Health Bahavior Change Group at Old Dominion Coffee
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Topic: Effective Health Behavior Change
Location: Old Dominion Coffee Company
Convened: 8/29/2009 10:30 am
Attendees and Affiliation:
- Ali Kinney – RMH Wellness Center Program Manager
- Tom Mendez – City Schools (reducing childhood obesity)
- Nicole Ferraro – Public Health and Mathmatics Major, JMU
- Laura Dent – Friendly City Food Coop
- Joyce Major – Mental Wellness, consultant and counselor
- Jason- Shen Dao Clinic
- Mike Trainum – Intercultural health ed – Shellbook (community created media)
- Melinda Swisher – Director of the RMH Wellness Center
- Deb Rhizal – Wellness Coaching
- Tony Lopez – Friendly City Food Coop (Habits)
Notes:
Ideas we’ve found that work:
- -shoot for accessible change, not big change
- -fit your personality -join with a friend
- -personally fun approach
- -make it social/group oriented
What resources do we have so that people know what is available here? A community bulletin board for example. Park and Rec flier (more for the middle folks, not just kids and seniors). A great place for pick up games. Friendly City Food Coop will be a great place to share announcements – ie a health and fitness bulletin board, a nutrition bulletin boards. Maybe a facebook page. A place where people can pull others together to run or bike or what have you. GoLookOn.com -stuff happening around Harrisonburg.
Healthy Community Councils report – Harrisonburg is behind the mark on regular preventative screenings. Physician relationships – getting physicians to refer to a club or a wellness coach. How do we get physicians on board? One idea is the Mayors Health Hometown Challenge.
Get the town behind having a healthy “Taste of Downtown” where each resturant features 2-3 healthy options.
How do we get the people that aren’t interested in trying into trying? – Its finding the acceptable source of education: ie doctors, parents, teachers, churches, health food stores. Personalize information – put it in an emotional context – give to from a specific person to a specific person.
Access to Physicians:
Fear is not a long term healthy motivator for change.
Training physcians, pastors, health food store employees etc… the “gateway” people, who people listen to, to understand how to motivate vision and change and have referrals available. Can we create a “shell” or outline, that any group can personalize?
Physicians fair – trade show etc. Free food.
Steps we could take
Run an after school program
Get a small group of physicians together and share lifestyle medicine tools – an education session on how to motivate and inspire change during a short office visit.
Have a fair from an organizational level – ie RMH physicians fair.
Make a template, give it to people and tell them to make it their own: Good cognitive content provided, individuals can add the effective content.
Community Created Media.
Can we use the CSA model? If you have the veggies you have to figure out how to use them. Can we do this more? Can we do it with things other than food?
Take Aways:
-Gather gateway people and remind them of the resource they are.
-Behavior Change is a peer group activity (common interest)
-Smaller communities can be seen as lacking, but really H-burg has a nice sampling of various focuses, we have plenty to offer. Coallece these things and make people aware of them.
-Not the first and shouldn’t be the last discussion: I would like to hear more about an inventory of all that is happening. Maybe a web based organized inventory of both things, but also of gateways.
-People don’t resist change, they resist being changed. If we want change in the community it needs to come from within.
-Motivational change, not behavioral change.
-Interested in engaing the gateways (not just people, but bulletin boards, web sites etc) Identify them and fill them with information and resources, rather then just with authority.
-Commitment level on our end to being able to provide that information at a professional comprehensive level of quality.
-My mind has been opened to all of the resources this community has.
-Be sure the schools are wired into these resources. Chamber and RMH parter for a physician forum. (Janelle RMH Physician Liaison) -Excited about the passion of the people in this group and this common goal. Ideas happen do to people with passion. – -
