Food is good.  Food is great!  In fact, according to Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, food falls into the physiological need supporting the base of the pyramid of life.  The physiological need for food goes far beyond simply consumption.  This need is fulfilled best with a well-rounded diet.  Having a well balanced diet encompasses many factors, such as portion control, consumption of fruits and vegetables, limited consumption of high fat food (fast food), etc.  The concept of a well-rounded diet does not sound too complicated; however it's not always a top priority with many people. With Americans always on the go, the convenience and low-cost of dining is made possible by the abundance of fast food restaurants. The Live Well Restaurant Campaign is making it a mission to enable consumers to easily identify and select healthy options when eating away from home and increase the number of healthier food options available in local restaurants.                      

Running from place to place, who has time to cook a healthy meal at home?  Why take the time to cook when a fast food restaurant is right around the corner at your beck and call? This mentality about fast food makes it easier for consumers to make poor decisions when it comes to nutrition. According to a Gallup poll, eight in ten Americans report eating at fast-food restaurants at least monthly with only about 4% of people saying they have never eaten fast food (Dugan, 2013). With that being said, it is difficult to find healthy options in restaurants.  Poor nutrition is a common factor underlying obesity in America (Hobbs, 2015). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of U.S. adults are obese.  Many people do not realize they consume about 200 extra calories each time they dine out and if they eat out twice a week for a year, those extra calories can add up to 6 extra pounds (Nguyen, 2014).

By increasing the number of healthier choices in restaurants it becomes more convenient to eat healthy while dining out!! A well balanced diet is a melting pot of all the food groups.  For instance, healthy carbs (grains, beans, fruits, and veggies), healthy fats (olive oil, nuts, omega-3, etc.), and calcium are part of a balanced diet (Robinson, Paul, & Segal, 2015). In addition to choosing to right food, it is important to choose the right portions. Daily recommendations include specific servings of fruits and vegetables, fiber, protein, dairy, etc.  Likewise, caloric intake is important to manage on a day-to-day basis.  Simply put, by the United States Department of Agriculture (2015), calories are a tool to measure the energy a food or beverage provides -- from the carbohydrate, fat, protein, and alcohol it contains.  Amazingly, these thing are what provide the fuel needed to work and play, and are even needed to rest and sleep! Therefore it's important to get the right mix -- enough nutrients, but not too many calories.  The restaurants involved in the Live Well Campaign have a specific set of criteria for the food they serve to be considered “healthy” and are based on the aforementioned nutritional needs.

Enjoy Your Health Well-Done!

Columbia/Boone County Missouri has recognized obesity is a problem and something can be done to help reduce it, starting in restaurants. Polk County Live Well Alliance was the first to initiate the Live Well Campaign. The program was then extended to Missouri.  A state grant was obtained for the project so it is a statewide program.  The program extended to many areas in Missouri including Columbia.  The next step of the project is to reach out to the rest of the community around Columbia, Boone County. The purpose of this campaign is to enable consumers to make healthier choices when dining out by encouraging restaurants to have healthier menu item options.  By choosing to eat at these restaurants that are serving healthier food, you are helping the Live Well Campaign reach its goal of preventing disease and promoting the health of Boone County.

References:

Binh T Nguyen and Lisa M Powell (2014). The impact of restaurant consumption among US adults: effects on energy and nutrient intakes. Public Health Nutrition, 17, pp 2445-2452. doi:10.1017/S1368980014001153.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention.  (2015).  Adult Obesity Facts.  Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

Choose MyPlate. (2015, February 27).  Retrieved from http://www.choosemyplate.gov/calories#sthash.KU1c5kw6.dpf

Dugan, A. (2013). Fast Food Still Major Part of U.S. Diet. Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/163868/fast-food-major-part-diet.aspx

Hobbs, J. (2015).  Leading Cause of Obesity in America.  Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/262489-the-leading-causes-of-obesity-in-america/

Robinson, L., Paul, W. M., & Segal, J. (2015). Healthy Eating. Easy Tips for Planning a Healthy Diet and Sticking to it.  Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/healthy-eating.htm

Kirksville, Missouri, a town with a population of roughly 17,000 people has a middle school, William Matthew Middle School, enrolling roughly 400 students. Teens experimenting with drugs has been a growing issue nation-wide and William Matthew Middle School is no exception. Programs such as D.A.R.E. help students become educated on the risks associated with drug use such as tobacco, alcohol, and other substances.

According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, Kirksville’s 2014 survey showed continued declines in alcohol use by all grades. Nine percent of 8th graders, 23.5 percent of 10th graders, and 37.4 percent of 12th graders reported past-month use of alcohol, which was significantly lower than the survey posted in 2009, when rates were 14.9 percent, 30.4 percent, and 43.5 percent, in comparison. There was also a significant five-year drop in binge drinking (five or more drinks in a row in the previous 2 weeks) by seniors: 19.4 percent reported binge drinking in 2014, whereas 31.5 percent had reported the practice at its peak in 1998.

According to the CDC (Centers of Disease Control), cigarette smoking by youth continues to drop and is currently at its lowest rate in the survey’s history. Only 1.4 percent of 8th graders reported smoking every day in 2014, compared to 2.7 percent in 2009; 3.2 percent of 10th graders reported smoking daily, compared to 4.4 percent in 2013 and 6.3 percent in 2009; and 6.7 percent of high school seniors reported smoking daily in 2014, down from 8.5 percent in 2013 and 11.2 percent in 2009. In 1997, at its peak, nearly a quarter of seniors were daily smokers.

Marijuana use remained stable in 2014, even though the percentage of youth perceiving the drug as harmful went down. Youth who used marijuana within the last month remained steady among 8th graders at 6.5 percent, among 10th graders at 16.6 percent, and among 12th graders at 21.2 percent. Close to 6 percent of seniors report daily use of marijuana (similar to 2013), and 81 percent of them said the drug is easy to get. Among 8th graders, there was a drop in perceived availability in 2014, with 36.9 percent saying it is easy to get marijuana, compared to 39.1 percent in 2013.

So if current rates of drug use in teens is dropping, what is the problem? Preferred Family Healthcare located in Kirksville is a substance abuse rehabilitation center that has two locations for adults and adolescents. Their program follows a weekly step by step phase work that is designed to pull their clients away from their substance and replace it with coping skills to use in the outside world. After speaking to the family therapist at Preferred Family Healthcare, she agreed that it is a growing problem that “communities do not want to talk about.” The adolescent unit at Preferred houses roughly 20 kids at a time and the kids stay anywhere from 40-60 days usually. The relapse rate after the program at Preferred is currently around 90 percent, and statistics show that most addicts go through rehab around 7-9 times before they find a working way to fight and beat their addiction.

The Kirksville School District offers numerous education classes for students to help teach them about the effects of drug use. One of the classes offered is the D.A.R.E. Program. “D.A.R.E. stands for Drug Abuse Resistance and Education. It is a program that is implemented into the 5th grade at Ray Miller Elementary,” The course teaches the youth about the effects that alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs on their bodies. The classes last for 10 weeks and the students write essays and participate in a special graduation. There are other aspects that this program addresses such as the peer pressure that youth faces to participate in drug use.

Programs can be set up through the school, but the outside family factors in as well. If students are around tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs while at school, they are more susceptible to try these themselves. Since middle school aged children are particularly susceptible to peer pressure, many decide to experiment with alcohol and drugs after seeing and hearing that other kids are doing it.

Parents are usually the last to know that their middle school aged child has a substance abuse problem.  When children move from elementary school to middle school, many parents decide that it’s time to step back and become less involved in their child’s life.  They are unaware of the warning signs of substance abuse and often find out the truth only after their child has developed a serious problem.

Kirksville schools have taken steps to ensure that their students are drug free as well. If a student participates in any outside extracurricular activity, or uses their vehicle to park on the school’s parking lots, they are agreeing to be randomly drug tested throughout the school year. If a student is caught using drugs while involved in an extracurricular activity, they are placed on suspension for a period of time from the activity. Increasing the rules and consequences for drug use prevents students from engaging in drug use.

For more information please check out the following links

References

Drug Facts. (2013, May 1). Retrieved September 2, 2015, from http://www.drugabuse.gov/sites/default/files/high_school_and_youth_trends_december_2014.pdf

Kirksville, Missouri. (2012, September 1). Retrieved September 1, 2015, from http://www.city-data.com/city/Kirksville-Missouri.html

Kirksville works to educate students about drug abuse - D.A.R.E. America. (2014, October 2). Retrieved September 16, 2015, from http://www.dare.org/kirksville-works-to-educate-students-about-drug-abuse/

Preferred Family Healthcare | Welcome to PFH. (n.d.). Retrieved September 1, 2015, from http://www.pfh.org/

CHOOSE Randolph County Home Care

CHOOSE Home Care

By the time you finish reading this blog, we hope you will understand
the benefits of our home care program and take action for those it pertains to. 
This is our goal because there are a sufficient amount of Randolph County 
residents using hospitalizations, rather than the home care program. To decrease the hospitalization percentage in the community,  
we are primarily focusing on promoting our home care (Randolph County, 2015).  We hope to eventually have at least thirty to thirty-five people utilizing our home care service.

Have You Heard?

l Home care is cheaper than hospitalizations

l Randolph County’s home care is affordable 

l There is access to home health, the clinic, and home management services 

l Home care serves ALL ages

You may be thinking “what in the world is home care?” Home care is a program that provides
therapy and a variety of services in the patient’s home. Home care should be considered if a person
is unable to leave their home or live on their own without assistance or difficulty. Other signs to look for when considering home care include a new illness, an existing disease is having multiple 
complications arise, trouble managing own care, new medications, recently been hospitalized, 
etc. (When To Consider, 2007). 

If you or a loved one is a qualified candidate for home care, the following services are provided by
the Randolph County health department: skilled nursing, occupational and physical therapy, speech
therapy, nurse practitioner visits, and E-visits. Something unique about our home care is we offer 
access to home health, a clinic, and home management services all in one health center. This makes
our services more convenient and beneficial for our patients.

For more information contact the Health Department of Randolph County:

Phone: 660-263-6643

Fax: 660-263-0333

Address: 423 East Logan, PO Box 488, Moberly, MO 65270

References:

Randolph county: Home Care. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2015.

When to Consider Home Health Care. (2007). Retrieved September 17, 2015.

Bullying in the Virgin Islands

Do you have children, or know someone who does?  Most people will answer this question with a “yes”.  Don’t you want these children to be happy and thrive in life?  The answer to this question is also a strong “yes”.  However, there is something extremely important that can get in the way of this, and it has been around for a while.  This issue is bullying, and, unfortunately, not much is known or being done about bullying in the Virgin Islands.

           Even though bullying appears to be a significant issue, the Virgin Islands does have its own anti-bullying laws and policies (Analysis of State Bullying Laws and Policies, 2011).  All schools in the the Virgin Islands that receive federal funding are required, by federal law, to address discrimination under the anti-bullying laws.  These discriminations include a variety of different personal characteristics that may be the reason behind the issue.  These policies do not, however, include cyber-bullying, which has become an increasing issue in society (Analysis of State Bullying Laws and Policies, 2011).

            The Virgin Islands Daily News posted an article in October 2013 on the issues of bullying, using an interview to help get its message across.  One mother described how it is painful for her to send her son to school everyday because of the constant bullying and sexual harassment he faces (Stokes, M., 2013).  This mother claims that the Department of Education has not addressed the issue with the urgency she believes is needed.  The article goes on to describe the physical and emotional issues her son has dealt with while being bullied, and mentions that the teachers are not helping and the channels available for students who are being bullied are not working.

            Another article in the Virgin Islands Daily News discusses how Tae Kwon Do is used as an outlet for aggression and high-energy behavior in youth (Blake, M., 2011).  The article describes how this may address both sides of the issue of bullying.  For those students who are the ones doing the bullying, Tae Kwon Do may provide an outlet for their aggression (Blake, M.m 2011).  For those who are the victims of bullying, it is said that learning Tae Kwon Do can provide them with confidence to simply walk away from the situation, or skills to stand up for themselves if needed (Blake, M., 2011).  While this is a great opportunity, I have to wonder how effective it really is.  How available is this option to students in the Virgin Islands?  How costly is this option?  While it may provide an outlet for some students, there must be a better way to address bullying.  The Virgin Islands Department of Health website has listings of all of their programs, but it does not include an Anti-Bullying program at this time (Our Programs, 2015). 

            The Virgin Islands Board of Education has a policy regarding the intervention, prevention, and remediation of bullying in Virgin Island school districts (K-12 Bullying Intervention, Prevention, and Remediation Policy, 2011).  This policy discusses how bullying should not be tolerated in any of the schools by any students, including cyber bullying, cyber stalking, sextexting, etc. (K-12 Bullying Intervention, Prevention, and Remediation Policy, 2011).  All administrative persons, employees, and volunteers are to participate in annual training regarding the prevention, intervention, and remediation of bullying (K-12 Bullying Intervention, Prevention, and Remediation Policy, 2011).  Students are also expected to participate in anti-bullying programs during the first quarter of each school year (K-12 Bullying Intervention, Prevention, and Remediation Policy, 2011). 

            Bullying has a tremendously negative effect on a person’s mental health.  According to BullyingStatistics.org (2015), students who are bullied are two to nine times more likely to think about suicide than those who are not bullied.  Nearly 30% of students today are victims of bullying, with many students being too scared to attend school because of bullying (Bullying Statistics, 2015).  This is why it is imperative for schools, teachers, and other adults to be willing to help address this issue when it arises. 

            According to the U.S. Virgin Islands 2010 Disability Status report, 2.3% of children in the Virgin Islands have a disability (2010 Disability Status Report: U.S. Virgin Islands, 2010).  This comes out to approximately 615 out of 26,958 children in the Virgin Islands living with a disability (2010 Disability Status Report: U.S. Virgin Islands, 2010). Children with disabilities are more likely to be bullied than children without a disability (Bullying and Youth with Disabilities and Special Health Needs, 2015).  It is important to raise awareness among these children in order to establish data and prevent the higher risk of disability among children with disabilities.

            There is not much data regarding bullying in the Virgin Islands, therefore, it is unknown how many children are bullied.  Ms. Astia LeBron, of the United States Virgin Islands Department of Health, reports that the chance of youth dying of gun violence before the age of 21 is high.  With the lack of data on bullying and the high rate of deaths due to guns, it is important to determine the bullying rate to determine any connections between the two.

For more information on bullying, visit the Centers for Disease Control website or the United States Virgin Islands Department of Health website.

References

Analysis of State Bullying Laws and Policies. (2011). Retrieved September 9, 2015, from http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/bullying/state-bullying-laws/state-bullying-laws.pdf

2010 Disability Status Report: U.S. Virgin Islands. (2010). Retrieved September 12, 2015, from https://www.disabilitystatistics.org/reports/2010-StatusReport-USVI/2010-StatusReport-USVI.html#prev-17

Blake, M. (2010, October 8). Bullying poses threats too dangerous to ignore. Retrieved September 14, 2015, from http://virginislandsdailynews.com/op-ed/bullying-poses-threats-too-dangerous-to-ignore-1.1045672

Blake, M. (2011, August 11). The larger effects of bullying. Retrieved September 9, 2015, from http://virginislandsdailynews.com/op-ed/the-larger-effects-of-bullying-1.1193640

Bullying and Youth with Disabilities and Special Health Needs. (2015). Retrieved September 7, 2015, from http://www.stopbullying.gov/at-risk/groups/special-needs/

Bullying Statistics. (2015). Retrieved September 6, 2015, from http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-and-suicide.html

K-12 Bullying Intervention, Prevention, and Remediation Policy. (2011). Retrieved September 7, 2015, from http://www.myviboe.com/pdf/K-12 Bullying policy final.pdf

Our Programs. (2015). Retrieved September 6, 2015, from http://www.healthvi.org/programs/

Stokes, F. (2013, October 22). Bullying tips Parent finds little help in fighting off school bully Markoe principal mum on incidents. Retrieved September 14, 2015, from http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/bullying-tips-parent-finds-little-help-in-fighting-off-school-bully-markoe-principal-mum-on-incidents-1.1572311