Creative Strategies for Community Health Assignment

Creative Strategies for Community Health - Assignment Example Currently 17 percent of children in the United States who are aged between the ages of 2 and 19 years old, and an average of 10.4 percent of preschoolers are overweight. The condition affects children of all ages, race, gender groups and countries (Davies, Fitzgerald & Mousouli, 2008). One of the most successful strategies used in Childhood obesity management is weight and nutritional counseling at the community level. This strategy is effectively being applied in a community based, Childhood obesity management program in Boston that has been dubbed â€Å"Fitness in the City† (FIC). 11 Boston community health centers are currently actively participating in the project with clinicians, nurses and other community based health practitioners being used to offer weight and nutritional counseling services to the community (Graham, 2008). The foremost benefit of this approach is that, clinicians are able to attend to both children and parents at the same time, and hence they find themselves better equipped to help work out adequate lifestyle changes suitable for the whole family. Another major advantage of this strategy is that the children attending the appointments and the rest of their families are not required to leave their neighborhoods so as to be able to access the services this has been of immense help in reducing the number of children who end up missing appointments (Graham, 2008). The Columbus city schools wellness initiative uses innovative strategies to help in reducing childhood obesity rates in the district. The programs uses strategies such as regular BMI screenings for children, water only options in vending machines, in the schools participating in the program, restricted servings for beverages other than water, development of enhanced health education curriculums in the schools. These strategies have considerably helped reduce the