LAKE COUNTY — Susan Jen of the Health Leadership Network (HLN) presented information related to obesity prevention to the Clearlake City Council recently. The presentation was made in hope of gaining support for the initiative HLN has taken to better child health in Lake County.
HLN is a consortium of hospitals, doctors, nurses and citizens working together to share ideas to prevent childhood obesity. The network was reportedly awarded a grant from the California Endowment to develop an action plan for obesity prevention in Lake County with a focus on children and their families. According to Jen, the grant has come to a conclusion and a plan has been developed. The network, she said, will be seeking continued funding to implement the action plan.
In accordance with the grant, the network was required to present their action plan to the Board of Supervisors as well as city councils in order to garner support for its activities. Jen explained to the council the importance of continuing education in childhood obesity prevention and provided statistics related to issue.
“It is important to educate folks about the benefits of activity and nutrition, but that is not enough to change population health. Changes must be made to our work environment, school environments, healthcare environments and within our community culture that encourage folks to make healthful choices,” Jen said in her report. “The HLN obesity prevention plan is based on how we begin to shift environments so that they support healthy choice and to galvanize organizations to shape a built environment that supports vibrant community health.”
According to State Public Health Profiles for Lake County in 2006 provided by Jen, Lake is 56th out of 58 California counties for the poorest health status based on deaths due to all causes. She said in terms of local childhood obesity data, the following was taken from well-child visits: Well child visits indicate 24.7 percent of 2-year-olds are overweight or at-risk for overweight; 21.4 percent of 3-year-olds are overweight or at-risk; 28.1 percent of 4 to 5-year-olds are overweight or at-risk; 29 percent of seventh graders in Lake County are at an unhealthy weight; and 80 percent of overweight adolescents become overweight adults.
The HLN action plan includes providing an opportunity to lead a countywide platform on nutrition and fitness, as two key pillars of vibrant health, that will create an environment to support positive health practices; providing an opportunity to lead a shift in organizational and community culture that prioritizes health and well-being; and providing an opportunity for visionary health policy based on common standards and integrated prevention strategies.
A component included in HLN”s strategy to implement its action plan is the implementation of a Farm-Institution (F-I) program, thereby increasing access to fresh produce. The F-I would link nutrition to education and school gardens. The HLN also hopes to draw in hospitals, restaurants and others to participate in the F-I program.
The network also intends to create a Food and Energy Policy Council to address on-going policies regarding inter-linkage between agriculture, nutrition and use of resources. The council would conduct a food assessment of local products; pursue the feasibility of mobile markets; develop a local food guide, maintain a food resources guide and local products database; develop countywide policies with input from the community, organizations and county governments; and possibly oversee the F-I program.
A major component of the action plan includes expanding nutrition education and physical activities in Lake County schools. HLN would like to see the Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) program incorporated into local curriculum. “CATCH incorporates fitness, nutrition, food service and parents in an evidence-based, integrated approach to improve children”s health,” Jen said.
The four core components of CATCH include: Eat Smart school cafeteria nutrition program; CATCH physical education program; physical activity and healthy eating classroom curricula; and family education and involvement program.
“This training would not pre-empt other nutrition and fitness curricula that may already be used in schools, but would interface with and build on these existing programs,” Jen said.
HLN assesses that physical activity has a direct impact on overall health. HLN will encourage participating organizations to increase opportunities for activities during work hours by ways such as encouraging individuals to walk during breaks or form a walking group; work toward providing incentives for participation in fitness efforts; and work to create incentive stipends as part of employee health benefits.
The network would also like to form a Community Recreation District. HLN hopes to gain enough support from the cities of Clearlake and Lakeport to pursue a feasibility study for creating the recreation district. Creation of the district will require voter approval.
For more information about the Health Leadership Network, call Sutter Lakeside Hospital at 262-5000 or visit www.sutterlakeside.org and click on Wellness Services. The link for the Health Leadership Network is located on the left side of the screen.
Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com.
