Virtual Focus Group

Washington County, RI Participants needed for Virtual Focus Group

Please join us to share your valuable feedback on immunization access and resources in your community! Topics include immunization access, barriers, resource improvements. Anyone over the age of 18 with or without children is welcome to join! Virtual meeting will be held via Zoom for 2 hours. You will receive compensation after you complete the focus group and a survey. We will have time to complete the survey at the end.

For more information, email Ashley Sanchez: asanchez@carelinkri.org

“BlueAngel” grants $35,000 to extend HBHM’s 5-2-1-0 anti-obesity effort

Among $218,000 in prestigious Blue Cross & Blue Shield community grants made this year

In its recent round of prestigious  BlueAngel Community Health Grants (BACHG), Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) granted $35,000 to Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds to continue our 5-2-1-0 Childhood Obesity Prevention efforts.

“Thanks to BlueAngel support,” we should reach more than 6,000 children attending 16 early care and education sites and 21 elementary schools across South County,” notes Susan Orban, Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds Director.

Cindy Buxton, the project’s coordinator, “5-2-1-0 is a simple equation for a healthy lifestyle that helps children reach and keep an appropriate weight. 5-2-1-0 stands for enjoying each day with:

  • 5 servings of fruits and vegetables
  • 2 hours or fewer of recreational screen time (TV, computer, video games or smartphones)
  • 1 hour of physical activity, and
  • 0 sugary drinks.”

The grant to HBHM was among $218,000 in BACHG funding for 2019. Since the BlueAngel Community Health Grants began in 2002, BCBSRI has donated more than $3.8 million to local nonprofits. For the past five years, BACHG funding has focused on Rhode Island organizations promoting good nutrition, physical activity and healthy weight for children and their families.

 

BAM! Online games & quizzes on the Body and Mind for 9-12 year-olds, from the CDC

CDC has a new website on nutrition and health that looks like Saturday morning TV, but it’s interactive, educational, and doesn’t advertise sugared cereals!

Hey kids!

BAM! Body and Mind will tell you everything you need to know about all the stuff that matters. Whether it’s nutrition, physical activity, stress, safety, or diseases, the CDC (the nation’s Center for Disease Control) has you covered! They designed this site specifically for you — kids 9–12 years old — and even have some awesome games and quizzes to test your skills!

Parents and teachers, BAM! has something for you too. Browse the site to see what kids are learning about. Take a look at the Teacher’s Corner to see how BAM! topics can be incorporated into classroom activities.

The CDC promises that the site will be regularly updated, so you can keep returning.

Test your Health IQ

The CDC asks: Are you as smart as the public health nerds?

 

Do you know the minimum SPF needed to protect yourself from the sun’s harmful rays? Or how many seconds you should wash your hands to kill germs? The national Centers for Disease Control has an app for that.

The CDC set its “game show scientists” loose to lead you through an exciting selection of trivia questions and word scrambles. Choose from three levels of difficulty, Easy, Medium, or Hard…or be surprised by selecting a Random mix.

Download the app. Go back again and again; the CDC has promised to keep adding new questions.

Feels like the flu? 11 “genius” tips for managing it

Don’t let a winter cold or flu own you.

Okay, so you and/or your child simply couldn’t avoid getting the flu or a very nasty cold this season. You can still manage the symptoms, reports the Huffington Post.

“You want to make sure that your immune system, which absolutely depends on getting the right nutrients on a daily basis, is being nurtured and supported,” Jonny Bowden, a health expert and board-certified nutritionist, told the Huffington Post.

Bowden names 11 “must-do” behaviors, among them:

  • Get more rest than usual
  • Keep your stress in check
  • No school (or work)
  • Keep up the basic hygiene, maybe even more so.

Read the entire article at Huffington Post.