797: Health Equity Institute Launch, Community Design Supports Healthy Aging

SUMMER JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Friday, November, 22 2024. I'm Summer Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

AWELE MADUKA-EZEH: 

There's three pillars that HEIDE is built on, and this is how we have conceptualized it. There's training, there's action and research.

JOHNSON: 

The Health Equity Institute of Delaware, or HEIDE, launched on July 18 of this year. Dr. Awele Maduka-Ezeh with the Delaware Division of Public Health, tells us more.

MADUKA-EZEH: 

So, we put HEIDE together with a primary mission of training a generation of clinicians and public health professionals who would be grounded in health equity, so that they approach their entire careers from the framework- the lens of health equity as they go through their careers.

JOHNSON: 

A major pillar of HEIDE is the training.

MADUKA-EZEH: 

But a big part of that training is that we help them to identify a project that they will work on. Now, this project has to be something that is focused on health equity, slash addressing health disparities. And the way we do this is that we have them think of what matters to them, because that's important.

JOHNSON: 

Already, HEIDE has expanded from the original target demographic of college students, medical trainees, and medical residents to an even younger crowd.

MADUKA-EZEH: 

So, we took 10 students, high schoolers, rising 10th to 12th grade, and we taught them. It was a four-week program. We taught them about the social determinants of health. We taught them about health equity. We taught them about the history, right? 'Why are we here? Why are there so many health disparities, and how does that play out in everyday life?'

JOHNSON: 

There's more information on the Health Equity Institute of Delaware online. Use the link in the show notes to learn more.

November is when we take a deeper look at healthy aging because it's Alzheimer's Awareness Month. Ken Rose with the CDC tells us about the CDC's Active People, Healthy Nation initiative, which aims to help 27 million more Americans become physically active by 2027.

KEN ROSE: 

For older adults, the guidelines recommend three things: get 150 minutes of aerobic physical activity a week, such as walking; get an additional two days a week of strengthening training, that is appropriate for their physical condition; and three, incorporate balancing activities into their physical activity routines.

JOHNSON: 

Rose says one of the big initiatives for healthy aging is community design.

ROSE: 

Community design supports walkable neighborhoods, which make it safer and easier for community members to walk, bike, or wheelchair roll for recreation, fun, fitness, or even transportation. As a result, these types of communities support higher levels of physical activity for everyone.

JOHNSON: 

Public health can also support community design.

ROSE: 

They can support people to participate on walking or mobility audits to determine how their community supports activities like walking or cycling, and they can share their experiences with the organizations in their communities that help make those communities more activity-friendly.

JOHNSON: 

Learn more by clicking the link in the show notes.

An ASTHO blog article focuses on building more equitable communities through policy. Learn how you can involve and empower community members through public health. Click the link in the show notes to learn more.

Finally, this morning, as we near Public Health Thank You Day, we spoke with several health leaders across the country about what they are thankful for. Here's Dr. Kenneth Fink from Hawaii.

KENNETH FINK: 

I wish the public understood how hard these people work and everything they do to protect the public. So, my gratitude is for all the people who do the behind-the- scenes work, and day in and day out, because they genuinely care about public service and caring for and supporting their community. So, I'm grateful for all of them.

JOHNSON: 

That'll do it for today, we're back Monday morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Summer Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great weekend.