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Board
of Health Policy Goals and Priority Work Projects
Goal 4: Encourage healthy behaviors
Children's Health
and Well Being Committee: Diana Yu
and Patricia Ortiz
Lead Staff:
Tara Wolff
NOTE: The
Children's Health and Well Being Committee agreed to take responsibility for
the broader goal of encouraging healthy behaviors, although much of its work
under this goal continues to focus on children's health.
Children's health and well being has been a priority
policy area for the Board since 2000. In 2009, the Board adopted a
five-year strategic plan. Policy projects affecting the health and
well-being of children are reflected in many of the strategic plan's
five goal areas:
1.
Strengthen the public health system.
2.
Increase access to preventive services.
3.
Reduce health disparities.
4.
Encourage healthy behaviors.
5.
Promote healthy and save environments.
For instance, the Board is working to increase
preventive health services for children by working to ensure that more
children have medical homes and that private insurance companies offer a
wide array of preventive services for children. These activities and others
are designed to help assure access to critical health services (goal 2
above). You can review the Board's five-year
strategic
plan to see more examples of how children's health and well-being is
incorporated into the Board's five main goals.
The Board's
2009 Strategic Plan
identifies two objectives under the goal of encouraging healthy
behaviors:
-
Improving nutrition and increasing physical
activity
-
Reducing alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use and secondhand smoke
exposure
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Policy Projects Related to Healthy Behaviors Goal
Rule Making Activities Related to Healthy Behaviors Goal
Community
Forums: Food, Fitness, and Our Kids
In response to the growing childhood obesity epidemic in
our state, the Board convened a number of organizations including the
Washington State School Directors' Association, the Department of Health, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction,
the University of Washington Center for Public Health Nutrition, the Washington State Parent
Teacher Association, the Washington School Food Service Association, and
local health jurisdictions in three counties (Benton-Franklin,
Clark, and Island) to organize a series of
community meetings. These meetings provided an opportunity to
discuss the far-reaching consequences of children's inactivity and poor
nutrition and share ways schools can help address this serious problem. Practical
resources and information regarding these community meetings can be
found online.
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Each Student Successful Summit: Exploring policies to address health
disparities and the academic achievement gap
On May 18, 2007, the Board co-hosted a day long summit on health disparities and
the academic achievement gap. Research has shown that the same students who
are disproportionately affected by the academic achievement gap are also
adversely affected by health disparities. This event brought together policy
makers, educators, public health professionals, parents, students, families,
and advocates to discuss policy and system changes needed to promote good
health and narrow the academic achievement gap.
More information.
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