvement with HEAT. Please come and make your voice heard.

Day of Dialogue on Minority Health III

Please mark you calendars for third Day of Dialogue on Minority Health, hosted by Bethel AME Church (501 W Orange Ave., Tallahassee, FL). The event will take place on Saturday, February 21, 2009, 8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. This year’s theme is “Developing a Viable Church Health Ministry,” and featured speakers include Reverend Dr. Oveta Fuller, Dr. Cyneetha Strong, and Reverend Dr. Julius Harrison McAllister, Jr. For more information, view the save-the-date flyer here (PDF).

Next HEAT Meeting is January 27

The next HEAT meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 27, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., at the Leroy Collins Public Library (200 W. Call Street), Henderson Room, in downtown Tallahassee. We will discuss new projects initiated by HEAT members, discuss HEAT’s structure, and renew plans for a community forum on health equity. Please come and make your voice heard.