For Release: Sept. 15, 2005
"Models That Work" are community-based programs successfully addressing health care needs in Kentucky through health promotion, health education, enhancing access to health care and/or health policy development. The Models were identified as part of an initiative of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Of 109 programs submitted for consideration, a selection committee--comprised of Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and KET outreach and production staff--chose 23 successful examples to showcase in the 13-part The CommonHealth of Kentucky series and accompanying outreach efforts. The goal is to encourage and enable replication of these successful health models.Advocacy & Support Center, Hardin County
This combination rape crisis and child advocacy center serves rape and abuse victims within an eight-county region with crisis counseling, information/referral, medical support, therapy, victim advocacy, community education, training and consultation.
Angels Community Clinic, Calloway County
This free medical and dental clinic serves the working, uninsured poor of Calloway County with an all-volunteer staff of nurses, physicians, nurse practitioners, dentists, pharmacists and support staff. Angels Community Clinic provides diagnostic and treatment services, pharmaceutical assistance and dental hygiene and treatment services. Patients are screened for financial eligibility, assessed by a nurse, examined and treated by a physician or nurse practitioner and receive medications through the clinic's licensed pharmacy. Basic lab work and x-rays are provided at no cost through the Murray-Calloway County Hospital, and other needed tests are provided through a charity program. Many area specialists work with clinic patients in setting up payments and reducing or eliminating fees.
Chrysalis House, Inc., Fayette County
Kentucky's oldest and largest licensed substance abuse treatment program for women and their children provides outreach and waiting list services, residential treatment, family services, aftercare and permanent housing. Chrysalis House services include mental health, substance abuse and domestic violence counseling as well as housing assistance, individual and group counseling for children, job readiness training and job placement, psychiatric services, GED, health-and-wellness and parenting classes, clothing bank and a "dress for success" program.
Frontier Nursing Service Rural Health Clinics, Leslie County
Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) through its subsidiary corporation, Frontier Nursing Healthcare, Inc. (FNH), operates four rural health clinics in Clay and Leslie counties. Through a collaborative model in which advanced-practice nurses (family nurse practitioners and nurse midwives) work alongside physicians, FNH provides high-quality, low-cost healthcare to the residents of this medically underserved area. FNH also offers hands-on clinical experience to advanced-practice nursing students.
GuardiaCare-Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy Staying Alive Program, Louisville
This program called Staying Alive: How to be an Effective Caregiver is designed to help reduce the mental and physical strain of care giving and to foster living conditions that enable elderly people to safely remain in their current living environment. The program provides home environmental assessments completed with elderly individuals and their caregivers; no-cost Caregiver Seminars, held one night a week over a four-week period and offered four times a year; and Corporate Caregiver Seminars held in the workplace for employees who have care giving responsibilities.
HANDS (Health Access Nurturing Development Services), Cabinet for Health & Family Services, Statewide
HANDS is a voluntary home visitation program for first-time parents. Services begin before a baby is born and continue until the child's second birthday. Designed to improve child health and development, HANDS builds upon the parent's strengths and values. Goals include healthy pregnancies and births, healthy child growth and development, healthy and safe homes and self-sufficient families.
Health Promotion Schools of Excellence (HPSE), Jefferson County Public Schools
This school-based program is designed to promote and maintain healthy lifestyles and to reduce health-risk behaviors of students, staff and parents. The program focuses on cardiovascular disease, cancer control, injury prevention and physical fitness. HPSE uses Coordinated School Health (CSH)?a combination of education with other support systems to encourage the adoption and maintenance of healthy behaviors to last a lifetime. CSH is a model developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a federal government agency.
Healthy Kids Centers, Fayette County
Healthy Kids Centers started ten years ago with a federal grant in one high-poverty elementary school in Fayette County and has been replicated in three additional high poverty schools in the county. The program provides all students with free access to medical, mental health, preventative, and oral health services. Medical services include well-child care, immunizations, and acute and chronic care. A Student Assistance Team in each school evaluates students for learning, behavioral or ADHD problems. Healthy Kids works in partnership with each school, University of Kentucky Pediatrics and College of Nursing and Dentistry and Bluegrass Comprehensive Care.
The Healing Place, Jefferson County
The Healing Place is the largest homeless shelter and addiction recovery center in Louisville. It offers a Sobering-Up Center (non-medical detox) for intoxicated homeless persons in the Metro area and a free health clinic that provides thousands of patient visits and prescriptions each year. The Family Systems and Child Development Program helps children of addicted parents understand the disease of addiction, teaches parenting skills and helps reunite families. Continuing care includes job placement, assistance with legal and medical issues, housing and education.
Kentucky Homeplace, Hazard
This program was developed to address health disparities in rural areas of the state, where cancer, diabetes and heart disease rates are unusually high. Lay health workers help medically underserved residents access appropriate health services. Kentucky Homeplace serves most counties in eastern and western Kentucky and those along the state's southern border--areas with higher concentrations of poor, undereducated and medically uninsured people when compared with most other parts of the state and nation.
Kentucky River Community Care's Appalachian Violence Outreach Network (AVON), Lee County
AVON serves women in Breathitt, Lee, Owsley and Wolfe counties who have survived interpersonal violence or traumatic stress. Wellness coordinators located in area health departments screen female clients for stress, depression, eating disorders, low self-esteem, domestic violence and sexual abuse. Women identified as at-risk are linked to resources and opportunities, including a weekly series of wellness workshops and a video. A conference is held each year to educate communities, and family violence prevention councils are being developed.
LaRue County Coordinated School Health Initiative
This program focuses on health education and disease prevention, with an emphasis on fitness, nutrition and healthy body weights for children and families. The initiative provides age-appropriate classroom presentations about good nutrition, eating disorders, and other health topics; a staff exercise program that includes on-site screenings; availability and visibility of healthy snacks; physical education activities and fitness testing, including rock climbing, archery, and fitness clubs; and increased student support by making therapeutic counseling available to every student.
L.E.A.P. for Health for Preschoolers, Fayette County
The Literacy, Eating and Activity for Preschoolers (LEAP) Health Program uses children's storybooks to teach children about staying healthy, being physically active, and eating more fruits and vegetables. The lessons, designed to be used with 3- to 5-years-olds and delivered in a variety of settings (child care centers, libraries, churches, etc.), include reading a story related to healthy habits, tasting a new fruit or vegetable, preparing a nutritious food featured in the story, and doing a craft or other reinforcement activity. The program also provides family newsletters featuring health topics and nutritious recipes appropriate for families with young children.
LEAP, Lewis County
Faced with rising health care costs, the CEO of the Lewis County Primary Care Center (LCPCC) asked employees for ideas. The result was the Lifestyle Enhancement Activity Program (LEAP), which rewards employees for improving their health habits. Participants are given blood and other tests and work with medical providers to establish self-improvement goals. Measures that can be selected include blood pressure, BMI (weight loss), waist-to-hip ratio, lipid profile plus glucose, smoking and exercise levels.
Lewis County Primary Care Center (LCPCC), Lewis County
This community-based, non-profit organization operates the Lewis County Family Health Center (FHC), the Eleanor Johnson Women's Center, the Lewis County Family Dental Clinic and the Fitness First and Rehab Center--all based in Vanceburg, Ky.--as well as the Tollesboro FHC, the Tollesboro Clinic Pharmacy and a system of clinics in each of the public schools in Lewis County. A full range of primary care, from prenatal to geriatrics, is provided, and, through a series of partnerships, LCPCC has integrated mental health, cardiology, optometry, endocrinology, mammography, MRI, and school health services into its primary care services.
Living Well Workshops: Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP), Metro Louisville
This six-week series of workshops to help people manage chronic diseases is offered free in community settings such as senior centers, churches, libraries, malls, and hospitals. The course, consisting of a two-and-a-half hour class once a week, teaches attendees about symptoms of chronic conditions and techniques to deal with them, exercise, appropriate and effective use of medications, effective communications with family, friends and health professionals, nutrition and how to evaluate new treatment options.
Logan Alive! Employee Wellness Program, Logan Aluminum, Logan County
Logan Aluminum developed this comprehensive wellness program for its 930 employees. Ninety-nine per cent of employees have taken advantage of a $200 incentive offered for taking a health risk assessment. The next step, called Team Health Goals, is designed to incorporate the work team concept by encouraging individuals to set health goals as a team. A $50 value incentive is offered for completing goals. Other program components include on-site fitness centers, lifestyle counseling, blood work, educational classes and materials and activities programs.
Owensboro Public Schools Healthy Lifestyles
This nationally recognized program has a goal of changing lifestyles and reducing health risks through the education of young residents. Through a local partnership, Owensboro Public Schools provides Fit for Life cardiovascular fitness centers for 5 th -12 th grade students. Swimming lessons, dance lessons, and skating have been incorporated into the curriculum. Walking tracks and climbing walls have been installed at several schools, and healthy menu choices are provided at school cafeterias
Promotores de Salud Program, Central and Northern Kentucky
Promotores, or Lay Health Workers, are community members who are trained to promote health in underserved and vulnerable communities. Promotores de Salud (Health Promoters) is operated by the North Central Area Health Education Center and Health Education Training Center (NC AHEC/HETC) in central and northern Kentucky. The program trains African-American and Hispanic people to serve as lay health workers, equipping them to provide guidance, referrals and health information to their neighbors. In central Kentucky, Promotores are going into hard-to-reach Hispanic communities where they teach people how to avoid HIV infection and provide confidential testing, referring infected individuals to the Health Department.
Rails to Trails, Muhlenberg County
The Rails to Trails trail provides a safe area for many to walk and ride bicycles and other non-motorized vehicles. Several programs and organizations use the trail for activities, including the Alzheimer's Walk, the March of Dimes Walk, cross country teams, school and civic groups, and individuals referred by doctors and rehab centers. One project, the "Get Moving, Start Losing" program, had 104 teams of four whose goal was to lose a thousand pounds and to walk a distance equal to the east-west length of Kentucky.
Step Forward, Erlanger
The goal of this community project is to develop an active friendly environment (AFE). Encouraging physical activity among residents by creating an environment conducive to to it is a principal strategy in the battle against obesity. In its first project the Step Forward, Erlanger committee developed and executed a master sidewalk plan that provided a closed network of sidewalks throughout the city.
Tobacco Free Academy, Boyd County
In collaboration with community partners, the Ashland Boyd County Health Department provides this free two-hour academy for 4 th , 5 th , and 6 th grade students to educate them about the physical, financial, and emotional effects of tobacco use on their lives. Four interactive stations provide x-ray viewing of healthy and abnormal lungs, demonstrations of chemicals and gases found in tobacco products, exercises that show the differences in lung function of healthy and impaired lungs, practice in peer pressure and refusal skills, and insight into how tobacco companies use advertising.
VERB Summer Scorecard, Fayette County
This project, modeled after a national media campaign to increase physical activity among "tweens" (9-13 year olds), was initiated in the summer of 2004. VERB participants were given a scorecard with 24 squares, and each time he or she was physically active at one of the 34 scorecard sites (pools, skating rinks, bowling alleys, martial arts facilities, YMCA's, etc.), his/her scorecard was stamped. Parents also could initial the cards each time a child was physically active an hour or more. If all 24 squares were stamped or initialed between June 1 and August 10, the participant was eligible for prize drawings at the grande finale event.
In addition to the Models selected through the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky initiative, KET chose six more health-related projects to highlight in The CommonHealth of Kentucky.
CHEFS, Fayette County
Controlled Healthy Eating Forever Society (CHEFS) is a small group of people who meet to provide weight-loss support for themselves and their families.
Cooper Clayton Method to Stop Smoking, statewide
A 12-week, science-based, comprehensive way to help smokers who want to quit.
Council of State Governments Health Literacy, statewide
Explores the problem of low health literacy, which results in a fundamental disconnect between the patient and health care system, and aims to show states what can be done to improve health literacy and how to make the current system more accessible to people with low health literacy.
Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), Jefferson County
The CIT program trains police officers to recognize mental illness and work effectively with mentally ill citizens.
The Mayor's Healthy Hometown Movement, Louisville
An integrated umbrella-style program, designed to raise awareness and encourage Louisvillians to give up unhealthy habits and substitute simple, healthy behaviors.
The Nun Study, University of Kentucky, Lexington
The University of Kentucky's Sanders-Brown Center on Aging is working to determine the causes of and ways to prevent Alzheimer's disease.