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170 Westerly School Staff Members Trained in Mental Health First Aid

Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) is a groundbreaking 8-hour course designed to take the fear and hesitation out of starting conversations about mental health and substance abuse. The course gives you the tools you need to identify when someone might be struggling with a mental health or substance use problem and connect them with appropriate support and resources when necessary.

Westerly physician, Dr. Robert Harrison, has already helped train more than 170 Westerly School staff members in Mental Health First Aid. Over the next three years, all employees will receive training. Harrison also hopes trainings can be offered to youth sport coaches. Harrison and Healthy Body, Healthy Minds Director Susan Orban have also reached out to the Town Council. To read what the Westerly Sun wrote, click here.

To learn more about Mental Health First Aid and find trainings near you, click here.

April ’17 Newsletter

Every month Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds & Director Susan Orban likes to connect you with current articles, events, and resources to help you keep your family healthy and informed!

Two great weeks in one: May 1-7

Children’s Book Week & Screen Free Week

Here’s a pairing as natural as… well, you decide. Turns out that Children’s Book Week and Screen Free Week both take place the first week of May. One helps you and your family give up your TV, laptop, gaming device, and smartphone for a few hours. The other offers a pretty spectacular option: sitting together with some great books.

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood offers a wealth of screen-free activities, for your family or for your whole community.

Children’s Book Week, established in 1919, is managed by Every Child A Reader.

Clear your schedule for Saturday, May 6

It’s planting (and eating) time!

You can’t get your food any fresher than from a local farmer…or your own garden plot. The URI Spring Festival on Saturday, May 6 offers you help with both, plus lots more. The packed morning (9 am-1 pm) will include:

  • the annual plant sale (not just vegetables)
  • the South Kingstown Farmer’s Market (SNAP & WIC benefits accepted, thanks to a Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds/Thundermist Health Center partnership)
  • free soil pH testing
  • gardening demonstrations
  • “e-waste” recycling, and
  • live music and food

Visit URI’s website for all the details, including all the participating farmers and what the heck “e-waste” is.And parking and admission are free!

March ’17 Newsletter

Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds is a vigorous, collaborative, long-term effort to transform community health in South County. Our initial focus: Childhood obesity and children’s mental health.

A website just for South County…

Full of fun facts, news, resources and more, on all matters health and mental wellness

South County Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds has a brand new website (bodiesminds.org) just for you: lots of short, “edible”, mostly entertaining pieces on four topics you care about.

  • Eat Right, Eat Smart, what parents want to know about good food for their children, from directions to local farmers markets to links to the best children’s cooking sites
  • Get Your Body Moving, fun and engaging advice to get both you and kids off the sofa and away from the screen onto your feet and bicycles, and into your swimsuits, and into the parks, lakes, and lanes
  • Mental Wellness reassures South County parents with quizzes, resources and activities, so you can create a nurturing, empowering environment for your young one
  • Your Thriving Child presents the best of what we know in child development, from where to get advice on breastfeeding in South County to remarkably easy ways to entertain your baby.

There’s a LOT more, including what South County Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds is up to. So visit today and often; we’ll be updating the content and calendar regularly.

Surf the new South County Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds website at bodiesminds.org.

Bad experiences can last a lifetime

Even the brains of babies and toddlers can be affected forever when their environments are threatened

The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University lists this finding as the first of “8 things to remember about child development”.

Here’s the full text for #1:
    ” Adverse fetal and early childhood experiences can lead to physical and chemical disruptions in the brain that can last a lifetime. The biological changes associated with these experiences can affect multiple organ systems and increase the risk not only for impairments in future learning capacity and behavior, but also for poor physical and mental health outcomes.”

February ’17 Newsletter

Every month Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds & Director Susan Orban likes to connect you with current articles, events, and resources to help you keep your family healthy and informed!

Do you love quizzes?

Here are 14 that offer an “emotional checkup”

Our friends at the Greater Good Science Center (University of California, Berkeley) have put together these 14 quizzes, all based on scientific research, so you can learn more about yourself, your emotional makeup, and how you relate to others.

Several, like the Empathy Quiz, lend themselves to an opportunity to take the test with your child (of a certain age) to start a lively and thoughtful conversation.

Other quizzes ask you about your capacity for forgiveness, gratitude, and compassion. Sounds like fun, yes?

The Greater Good Science Center researches issues surrounding “well-being” and teaches skills to “foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society”. Its website is chockful of easy-to-read but provocative studies, like this month’s “Why We Like Evil”.

Take a pic of your healthy snack

We’re celebrating March as Nutrition Month with a “Snack Swap” photo campaign

The American Heart Association has a sneaky way to get you to replace those sugary drinks and salty, oily chips: it will make you Facebook famous with photos of you making better choices.

The AHA encourages you to

  1.  Swap those nasty foods with better choices. Push away sugary drinks and drink infused (or regular) water instead. Not salted pretzels or potato chips; carrot and celery sticks. Crave ice cream? Try low-fat yogurt, perhaps frozen in an ice cube tray.
  2. Follow Southern New England’s AHA at www.facebook.com/sneheart and www.twitter.com/sneheart.
  3. Post a photo there showing yourself with your healthy snack swap. Be creative. Take photos of vending machines with good snacks. A photo of you tossing junk food in the trash. The family all drinking healthy water.

If you have questions, contact Candace Pierce, Regional Campaign Team Lead.

Park Rx Outdoor “Prescription” Program Gets Moving at Glacier Park, Westerly

The Westerly and South Kingstown Land Trusts have created guided trail walks called “Healthy Hikes” as a part of Park Rx. These will take place on the first Saturday of every month at 10am.

Park Rx is an innovative program by which doctors promote the health benefits of outdoor activity. Click here to see Executive Director of the Westerly Land Trust, Kelly Presley, talk more about Glacier Park during the February Healthy Hike.

Storytimes at South County Libraries

You can be with other caregivers and your children can visit with other kids. Nearly all the public libraries in South County offer story times. Put yours on a weekly schedule.

Nearly all these libraries offer regular programs for young children – including the wonderful opportunity that is storytelling. “Like” your local library on Facebook, check in once a week, get on a mailing list…whatever it takes to introduce your child to the joys of reading and the local library.

December ’16 Newsletter

Every month Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds & Director Susan Orban likes to connect you with current articles, events, and resources to help you keep your family healthy and informed!

Rhode Islanders and ObamaCare

No changes until 2019; sign up or renew now

The Economic Progress Institute reports two important facts about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as ObamaCare:

  1. You should still sign up or renew this month; any changes by the new Administration and Congress won’t take place until 2019;
  2. If you are one of the 70,000 adults who now have coverage because of the ACA or the 30,000 who buy coverage through HealthSourceRI – or would like to advocate on their behalfs, consider calling Senators Whitehouse and Reed to ask for their continuing support.

HealthSourceRI members and uninsured Rhode Islanders should enroll and pay for coverage by December 23 for coverage to January 1. If you wait until the end of the month, coverage will start later.

For more information about what the repeal of the Affordable Care Act would mean for Rhode Island, check out EPI’s ACA fact sheet.

Just because it’s cold outside

Your child can still be active, with these tips

The temperatures are getting colder, especially here in Rhode Island. But, tempting as it may be, that doesn’t mean it’s time to hibernate for the winter. Instead, it’s time to get creative!

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation has gathered lots of tips, for teachers (if the students can’t have outdoor recess, that doesn’t mean they can’t have energetic time inside) as well as parents, especially when the kids are cooped up.

Here are three tips we particularly like (especially #3!):

  1. Move it indoors, but keep it moving. Visit an indoor roller skating rink, a bowling alley or an indoor (heated!) pool.
  2. Take a class. During the break, try a new type of physical activity, such as martial arts, yoga or dance. Many gyms or studios will let you try a class for free or at a discounted rate.
  3. Start dancing. When you start to feel the itch, turn up the music and let loose in your living room. Dancing is a great way to get your heart rate up, while also having fun.

Follow the Alliance’s tips to keep students moving; no matter what the thermometer says.

June ’16 Newsletter

Every month Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds & Director Susan Orban likes to connect you with current articles, events, and resources to help you keep your family healthy and informed!

Do you need another reason to visit a local farmers market this year?

Only 1% of the food we eat is produced in RI
Despite the efforts of our passionate farmers and fishing families, only about one percent of the food we eat is produced in the Ocean State. A recent article in the Providence Business News reported that the high cost of dwindling acres of possible farmland is a big part of the crisis.
     Two bits of good news. First, Rhode Island has joined a regional coalition to increase locally-produced food. Plus, organizations like Farm Fresh Rhode Island are connecting local producers with schools, businesses, restaurants, and other major consumers.
     Second, it’s summer! Locally-grown, delicious-tasting fresh food is rarely more than a half-hour’s drive away and frequently just a walk downtown. And markets are increasingly accepting SNAP/WIC benefits thanks to our joint work with Thundermist Health Center.
Farm Fresh Rhode Island has a map of all the expected farmers markets in Rhode Island as well as nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut. South County sites include Charleston, Narragansett, Richmond, South Kingstown (2), Westerly (2), and Wickford.

The “2” in 5-2-1-0

How to limit your child to no more than two hours a day of screen time this summer
South County Health Bodies, Healthy Minds is running the region’s 5-2-1-0 program. “5-2-1-0” is a daily prescription of 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables, no more than 2 hours of screen time, 1 hour or more of physical activity, and zero sugary drinks.
     The Alliance for a Healthier Generation has tackled the “2” with some great suggestions.
     For example: help your child choose his or her favorite TV shows and schedule them on an actual calendar. When each show is over, turn off the TV to avoid “runover”.
     Create a Top 10 list of activities – bike riding, shooting hoops, walking the dog – as a reminder there are positive alternatives to the computer, smartphone, and television screens.
     And “cut the cord” in the bedroom: make it a “screen-free” zone.