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Health Commission

Welcome! Let's talk about children's health, and some simple things you can do to make a difference—in your family, school, and community.

If you are a local health commissioner looking for guidance and resources on how to effectively do your job, please visit http://ptahealth.blogspot.com for tips, advice, links, and current information.

If you are a parent looking for information on healthy families, please take a look around. You'll find articles and ideas at http://ptahealth.blogspot.com, or you can check out some of the links we've put together to head you in the right direction.

Have you read Perspectives lately? This Utah PTA magazine will help you keep on top of current PTA events, as well as provide you with valuable tips on how to do your job. You can access the current issue right here on our Web site—just check the sidebar for a link.

Please scroll down to find links, as well as information on coming programs and activities.

We are interested in your questions, comments, and ideas. Your needs drive our efforts, so please do not hesitate to share what's worked well for you, as well as letting us know what support you need. Together we can become healthier and happier as we work to light the way for every child.

Health Commission Focus

Utah PTA strongly believes that health means so much more than being what the media tells us about being thin and athletic; healthy people are happy people who feel good—inside and out. We can all do better at improving our lifestyles, and that happens one step at a time. Whether it's eating healthier foods, reducing unnecessary stress, or remembering to apply sunscreen before playing outside, one simple change in your life, in your school, or in your community can have lasting effects.

Health covers an extremely broad range of issues, and Utah PTA has chosen the following to focus on and advocate for in the best interest of children:

  • Dental Care
  • Environmental Health
  • Growth/Maturation
  • Health Care and Insurance
  • Immunization
  • Mental Health
  • Nutrition
  • Physical Fitness
  • School Wellness Policies
  • Screenings (vision, hearing, scoliosis, asthma)
  • Sexual Responsibility
  • Sexually Transmitted Diseases
  • Substance Abuse

Setting Our Children Up For Success

 

 

Check out this special report from USA Today by Betsy Landers, National PTA President, regarding the link between missing school in kindergarten and the first grade to high school dropout rates.  We should help our young children eat well and get enough sleep so they can be alert and ready to learn. http://www.pta.org/Health_and_Wellness.pdf

Hope For Tomorrow

Update:  Look below for the latest Mental Health Matters pdf.

BECOME A HOPE FOR TOMORROW CHAMPION

“Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people age 15-24.”

 

What is Hope for Tomorrow?

Hope for Tomorrow (HFT) is a school-based mental health education program that provides an opportunity for adolescents who suffer from undiagnosed, under-treated, or untreated mental illness to learn both when and how to seek appropriate help. It also provides teachers, parents and the community with information on signs and symptoms of three potential, life-threatening illnesses.

What is the biggest challenge Hope for Tomorrow faces?

The biggest challenge this program faces is how to keep it going in the schools. Hope for Tomorrow has primarily been implemented by a school’s PTA board – but once those board members are gone, the program disappears.

How can you help?

We feel one effective way of keeping Hope for Tomorrow active in the schools is to identify HFT “champions” who will adopt a school and work with the school’s PTA, counselors, or other interested parties to keep “Hope” alive from year to year. You can choose a school your children attend or attended, or the school you live closest to, or any school you feel a connection to.

“I’m busy. How much time is this going to take?”

You can put as little or as much time into being an HFT champion as you want. You can even pair up with another person and become co-champions. Basically, your job would be to make contact with the school (the PTA president or Health Commissioner is a good place to start), see if they know about Hope for Tomorrow and are currently running it in their school, and if not, provide them with information about the program and encourage them to implement it. Then you would touch base with the school yearly to ensure they continue the program. You would also keep NAMI informed of your efforts.

Hope for Tomorrow – a “gateway” to NAMI

Ultimately, we would like to see Hope for Tomorrow become a “gateway” program that leads people to other NAMI programs and resources. For example, through Hope for Tomorrow a student could learn about our Progression class for adolescents and young adults. A parent could learn about Basics, Family-to-Family, or Family Support Groups. School counselors could learn about Family Resource Facilitators. ESL students and parents could learn about Conexión and Familia a Familia.

The Hope for Tomorrow Menu of Options

What we want people to understand is that implementing Hope for Tomorrow in their school does not have to be a big, complicated process. It can be as simple as asking the school to put a link to NAMI or Hope for Tomorrow on their school website. If that’s all a school can do, that’s wonderful! Or it can be as involved as arranging a Parents and Teachers as Allies panel presentation for a teacher in-service or a parent forum.  The important thing is just getting the program out there and increasing awareness.

 

Attached Documents: 
HFT-color.pdf
Mental Health Matters school newsletter 08.pdf

Healthy School Lunch Fight

 

Obama administration loses effort to make school lunches healthier


Keith Srakocic/AP - Stirring a pot of tomato sauce.



By Dina ElBoghdady, Published:  November 15

The Obama administration’s push to limit the starchy vegetables and tomato paste served to millions of children at school each day was derailed by lawmakers this week, in effect enabling school cafeterias to continue offering pizza and french fries.

For nearly a year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been crafting a proposal aimed at providing more nutritious school lunches that include an array of fruits and vegetables. But the food industry and its allies in Congress have pushed back on the details, saying the proposal would be costly, partly because of vegetable prices.


Pizza and potatoes got caught in the cross fire.

The USDA proposal, based on recommendations from the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine, would put a one-cup-per-week limit on the amount of white potatoes and other starchy vegetables served to schoolchildren.

The proposal also would have nixed the favorable treatment granted to tomato paste. Currently, an eighth of a cup of tomato paste is credited with as much nutritional value as half a cup of vegetables and thus counts as one vegetable serving. That enables foodmakers to better market their pizzas to schools.

The argument for the special consideration given to tomato paste has been that once it’s mixed with water, as often happens in making pizza sauce, more of a vegetable is created.

The USDA wants to bring tomato paste in line with how other fruit pastes and purees are treated.

Ordinarily, these types of issues would be hashed out as the USDA gathers comments from the public while finalizing the proposal. But several lawmakers made an end run around the process. They added amendments to block the two changes — on starchy vegetables and tomato paste — to agriculture spending bills moving through the Senate and House.

Late Monday, Senate and House negotiators reconciled the differences between their two spending bills and unveiled the final version, which included language to halt the potato and tomato paste changes. The Senate and House are expected to vote on that version later this week. If it passes, the USDA will be forced to drop its plans regarding potatoes and tomato paste as it presses to finalize its broader school lunch initiative by the end of the year.

Consumer advocates said the stripped-down proposal will still be an improvement over the current nutrition guidelines. But they — and USDA officials — expressed disappointment.

“While it’s unfortunate that some members of Congress continue to put special interests ahead of the health of America’s children, USDA remains committed to practical, science-based standards for school meals,” a statement from the department said.

Margo Wootan, a director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the decision could go down as a bigger blunder than the Reagan administration’s unsuccessful effort in the 1980s to credit ketchup as a vegetable in the school lunch program.

“Given all the concern about childhood obesity, Congress should be helping schools serve healthier foods, not hurting that effort,” Wootan said.

 


Retired military leaders also weighed in. In a letter to Congress this week, a group of retired generals and admirals urged lawmakers to close the “pizza loophole” and fight obesity — the leading medical disqualifier for military service.

House lawmakers involved in negotiating the spending bill had wanted to scrap the entire USDA school lunch proposal, citing its $6.8 billion price tag and the financial burdens it would place on school districts, people familiar with the negotiations said. Facing that broader criticism, Senate and House conferees scrapped the USDA’s tomato and potato proposals. The food industry cheered.


The American Frozen Food Institute, affiliated with the National Frozen Pizza Institute, called the compromise a “balanced approach” that “recognizes the significant amounts of potassium, fiber and vitamins A and C provided by tomato paste and ensures students may continue to enjoy healthy meals such as pizza and pasta.”

While the push to protect tomato paste came from House Republicans, people familiar with the negotiations said, some senators also opposed ending its favored status. Some lawmakers argued that school nutritionists, not federal bureaucrats, should make food decisions.

“Tomato paste is nutritionally dense, but the Department of Agriculture said it must meet the same volume as a fresh tomato,” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said in a floor speech earlier this month. That doesn’t make much sense.”

The National Potato Council, which worked with Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) to strip out the limits on starchy vegetables, also hailed the compromise. Collins said the limits that the USDA wants to impose on starchy vegetables — including white potatoes, corn, peas and lima beans — were arbitrary.

The problem lies not with potatoes, which are full of healthful nutrients, but rather the way they are prepared, Collins said. In a recent Senate speech, she said baked potatoes are often “a vehicle” for other vegetables. Yet students would not be allowed to eat a baked potato one day and an ear of fresh corn later that week, an “absurd result,” she said.

Collins also raised the cost issue, which was cited by Democrats as well. Some schools could be forced to drop their school breakfast programs because the USDA’s proposal would increase costs by 50 cents, she said. The proposal would ban starchy vegetables from federally funded breakfasts, too.

The USDA rejects the cost argument as it applies to starchy vegetables.

It says the most recent federal data show that most elementary schools already serve portions of starchy vegetables that are near or below the proposed one-cup-per-week limit. High schools, on average, exceed the recommended limit, but these schools account for only 20 percent of the students who get federally funded meals, the USDA said.

 

Urge Congress Not to Stand in the Way of Healthier School Lunches

 

As our children head back to school, some members of Congress want to roll back progress on improving school lunches, despite the sky-high childhood obesity rates.

PTA members, we need your help to send a loud and clear message to Congress that we want healthier school meals.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed common-sense nutrition guidelines to improve school lunches and breakfasts, including more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat milk and less salt, unhealthy fats, and calories.

Unfortunately, Food interests are working to get Congress to stop USDA from finalizing these sensible school nutrition standards. The House of Representatives has already included a rider in its Agriculture spending bill urging USDA to start over from scratch and propose a new set of school meal standards—even though tens of thousands of parents and organizations supported these important improvements.

If industry is successful in convincing the Senate to do the same, the goal of seeing healthy school lunches in cafeterias across the country will be in jeopardy.

Please send an email to both of your Senators today asking them to support USDA's efforts to improve school meals.

 

Utah Department of Health

The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) knows that throughout the course of a school day there is any number of challenges you are faced with regarding the health of your students. The Utah Department of Health offers many health resources for schools. To assist you in accessing these resources, a School Health Resources Guide has been created. You can download the guide by clicking on the link below. You can also learn more on UDOH website at http://www.health.utah.gov.

Attached Documents: 
UDOH_School_Health_Resources.pdf

Gold Medal Schools

http://www.hearthighway.org/gms

Utah PTA supports a variety of programs, activities, and events throughout the school year. Here are a few you may want to become more familiar with. The first three programs listed, are official PTA Programs.

Gold Medal Schools makes it possible for elementary schools to provide physical activity and healthy nutrition choices at a time when budget cuts and testing requirements overshadow physical activity and nutrition. Gold Medal Schools improves students’ academic success through policies and environmental changes that support good nutrition, physical activity and staying tobacco-free.

The Utah Department of Health developed the Gold Medal Schools program in 2001 using the State Office of Education's core curriculum and the Centers for Disease Control's guidelines to address overweight and obesity in elementary schools. Intermountain Healthcare partnered with the Gold Medal Schools team in 2005 and has enabled the program to reach more schools throughout the state. Today, Gold Medal Schools has reached more than 140,000 students and over 6,000 teachers in 286 elementary schools!

The Gold Medal Schools program launched a new page on their web site. This new page is especially for parents. Its main purpose is to take Gold Medal Schools to the home reinforcing the school's Gold Medal Schools philosophy. Please check it out and spread the word about this new resource for the parents.

Hope for Tomorrow

http://www.namiut.org

The Utah PTA has a partnership with The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Utah (NAMI Utah) that officially supports the Hope for Tomorrow program. This program is a home grown Utah program that was developed by students, PTA representatives, parents, educators and other professionals.

The three goals of this program are:

 

  • Raise awareness of mental health issues
  • Erase the stigma of mental illness
  • Foster hope among students and their families

The three topics discussed are:

  • Mood disorders
  • Substance use disorders
  • Eating disorders

The three audiences involved are:

  • Students
  • Teachers
  • Parents and the community

This program does not prescribe, heal, or treat. Through education, this program provides an opportunity for adolescents who suffer from undiagnosed, under-treated, or untreated mental illness to learn both when and how to seek appropriate professional help. It also provides teachers, parents and the community with information on signs and symptoms of three potential, life threatening illnesses. Education is empowering–especially when there is collaboration between homes and schools.

For questions call Chandra at NAMI Utah 801-323-9900 or toll free 1-877-230-6264. For more information see http://www.namiut.org.

Action for Healthy Kids

http://www.actionforhealthykids.org

Action for Healthy Kids is the nation’s leading nonprofit and largest volunteer network fighting childhood obesity and undernourishment by working with schools to improve nutrition and physical activity to help our kids learn to eat right, be active every day and be ready to learn. They provide expertise, volunteers, programs and resources nationwide through a unique collaboration of more than 11,000 members – professionals, parents, educators, community volunteers, business leaders and students – in partnership with professional associations, government agencies and corporations. The National PTA is a partner with Action for Healthy Kids. Utah PTA partners with the Utah Team of Action for Healthy Kids and the PTA Health Commissioner serves on that team. Go to http://www.actionforhealthykids.org to learn more.

The Action for Healthy Kids School Programs:

Action cost programs and resources so that children in all schools get to learn healthy eating habits and the need for daily physical activity AND they get to eat healthy foods and be active every day. See which one is right for your school.

Game On! The Ultimate Wellness Challenge

This is one powerful and unique program that makes it easy for schools to help youth and their families learn to eat healthy and be active every day. Game On! features fun activities, or "challenges," around "Making Better Food Choices" and "Moving More." Best of all, Game On! helps increase awareness and leads to behavior changes that positively impact health and achievement.

ReCharge

A collaboration with the National Football League, ReCharge! helps kids in grades 2-6 learn about nutrition and physical activity through fun, teamwork-based activities – before, during or after school.

Students Taking Charge

http://www.studentstakingcharge.org

Students have a right to a healthy school! Students Taking Charge is a national program from Action for Healthy Kids for high school students to learn, join and take action to make their schools healthier places and to help themselves and their peers learn to eat right and be active every day.

Wellness Policy Tool

http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/school-programs/our-programs/wellnes...

Never has creating, implementing and monitoring a wellness policy been easier. The handy online tool provides step-by-step guidance, best practice examples and resources to create a local wellness policy; put the policy into action; and measure its success against goals to improve student health and learning.

Action for Healthy Kids Grants

Through partners such as Kellogg's and the Walmart Foundation, Action for Healthy Kids is pleased to release its School Grants for Healthy Kids opportunities for the 2012-2013 school year.  Over 500 schools nationwide will be awarded funds that will range from $1,000 to $5,000 with significant in-kind contributions from Action for Healthy Kids in the form of people, programs, and school nutrition expertise.  We'll also provide schools with management expertise and support to develop strong nutrition programs around school breakfast, competitive foods, summer meals, access to healthy food and nutrition education.

Award amounts will be based on building enrollment, project type, potential impact, and a school's ability to mobilize parents and students around school wellness initiatives.  Schools must participate in the National School Lunch Program and National School Breakfast Program; and must have a free/reduced priced meal eligibility greater than 50% to be eligible. 

Visit Action for Healthy Kids website for more information:  www.actionforhealthykids.org

Click link below for more details regarding School Grants for Healthy Kids:

http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/upcoming-events/grant-opportunities/school-grants-for-healthy.htmlAct

Healthier US School Challenge

http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/healthierus/index.html

Childhood overweight and obesity are major concerns in the United States. Evidence indicates that poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and obesity are associated with lower student achievement. Recognizing that schools have more influence on the lives of young people than any other institution, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) encourages all schools to take a leadership role in helping students learn to make healthier eating and physical activity choices that will last a lifetime.

USDA has established the HealthierUS School Challenge to recognize schools that create healthier school environments by providing nutrition education, nutritious food and beverage choices, physical education and opportunities for physical activity.

The challenge is offered at four award levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Gold Award of Distinction. Monetary awards of $500-$2,000 are available.

To review the application and see the details, go to http://teamnutrition.usda.gov and click on the logo on the right side of the page.

If you have questions or need help, contact Child Nutrition at the State Office of Education at 801-538-7563.

Parents, Speak Up!

New information about this campaign: This campaign is being discontinued because funding has ended. The materials that have been available to order free from the website will go through one more print run and then when those are gone, no more will be available. If you would like to order booklets, please do so as soon as possible.

Parents, you are the best person to help your child understand and make good choices. You want your teen to be healthy and happy now and in the future. Do you need help talking to your child about sexual behavior? They really will listen to you and you have much more influence on them than you think. For more tips on talking with your children, go to the website from U.S. Health & Human Services at the link below. It is full of great information for parents. If you want to order "Parents Speak Up" booklets, you will be allowed to order up to 100 free per month. Click on "Media & Community Outreach", and then "order materials". We encourage you to order them and have a parent meeting at your school.

 

 

Attached Documents: 
Padres Hablen Ya
Parent's Speak Up Booklet
Teen Chat

Sex Still Has a Price Tag

Pam Stenzel video on abstinence for teens

Sex Still Has a Pricetag, by Pam Stenzel, is a video for teens to teach them abstinence from sexual activity. It is done in a very engaging, humorous way that really catches the attention of teens and makes them listen. The State PTA has approved the video.

To see excerpts from the video, go to YouTube.com and search for "Pam Stenzel" or click this link:
Pam Stenzel videos on YouTube.

The Health Commission bought a copy of the video and it is available for PTAs to borrow. As with all videos, the district or principal should give approval, and therefore may need to preview it. To borrow the DVD, please contact Liz Zentner, Utah PTA Health Commissioner, at 801-261-3100 or liz@utahpta.org.

You can also purchase your own copy for $30 at http://pamstenzel.com. Click on "shop", then "public school materials". It is not available at any of the libraries in Salt Lake City County or Murray.

Where Can I Properly Dispose of My Medications?

For information on the proper disposal of prescription and over-the-counter medications, please visit:

http://www.medicationdisposal.utah.gov/disposal_locations_events.htm

International Walk to School Month

International Walk To School month is October. We encourage schools to plan a Walk to School Day during the month of October.

Start a Walking School Bus

What is a walking school bus? A walking school bus is a group of children walking to school with one or more adults. If that sounds simple, it is, and that's part of the beauty of the walking school bus. It can be as informal as two families taking turns walking their children to school to as structured as a route with meeting points, a timetable and a regularly rotated schedule of trained volunteers.

A variation on the walking school bus is the bicycle train, in which adults supervise children riding their bikes to school. The flexibility of the walking school bus makes it appealing to communities of all sizes with varying needs.

Parents often cite safety issues as one of the primary reasons they are reluctant to allow their children to walk to school. Providing adult supervision may help reduce those worries for families who live within walking or bicycling distance to school.

For more information, including how to get your school involved, please visit http://www.iwalktoschool.org.

Anti-idling Campaign

Students at many schools around the state are supporting an Anti-idling Campaign. We would like your help to reduce idling while waiting in your car.

Did you know that if everyone in the United States stopped idling for five minutes a day it would be equivalent to taking five hundred thousand cars off the road and saving one point six million tons of CO2? By turning your engine off when parked for more than 10 seconds, you will save money by reducing fuel use. You will breathe easier by preventing unhealthy exhaust from building up in and around your car, and you will protect the blue sky by reducing idling emissions that contribute to smog, because 10 seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting your engine.

To learn more, go to http://www.idlefree.utah.gov.

Remember to Turn your key and be idle free!

Ribbon Week

For information on how to organize a successful Ribbon Week event, please visit http://www.ufyi.org, where you will find a downloadable booklet on organizing a ribbon week.

Below is a list of websites with ideas for Ribbon Weeks, the different ribbon colors, and what they mean. Choose the one that fits your school best.

Red Ribbon - Drug Free

Yellow Ribbon - Teen Suicide Prevention

Purple Ribbon - Domestic Violence Awareness Week

Green Ribbon--Awareness of Sexual Violence

Green Ribbon - Safety in the Roads

White Ribbon - Increase Awareness of Pornography

Blue Ribbon - Child Abuse Prevention

Purchasing ribbons for Ribbon Week

Ribbons of various colors are available from:

Transit Instruments
612 West Confluence Ave (4206 South)
Murray, UT 84123
801-262-0066

Call ahead to place your order. Mention the Utah PTA for a discount!

Winning with Asthma

An important on-line course for coaches and P.E. teachers

Coaches, referees, PE Teachers, elementary school teachers - all probably have about one child with asthma out of every ten students or team members. Winning With Asthma is a 30 minute online course coaches and teachers can take for free to educate them on how to coach a child with asthma. For completing the course, they will receive a coach's clipboard with more information on asthma and printed on the back of the clipboard are instructions on how to handle an asthma attack.

Approximately 8% of children in Utah have asthma. That is about 67,800 children with asthma, enough to fill 2,700 classrooms. Becoming an Asthma School Advocate is a great way to help improve the lives of children with asthma. Come to a training to learn more about asthma and activities you can do in schools in your community. For more information visit our blog at http://asthmaadvocate.blogspot.com. To sign up for an Asthma Advocate training contact Kellie Baxter at kabaxter@utah.gov or (801)538-6595.

Let's encourage all teachers and coaches of any of the teams from the school or neighborhood to take just 30 minutes and take this course at http://www.WinningWithAsthma.org.

Healthy Lifestyles Awards

Plan an event that will take place in November that promotes healthy habits among students and families and your PTA could win up to $1,000 to support those plans.

Go to http://www.pta.org/pta_healthy_lifestyles_grant.asp for more details.

The Healthy Lifestyles Grant Report due May 30, 2012.

Attached Documents: 
PTA Healthy Lifestyles: A Parent's Guide
The Healthy Lifestyles Grant Report

Flu Clinics

We encourage all PTAs to organize flu clinics at your school this fall. You can hold a flu clinic as early as late August. H1N1 (Swine) flu shots are being combined with the seasonal flu this year. For best results, schedule the clinic in conjunction with another event that brings parents into the school - registration, back-to-school, parent-teacher conference. Start by talking to your principal and your school nurse. If the school nurse is unable, contact Community Nursing Services or your local Health Dept.

For More Information

Utah Department of Health - http://www.health.utah.gov

For a wealth of information on a variety of topics, from what our state government is doing to combat childhood obesity, to how we're meeting our goals of decreasing teen pregnancies, to tips on sun safety. (Click the “Local Health” tab to access your local health department.)

Centers for Disease Control - http://www.cdc.gov

Looking for the latest Food Guide Pyramid? Information on how to prevent seasonal illnesses or protect your family from common viruses (like West Nile)? Growth and development milestones for your child? Tips on how to make your home or school safer? Guidance on how to correctly install your child safety restraints? It's all here in a very accessible format. This is one you'll want to bookmark and visit again and again.

Substance Abuse - http://www.justthinktwice.com

Run by the US Drug Enforcement Agency, this site offers information on all imaginable forms of substance abuse, including prevention and treatment to parents and adolescents.

Caring Connections

Utah PTA works with many partners who are trying to help families.
Caring Connections is one of those wonderful groups.  They would like
to make available to every school a copy of their book about dealing
with sudden and unexpected death so that counselors at every school
have this resource.  Please visit their booth at the Utah PTA
Leadership Convention in the Commissioners Fair for more information.
This book is also helpful for individual families. 

Attached Documents: 
Dealing with Sudden and Unexpected Death-note_to_PTA.pdf
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