Griffin Hospital and the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center (PRC) in partnership with Valley School Districts are launching a childhood and adolescent obesity prevention initiative called VITAHLS (Valley Initiative to Advance Health & Learning in Schools).
Partnering in the VITAHLS project are the Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton and Region 16 (Beacon Falls) School Districts. Also participating are: Assumption School, St. Mary-St. Michael School and the Emmett O’Brien Regional Technical School.
Following an initial meeting in the spring, a Planning and Development Committee has been working over the summer on a mission statement, goals and objectives and a formal launch of the VITAHLS project.
The mission of the initiative is to develop, implement, evaluate and sustain a comprehensive Valley-wide school-based childhood and adolescent obesity prevention program that focuses on nutrition and physical activity to reduce the prevalence of obesity and to promote health and academic readiness in students in Pre‑K to grade 12.
The launch of the program will take place at Ansonia High School on Oct. 6 with a special presentation for educators, school board members, health and human service organization leadership and other interested parties.
In this informational forum Dr. Jim Hinson, Superintendent of Schools and Jennifer Walker Director of Youth Development of the Independence, Missouri School District and Dr. David L. Katz, Director of the Yale-Griffin PRC will discuss the importance of health in academics and how the Independence, Missouri School District has worked with the Yale-Griffin PRC to develop a community-wide youth obesity prevention initiative in their schools.
The initiative included the implementation and evaluation of the Nutrition Detectives, ABC For Fitness and the NuVal food scoring systems all developed by Dr. Katz and the Yale-Griffin PRC.
The in-school launch of the program is planned for January 2012 after faculty training of the various programs has been completed.
Staff of the Yale-Griffin PRC will work with school administrators to schedule and provide the training.
The VITAHLS project furthers Griffin Hospital’s mission of providing leadership to improve the health of the community it serves and is consistent with the hospital’s current strategic plan that has as one of its objectives the development of a community wide childhood and adolescent obesity prevention program in collaboration with the school systems in the hospital’s service area.
In addition to the Yale-Griffin PRC and the work done by Dr. David Katz, an internationally renowned authority on nutrition and weight control, Griffin Hospital has a number of resources that it can bring to bear to assist in development and implementation of an obesity prevention program.
They include the Ansonia High School Charger School-Based Health Center and Griffin’s Department of Community Outreach and Parish Nursing which coordinates the Greater Naugatuck Valley Safe Kids Chapter and provides The Healthy Way, starring “Wow the Cow” a fitness and nutrition program offered in partnership with Stew Leonard’s in some Valley schools, the Walk to School Safety Program in the Derby Elementary School, an exercise program using “Courageous Pacers” along with Fun and Fitness activity educational books and the annual Children’s Health and Safety Fair attended by 2,000 youth and adults.Since the 1980’s the number of children in the United States who are overweight has increased dramatically.
About 32 percent of children in the age range 6 – 19 years are now considered overweight. In 2005, the latest information available, one in four of Connecticut high school students were obese (11 percent) or overweight (15 percent).
More than two-thirds of children age 10 years and older who are obese will become obese adults. In addition to its physiological effects, obesity is also associated with psychosocial problems, including poor self-esteem, social exclusion, and depression in children which may jeopardize their ability to perform in school. Obese children face increased risk for Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke, asthma, and heart disease.
Many of the ill effects of obesity are preventable by avoiding weight gain, or are partly or wholly reversible by reduction in weight.
“Childhood obesity is a public health crisis that in addition to adversely impacting the health and wellbeing of our community’s children now and into adulthood also has wide ranging social and economic implications. Obesity results from consuming too much and the wrong kinds of foods, and from getting too little physical activity,” said Patrick Charmel, Griffin Hospital President. “An effective solution requires improving diet and increasing physical activity. Schools are an ideal setting to address childhood obesity, since children spend so much time in this setting. Many school administrators recognize the need to promote nutrition and physical activity. However, they often lack the time, money, training and/or staff to accomplish this. There is a need for programs that are affordable to schools, require little training or staff time, have been shown to be effective, and can be used as a springboard to reach the entire family. We believe the tools developed by the Yale-Griffin PRC and Dr. David Katz as well as other programs Griffin offers in some Valley schools meet those needs,” Charmel said.
“We, at Griffin, applaud the Valley school districts, Emmett O’Brien Regional Technical School and the Valley parochial schools for their willingness to collaborate on this very important initiative. We firmly believe that this partnership will make a difference in the health and well being for the Valley’s youth now and throughout their life”, said Charmel.
