The season of summer has finally arrived here in Chicago –and Erie Family Health Center does not plan on wasting a single moment of this balmy, beautiful weather. Recently, a few Erie employees volunteered their time to help break ground on the new Henson Garden Initiative Program, a part of Erie’s Health and Wellness Program at Erie Henson School Based Health Center. This program aims to promote healthy lifestyles to children living within the North Lawndale community through education on healthy eating and the importance of physical activity.

The Henson Garden Initiative is just one facet of the Henson Health and Wellness Program. The Henson Garden Initiative, which is an after school program for the students of Henson, will help children increase their knowledge of nutrition through planting and managing a garden. Since the children will be helping to assemble the garden and grow the produce, the garden will not only serve as an opportunity for education but also as an opportunity for physical activity. Children will also be able to share the information they’ve learned about healthy living to their peers through classroom presentations. Children will be sent home with produce from the garden as well as recipes to prepare with their parents at home. Any additional produce will be donated to the emergency food pantry at Henson, which help teach the students an important lesson on giving back to their community.

There are many benefits to exposing children, especially children living in urban areas, to information about healthy eating. “Exposing children to where their food comes from, how it grows and why it’s important to eat healthy foods allows them to be informed and empowered about making healthy choices,” says Elizabeth Mendoza, an Erie AmeriCorps Health Educator.  “When this information is presented at a young age, the children are then able to get a healthier start in life.”

Programs such as the Henson Garden Initiative are especially important in areas that are designated as ‘food deserts’ – which refers to areas where access to fresh produce is limited. Through informing children about healthy foods that they may not have been in contact with and educating them on the benefits of incorporating these foods into their daily diet, they are able to take this information back with them to their friends and families.

The children who have begun to participate in the program are extremely satisfied and happy to learn more about what it means to be healthy. “Each week that we have been working in the garden, more students have joined in to learn about plants, produce and – of course – to dig in the dirt,” says Lily Bevis, an AmeriCorps Health Educator.  “Several community members have also shown support for the garden through encouraging comments.”

Erie Family Health Center echoes the excitement of the children for the Henson Garden Initiative. It’s another example of the innovative ways Erie brings healthy living to Chicago – one community at a time.

Beats this week:

1) Did you know that today is Senior Health and Fitness Day? It most certainly is! The last Wednesday in May is reserved for promoting the need to help older Americans stay healthy and fit.  This year, around 100,000 older adults will participate in activities at more than 1,000 locations throughout the U.S. for the 17^th Annual Senior Health and Fitness Day.

2) A report released recently from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that only one in five children in America live within half a mile from a park. The report also reveals other alarming statistics, such as the fact that less than one in five U.S. high school students get at least an hour of physical activity a day.

3) The National Health Center for Statistics handed down some good news this week: for the second year in a row, premature birth rates have dropped. This decrease held true for all age groups and races, except for women over 40. Despite these overall decreases, large disparities still exist for minority populations.

4) The Illinois House passed an emergency budget yesterday for the state of Illinois. The budget relies mainly on the following: borrowing and currently undefined spending cuts (to be defined by Governor Quinn). It is still unclear how the state plans to pay backlogged bills. Not found in the budget are new ways to increase revenue. Stay tuned as the Springfield drama continues to unfold!

5) A recent article published in Health Affairs outlines the differences of income for a cardiologist and a primary care physician over a lifetime. The results are staggering: ‘Their calculations showed that cardiologists earn a career average of more than $5 million, compared with $2.5 million for primary care physicians.’ Perhaps this is why we have a shortage of primary care doctors?

Bonus Beat! This week we have a bonus beat!

A study conducted by the RAND Corp. found that pay for performance programs may actually have the potential to worsen health disparities. Essentially, the study claims that if physicians are paid for the medical performance of their patients then they might actually avoid providing care in areas that could potentially experience lower health status outcomes.

1) Last week, the Illinois Legislature adjourned without passing a budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1.  Despite the lack of consensus, Governor Quinn says that lawmakers are close to passing a new budget. Meanwhile, vendors across the state, including schools and universities, are unsure of how to plan for the upcoming fiscal year without a state budget in place.

2) A study recently released suggests that it is not uncommon for patients to receive inaccurate or confusing Spanish translations from pharmacies when they pick up their prescriptions. This can lead to improper administration of medications.

3) Celebrity chef Rachael Ray made her way to Capitol Hill this week to talk with legislators about improving the quality of school lunches. Ray’s visit also included a visit to the White House to take a look at the First Lady’s garden.

4) Speaking of the First Lady, Michelle Obama released the guidelines this week for her childhood obesity prevention program, Let’s Move! Some highlights include placing an emphasis on maintaining a healthy weight during pregnancy and urging restaurants to consider more moderate portion sizes.

5) This week is National Women’s Health Week, which is an observance that aims to empower women to make health their top priority. Check out some information from Erie partner Northwestern Memorial Hospital about the importance of this week.

Beats this week:

1) Happy May! Did you know this month has several national health observances? The month of May includes Mental Health Month, National Celiac Disease Awareness Month, Healthy Vision Month, National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month and National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month just to name a few!

2) Today in Chicago around 700 Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students walked out or did not attend school today in order to protest Governor Quinn’s proposed education budget cuts. The students marched to CPS Headquarters and many will have to make up classes on Saturday.

3) This week Johnson and Johnson voluntarily recalled around 43 over the counter medications made for children and infants. The abrupt recall was later fully explained by the FDA, who revealed that some of the ingredients in these medications had been exposed to bacteria.

4) Today is World Hand Hygiene Day! In honor of today, Northwestern Memorial Hospital created a video on the importance of washing your hands. Did you know that 80% of infections are transmitted by hands? Yikes!

5) A study in May’s Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine breaks down the rates of childhood obesity by state according to 2007 data. Mississippi is the state with the highest rate of childhood obesity, coming in at 21.9% while Oregon has the lowest rate of 9.6%. No state came close to the Healthy People 2010 goal of having childhood obesity rates at 5%.

Beats this week:

1) Over the weekend, patients began lining up before dawn at a dentist office in the Logan Square community of Chicago to receive free dental care. The annual event, which is hosted by Dentists With Heart, drew a line of several hundred people.

2) This week, the New York Times reported that after an extended quiet period, the U.S. is finally seeing a surge in medical schools. Could this be a response to the need for primary care providers? Beats Per Minute discussed this very issue last month.

3) Wondering why no one is talking about H1N1 anymore? The Centers for Disease Control is! The CDC says that H1N1 cases are down but reported that from April 2009 through January 2010, the U.S. saw 57 million possible cases, 257,000 hospitalizations and 11,690 deaths.

4) A study released this week found that over the last three decades chronic conditions have significantly increased in children. In fact, from 1994 to 2006 the percentage of children with chronic conditions, such as asthma, obesity and behavioral health issues, nearly doubled. The highest rates of chronic conditions were found in Latino and African American children.

5) It was announced this week that two Illinois universities will receive federal stimulus money to invest in electronic medical records technology. Last month, Erie Family Health Center completed the implementation of electronic health records at all of our nine sites. Read about it here!

Beats this week:

1) President Obama is planning a bipartisan summit on health care on February 25. Making the announcement during a pre-Super Bowl interview, Obama pledged that he wanted to work with Republicans to pass health care reform but would not agree to throw out the entire health care reform bill and start over.

2) As reported by Beats Per Minute last week, the First Lady Michelle Obama is leading an initiative to fight childhood obesity. The campaign, called “Let’s Move,” was kicked off this week.

3) Meanwhile, at the state level, the Illinois General Assembly allowed Governor Pat Quinn to delay sharing the details of his budget plan until March 10.  Many social service organizations across the state are bracing for another tough Spring and Summer of budget delays.

4) With health care reform stalled, hospitals nationwide continue to struggle as billions of dollars in medical bills go unpaid.

5) A study recently released by International Communications Research found that up to $9 billion could be raised for states with a $1 per pack tax on cigarettes. This report concluded that most Americans would support this increase over other tax increases or budget cuts.

Courtesy of Huffington Post

Fast food, as well as the large variety of sugary and fattening junk food that adorns grocery store shelves, has played a large part in the child obesity epidemic witnessed over the years within the U.S.  It might come as a surprise, then, that a study recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics found that child obesity rates have actually slowed in growth over the past several years. Despite these results, there is little reason to celebrate.  We still live in a nation where a third of our children are obese and in African American and Latino communities, the number reaches nearly 50%.

In the State of the Union Address given by President Obama last Wednesday, he mentioned a national movement to address the issue of childhood obesity, which will be led by the First Lady, Michelle Obama. Mrs. Obama recently announced her initiative to combat childhood obesity at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington D.C., where she was discussing the issue.

As a mother herself, she said she is familiar with the business of being a working parent and struggling to feed her family healthy, balanced meals.  Even though it’s easier to eat cheaply and less healthy in a rough economic climate, Mrs. Obama stated the importance of good nutrition, especially for children.  The new childhood obesity initiative, which will launch next month, will employ greater communication between the federal government and local schools, businesses and non-profits on the importance of healthy eating. These communications will cover a variety of topics, such as increasing the number of schools where students can have access to healthy foods, techniques to provide children with more opportunities to be physically active and ensuring that low-income communities have access to healthy food options. 

Erie Family Health Center has been dealing with the child obesity head on.  Erie’s B.A.L.A.N.C.E curriculum (Building Lives Around Nutrition-Centered Education) aims to provide physical and nutritional education to elementary-aged children at Erie’s school-based sites.   This program allows students at both Ryerson and Henson Elementary Schools, where high levels of childhood obesity exist, to have the opportunity to learn about ways to eat and live healthy lives through fun games and activities.  Parents are also given information on healthy nutrition and exercise habits, which allows children to take what they’ve learned in the classroom and put it into practice at home. 

If Mrs. Obama’s program proves to be successful, it might not be long before we see other programs, like Erie’s B.A.L.A.N.C.E. program, springing up at the community level.  One thing is for certain, though: becoming a healthier nation goes far beyond health care reform – it comes down to our day-to-day choices about how to treat our bodies.  If we learn to make healthy choices, especially as children, then we will be on our way to living healthier, happier lives.