| Partnership for a Heart Healthy Maine
A joint project of the
Maine Cardiovascular Health Council and Medical Care Development, Inc.
Goal:
To promote partnerships for a comprehensive approach to cardiovascular
health promotion and disease prevention at the local level.
Project
Components:
- Helps organize and
support community partnerships for cardiovascular health promotion and disease prevention.
- Provides trainings for
blood pressure and cholesterol screenings and CVD updates.
- Holds the Governor's
Annual Cardiovascular Health Summit.
- Assures access to
cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment services by developing and distributing a
Resource Directory for each hospital service area.
- Promotes access to
cardiovascular prevention services for underserved populations.
- Assists with the
coordination and implementation of ME-Cares, a nurse-physician
care support program to improve CVD case management and patient
outcomes.
- Provides coordination and
technical assistance for integrating cardiovascular services and resources.
- Increases awareness of
the prevalence and costs associated with CVD.
Community
Partners:
Community
Projects: The Partnership for a Heart Healthy Maine issued a request for
proposals for mini-grants to fund community projects related to cardiovascular health.
The following abstracts
provide a brief description of the projects that have been funded to
date.
Bangor Region CVD Task Force
The Task Force
has coordinated a "Healthy Heart" school project using educational materials from
the American Heart Association along with a speaker's bureau of volunteer health care
professionals from the Bangor region. The program will be modeled after the DARE program
(one health care provider will work with the same school on an annual basis) and will also
be tied to Maine Learning Results. The target audience will be elementary school age
children.
Mid-Coast Health & Wellness Council
The Mid-Coast Health
& Wellness Council has developed and is distributing a comprehensive guide to fitness
opportunities in the Bath/Brunswick/Topsham/Freeport area. The guide includes
four categories:
- fitness facilities &
clubs
- community organizations
- parks & recreation
areas
- sports & specialty
activities
This project
addresses physical activity as an important part of cardiovascular wellness. The guide
includes physical activity information for all community
members. The Council raised funds locally to help pay for
production and printing of the booklet.
Somerset County Cardiovascular Health Task Force
The Task Force
developed a public relations packet to promote efforts in the reduction of cardiovascular
disease in Somerset County. The packet includes information on health
status regarding CVD drawing on the data available from the Maine
Bureau of Health. These packets were distributed at the second
Somerset County Cardiovascular Summit at the end of June and will be
distributed widely throughout the county
including to the media, businesses, schools, community groups, and medical staff. The goal
is to increase awareness of cardiovascular health issues and to increase involvement in
Task Force activities.
"Move
More" - Healthy Weight/Physical Activity Workgroup - Waterville
The
Move More project has compiled a listing of physical activity
opportunities in the Waterville community area to disseminate in a
variety of ways to the general population. Another component of
the project includes working with physician offices to implement a
"Prescription to Exercise" program. The Partnership is
supporting the "Prescription to Exercise" component of the
program which is providing physicians and other providers with
prescription pads and education surrounding the importance of
exercising. Studies demonstrate that this method of prescribing
exercise results in patient's complying with recommendations better
than nearly any other method.
USM
Lifeline Center/Southern Maine Wellness Council
The
Southern Maine Wellness Council is in the process of fund-raising to
develop and implement a work site health and wellness needs assessment
in preparation for developing a work site health promotion
intervention program.
River Valley
Healthy Communities Coalition - Rumford
The
River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition was recently funded by the
Partnership for a Heart Healthy Maine to raise awareness about risk
factors for cardiovascular disease, help the community set goals,
provide incentives for achievements, and optimize already existing
programs.
Kittery Chemical
Awareness Prevention (K-CAP)
The
Community Center (established by K-CAP) will be used to provide a
heart-healthy baking class for youth in middle school through high
school. K-CAP was created initially as a substance abuse
coalition which has expanded to include tobacco cessation and physical
activity as an alternative to drug use.
| Update:
The grant provided by the Partnership enabled the Kittery Youth
Connection (KYC) to purchase all the equipment necessary to
provide a cooking program for youth and to teach them healthy
ways to bake without preservatives. Each Friday from 2:30
to 6:00 p.m. the youth participate in making loaves of bread,
banana bread, Irish bread, white bread, and scones. Good
nutrition is discussed. |
 |
Healthy
Androscoggin
This
community group is funded through the Partnership for a Tobacco Free
Maine to develop tobacco education programs in the Lewiston-Auburn
area. The Partnership for a Heart Healthy Maine is supporting a
data collection project on smoking cessation.
Mount Desert
Island Community Health Plan (MDICHP)
Healthy
Eating Out/Healthy Eating In. Healthy Eating Out
was developed in 1999 by the MDI Community Health Plan to promote
awareness of the availability of healthy food choices when dining away
from home. Education efforts were targeted both toward the
public at large and restaurant owners and workers. The MDICHP is
now planning an expansion of the program: Healthy Eating In.
This new event will include activities to be held throughout the
winter, when many seasonal restaurants are closed and people are more
likely to prepare and eat meals at home. These activities will
be created to complete Healthy Eating Out. Some events currently
planned include supermarket tours with a nutritionist to highlight
healthy foods, a series of healthy cooking demonstrations for the
public, and meetings with restaurant owners/managers to discuss ideas
for next year's program.
Blue Hill
Memorial Hospital - Health Education Center
Heart
Smart 2000 Community Cardiovascular Challenge was launched in
May 2000 to increase the communities' awareness of cardiovascular
risks and also to motivate individuals to take action to reduce their
risks by becoming informed and by making modification in diet,
exercise, shopping, etc. The major goals of this project are:
- increase
our communities' awareness of cardiovascular risks;
- promote
early prevention efforts via presentations at the area elementary
schools;
- promote
behavior changes (i.e., walking, diet changes, shopping
strategies, etc.); and
- encourage
our residents' communication with their physicians, vis a vis
encouraging them to visit their physicians to discuss their
personal cardiovascular risks (i.e., smoking, hypertension, high
cholesterol, obesity, etc.).
Bucksport High
School Outing Club
Founded
in 1982, the Bucksport Outing Club provides students at Bucksport High
School with opportunities to discover lifelong heart healthy
activities. Outing Club members are guided to explore the vast
natural resources of Maine through hiking, backpacking, cross country
skiing, rock climbing, and canoeing. Exposing students to
positive experiences of outdoor exercise will lay the foundation for a
continued commitment to regular outdoor exercise as adults.
The Aroostook
Medical Center's Women's Health Center and Aroostook Cardiopulmonary
Rehabilitation Center
It
is the goal of The Aroostook Medical Center's Women's Health Center,
in conjunction with The Aroostook Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation
Center, to offer a women's heart health promotional event in February
2001. The intended target audience is women across the lifespan,
from Presque Isle and surrounding northern Maine communities.
Our vision is to integrate gender specific information in a fun,
nurturing, and educational environment.
The
first activity of the day will be individual heart health evaluation
screenings provided by TAMC professionals including a stress
assessment, blood pressure screening, body fat analysis, cholesterol
screenings, and will conclude with a comprehensive heart attack risk
assessment. The second event is designed to increase community
health awareness through an educational lecture provided by a regional
heart specialist. The final event of the day will be a behavior
modification activity. With the assistance of a regionally
well-known chef, a healthy cooking demonstration will be presented with
the opportunity for women to participate in food preparation and
sampling.
Fish River
Rural Health/Eagle Lake Health Center
The
major goal of this cardiovascular health project is to increase public
awareness about cardiovascular health issues and risk factors by
planning and implementing an informational "Heart Healthy"
booth at Fish River Rural Health's annual family health fair on July
20, 2002. This booth would provide multiple materials and visual
aids on cardiovascular disease and prevention and also offer
cholesterol and blood pressure screening and
counseling.
USM Lifeline
Center for Fitness, Recreation & Rehabilitation
The
prevalence of adolescent obesity has been identified as an evolving
health problem that has significant consequences for the future health
of our children. In an effort to impact this problem in the
greater Portland area, the Lifeline Center has created a planning
process to become a licensed provider of a nationally recognized
adolescent weight management program entitled SHAPEDOWN. The
program is family-based and targets obesity, nutrition, and physical
activity in both child and parents. It incorporates a broad
range of family therapy and psychoeducational techniques to address
underlying psychosocial issues relative to weight and physical
activity. Classes require the participation of child and
parents. USM Lifeline has decided to target 11-13 year olds as
their pilot group. The funding from this mini-grant will help to
train the clinicians who will provide these classes.
For more information
about these projects, please contact The Partnership at mchc@mcd.org
or write to 11 Parkwood Drive, Augusta, Maine 04330; Tele: 207-622-7566, ext. 220; Fax:
207-622-3616 |
