Jul 26, 2016

Read All About It: Culture of Health Success Stories

You know how grocery stores surround you with sweet temptations as you wait in line to pay? That idea has been turned on its sugary head in West Virginia, where select grocery stores offer healthy checkout lines that tempt customers with vegetables and granola bars, sunscreen and jump ropes. That Culture of Health story is one of many offered online at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion website, which provides a write-up of a number of projects around the country that promote wellness in innovative ways.

Action Coalitions seeking inspiration and ideas for initiatives can browse the whole site or refine the search by sector (including, of course, health care, but also schools, work, and community at large), intervention area (including healthy eating, physical activity, and clinical services), and type of story (outcomes-oriented, or demonstrations that have yet to be tried on a large scale). Search for “nurse” and a story that shows up is a piece showing how more active recess periods in Kentucky help pupils do better in class. Plug in “health care” and “demonstration” and read a piece that one quoting Beverly Quinn, RN, praising the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment program now implemented in schools in Leflore County, Mississippi.

The site lists many dozens of ideas from all over—maybe even one in your own neighborhood.