Winter Park Health Foundation

Healthy Central Florida (HCF)—a unique community-based partnership aimed at helping Central Floridians move more, eat healthier and get connected—launched before a crowd of 500 on February 6 with Dr. Mehmet Oz, cardiothoracic surgeon and host of The Dr. Oz Show, on hand to offer encouragement and praise.

“Healthy Central Florida is a big celebration of what life could be like,” said Dr. Oz. And if it remains on this celebratory level, HCF will resonate with and attract people because it reflects the joy they want in their lives, he explained.

Founded by the Winter Park Health Foundation and Florida Hospital, HCF is dedicated to making the local community the healthiest in the nation.

The primary focus for HCF is policy and environmental change. Research shows that behavior is impacted by environments – workplace cultures, family dynamics, school settings and community-level conditions. Focusing on individual behavior is no longer enough.

Among many tools, HCF is using a behavior-change strategy of asking individuals to take a “3:30:3” pledge – a commitment to be active three days a week, for 30 minutes, for three months. Many of the nearly 500 community leaders took the pledge on Monday, and they will also lead health and wellness initiatives in their organizations with HCF support.

Focused initially on Winter Park, Maitland and Eatonville, HCF has convened community leadership teams, including each community’s mayor, with representation from various sectors such as business, faith, education, health care and government.

“We know many of our local employers, schools and leading organizations are already doing great work promoting health and wellness,” said Patricia A. Maddox, WPHF president & chief executive officer. “Our hope is that Healthy Central Florida will encourage collaboration and be a catalyst, a convener, a resource and an inspiration for others working to make the healthy choice the easy choice – and the first choice – where we work, live, learn, play and worship.”

HCF unveiled a new web-based tool to help residents easily find fun ways to be active primarily in Winter Park, Maitland and Eatonville — www.FindActiveFun.org.  This interactive tool enables visitors to discover community resources, fitness classes, parks, trails and events—many at no or low-cost—for individuals and families. The search can be customized by details such as zip code, neighborhood, date, time available and environment. Those who visit also can submit information on new activities.

“The economic health and vibrancy of our region, as well as the health of our residents, is at stake, said J. Brian Paradis, executive vice president and chief operations officer at Florida Hospital. This is about the health and well-being of our entire community, and it will take all of us working together to reach our community’s fullest health potential.”

Acknowledging that this work is a marathon and not a sprint, the executive director of the new organization, Jill Hamilton Buss added, “True community level change won’t happen overnight. But when we study the radical shift in social norms for other health behaviors – smoking, drinking and driving or seat belt usage, we know we can change our local norms to ones of active lifestyles vs. sedentary ones.  We’re already on our way.”

An in-depth study of fitness, nutrition and related health behaviors in Winter Park, Maitland and Eatonville was commissioned by HCF.  The results of this research will be released soon and help guide the community teams as they develop community specific strategic plans. For more information on HCF, visit www.healthycentralflorida.org.

The latest in a series of policy briefs focused on proposed changes to Florida’s Medicaid program—presented to more than 30 stakeholders and political leaders in Tallahassee on January 18 and then to another 200 through a webinar on January 19—raises many questions about the proposal’s impact on Floridians who receive long-term care.

Florida’s proposed new Long-Term Care Managed Care program, which will cover adults 65 and older and younger adults with disabilities, will affect as many as 84,000 current Florida Medicaid beneficiaries as well as another 27,000 eligible individuals who are on various waiting lists for services.

The new briefing paper — Proposed Medicaid Long-Term Care Changes Raise Host of Questions About Impact — is from researchers at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. The educational brief is one of a series commissioned by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund and the Winter Park Health Foundation. Two earlier briefs were released in December 2011. Continue reading →

For more than a decade, Winter Park Health Foundation (WPHF) has been dedicated to helping local elementary, middle and high school students become as healthy and academically productive as possible through a collection of school-based health and wellness programs that are part of its Coordinated Youth Initiative (CYI).

Thanks to a partnership with Nemours Children’s Hospital, a new program—the Nemours Child Care Prevention Initiative—will help children acquire healthy habits before they even reach kindergarten.

The program, made possible by a $50,000 WPHF grant to Nemours,  is being launched in 14 Eatonville, Maitland and Winter Park child care settings with children who go on to attend Winter Park Consortium schools – WPHF partners in the CYI.

“This is a natural extension of the health-enhancing work we already do in public schools through the CYI and its efforts including Healthy School Teams,” explained Debbie Watson, WPHF Vice President. “Research shows the earlier you can instill healthy habits in children, the better; so it makes sense to reach out to children and their families through child care centers.”

“The best way to help children make healthy choices in later life is to practice them early,” said Dr. Lloyd Werk, Nemours, Director of Florida Prevention Initiative

Other child care centers in Central Florida already have received training, and the hope is that it will spread to others and saturate the area. “Our goal is to help grow a healthier generation,” said Dr. Werk.

The five goals of the program are to get kids moving, reduce screen time, make nutrition fun, offer healthier beverages, and support infant feeding choices. In keeping with other WPHF efforts focused on “making the healthy choice the easy choice,” an additional objective of the partnership with Nemours is to promote the establishment of wellness policies within child care centers.

Child care center directors and staff are being trained on the Nemours 5-2-1-Almost None formula for a healthy lifestyle and use of the Healthy Habits for Life Child Care Resource Kit created in partnership with Sesame Street. It teaches children about eating right and staying physically active. Nemours will supply curriculum and wellness policy materials for use by child care professionals as well as educational resources for children and their families.

Volunteers also are being trained so they can go into the child care centers to help teach classes and activities and to help staff establish healthful policies.

Training will take place over the next couple months.

Nemours also is working with First Lady Michele Obama on Let’s Move! Child Care, a nationwide call-to-action designed to empower child care providers to make positive health changes in children, early on, that could last a lifetime.

The WPHF grant and partnership with Nemours will empower and enable child care providers serving Eatonville, Maitland and Winter Park to step up and become an important part of this movement.

For more information about the initiative, go to http://healthykidshealthyfuture.org

A long-trusted leader on health care issues, the Winter Park Health Foundation (WPHF) in the past and present has worked with other foundations in Florida to provide information–to stakeholders and the public–on health issues impacting Central Florida and the rest of the state.

WPHF currently is collaborating with the Jessie Ball duPont Fund to financially support a series of four educational briefs focused on proposed changes to Florida’s Medicaid program.

The first two briefs, the work of researchers at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, were released in December. The latest brief–number three– is focused on Florida’s Medicaid Waiver and Long-Term Care, and will be released at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 in a webinar. To register for the webinar, go to http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=84303  Space is limited.

In brief one, “Looking Ahead to 2012, What Changes Are in Store for Florida’s Medicaid Program?” the researchers provide background and an overview of the proposed changes and the process involved.

Brief two, “Proposed Medicaid Premiums Challenge Coverage for Florida’s Children and Parents,” focuses on the possible impact of a proposed $10 monthly premium on all Medicaid beneficiaries, including children. This, according to the researchers, could result in many not having any form of health insurance coverage.

WPHF collaborated with the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund and multiple other Florida foundation to educate consumers, stakeholders and policy-makers on the issues involved in Medicaid reform underway in Florida in 2004 and 2005.

Part of a series called “Florida’s Health at Risk,” the briefs also were authored by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. The briefs were designed to spark a thoughtful public discussion on the best ways to improve Medicaid funding.

These briefs included, “What Could a Waiver to Restructure Medicaid Mean for Florida?,”  “Florida’s Medicaid Budget: Why are Costs Going Up?,” “Issues to Consider in Governor Bush’s “Florida Medicaid Modernization Proposal,” “Understanding Florida’s Medicaid Reform Legislation,” and “Understanding Florida’s Medicaid Waiver Application”

To view the briefs, go to www.wphf.org.

To view additional research completed by the Georgetown Health Policy Institute, go to http://ihcrp.georgetown.edu/ and click on “Assessing Florida’s Medicaid Reform” on the right side of the page.

The faltering economy has inspired the Winter Park Health Foundation (WPHF) to find innovative ways of meeting basic needs of the local community while remaining true to its overall goal of creating the healthiest community in the U.S.

One of the most basic needs is food, and the Foundation found one of the neediest groups in the community included older adults. The segment also is one of the most difficult to reach. So WPHF recently approved a grant of $52,250 to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida to buy shelf-stable products for senior food packs to be distributed to hungry older adults.

Pleased with the success of the Second Harvest Food Bank’s Hi-Five Kids Pack program, which is financially supported by WPHF and provides shelf-stable foods to needy children in elementary schools, WPHF staff asked the Food Bank to explore similar ways to get much-needed extra foods to local seniors.  The result is a program unique to the area, and one that has drawn attention from the United States Department of Agriculture which has struggled to find ways to feed “hidden seniors.”

Florida AARP collaborated on the project by providing an estimated 50 volunteers to help assemble the senior food packs at the Second Harvest Food Bank. The grant provided for 5,542 10-pound food packs which will include items that represent each of the major food groups, including dairy.

Community distribution points have included faith communities, food pantries, congregate meal sites, low-income senior housing communities, and a select number of Walgreens’ pharmacies serving residents of Winter Park, Maitland and Eatonville.

Deliveries to homebound individuals have been made by Meals on Wheels volunteers. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel will make food packs available to older adults in need, as they become known through call responses.

In addition to food, each pack contains a list of contact information for valuable community resources and services.

“It is heartening to see so many organizations interested in addressing the issue of senior hunger,” said Diana Silvey, WPHF Program Director — Older Adults.

Hunger among older adults is a growing problem. According to research commissioned by the AARP Foundation, nearly 9 million Americans 50 and older face the risk of hunger. The research report found more than nine percent of older Americans were at risk of hunger in 2009—a 79 percent increase since 2001.

The Foundation also has partnered with the Second Harvest Food Bank to provide supplemental food packs to hungry children in the eight elementary schools in the Winter Park Consortium through its Hi-Five Kids Pack program and has supported its Benefits Connection program, which helps people who are eligible for food stamps and other federally-supported services obtain them.

WPHF also has been a supporter of the Heart of Florida United Way’s Basic Needs Campaign which provides immediate financial help to Central Floridians needing help with food, rent, transportation and other life essentials.