Virtual Supermarket Program Celebrates Successes

One of the reasons I started this blog was to use this space to mark the achievements of Baltimore City Health Department programs.  Last night, Laura Fox, Coordinator of BCHD’s Virtual Supermarket Program, joined Dr. Andres Alonso, the board of education, George Washington Elementary principal Amanda Rice, and students in celebrating the expansion of the VSP to George Washington Elementary School as another step towards eliminating Baltimore’s “food deserts.”

Food deserts are areas where residents have little or no options for buying healthy foods.  Oftentimes families in these areas have to travel over a mile to access healthy and affordable foods.  George Washington Elementary is located in a food desert.

It has been a wonderful partnership with George Washington Elementary and the Y of Central Maryland as the school community resource partner. We see schools as ideal centers to model healthy behaviors.  We hope that the success at George Washington Elementary will eventually lead us to expand to other Baltimore public schools located in food deserts throughout the city.

Last night was not the Virtual Supermarket’s only cause for celebration. Famed food author and New York Times columnist Mark Bittman mentioned the VSP in a recent post about ways cities can increase access to healthy foods. I am proud that Baltimore’s program is quickly becoming a national model for innovative ways to address the critical problem of food access.

Baltimore Celebrates National Public Health Week

This week, communities across the country are joining together for National Public Health Week, a time dedicated to recognizing the contributions of public health and highlighting issues of importance to improving health.  During the week, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene encourages Marylanders to learn how to prevent injuries in recognition of this year’s theme, “Safety is NO Accident: Live Injury-Free.” Injuries are one of the most serious and expensive public health problems in Maryland, and unlike other leading causes of death, injury is a risk for all age groups and often can be prevented. The Baltimore Sun points out that simple steps like “using seatbelts on every trip, not using cell phones while driving and wearing a bike helmet” can go a long way toward injury prevention.

You can also work toward a safer, healthier Baltimore by attending one of the following health fairs taking place across the city this year:

Loyola University - April 7, 2011 - 11:00AM - 2:00PM

4501 Charles Street

For additional information, contact Linda Januszkiewicz at 410-617-5055 or ljanus@loyola.edu

Morgan State University - April 8, 2011 - 12:00PM - 4:00PM

1700 E. Coldspring Lane (Hurt Gymnasium)

For additional information, contact Gillian Silver at 443-885-4146 or gillian.silver@morgan.edu

 

Elev8 Baltimore(EBDI) @ East Baltimore Community School - April 9th from 11:00AM - 3:00PM

110 N. Wolfe Street @ Chase Street

For additional information, contact Adriann Anderson at443-703-3671 or adrian.anderson@bmsi.org

Pushing the envelope

April is STI Awareness month and this year’s emphasis is on the importance of getting young people tested. Focusing efforts on youth and young adults is important because they are more likely to engage in high risk sexual behavior. Additionally, the consequences to them of untreated STI’s can have long lasting effects such as infertility. 

Testing and treating individuals for STI’s in the age of the internet has become a hybrid of good old-fashioned public health practice and digital sleuthing.

For some people, the internet has become a means for arranging shorter term, often anonymous and often unsafe sexual encounters. This practice has added a new and challenging obstacle to our work of intervening in the spread of sexually transmitted infections. Everyday, public health staff in Baltimore and throughout the country interview people diagnosed with HIV, syphilis, or other STIs to provide appropriate education about STIs and to ensure that the person has medical care. We also reach out to their sex partners so they can get appropriate and timely medical care.

Until recently, a typical scenario when public health staff asked the patient about his or her sex partner(s) would be “I met him/her on the internet. We agreed that we would meet at an agreed to location in 45 minutes.” When asked how that person can be contacted, the patient typically says “I only know his/her screen name: ‘#1hotbodi’”. Prior to this month, that was typically the end of the public health intervention.

Now, however, the Baltimore City Health Department and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Infectious Disease and Environmental Health Administration are implementing internet partner services (IPS) to intervene in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Working with a nationally recognized consultant and three of the most heavily utilized “hook-up” sites in Baltimore and Maryland, we’ve developed a program to maximize the number of sexual partners we treat. The joint effort is critical because oftentimes persons like those described above have no idea where the person they meet lives. Close coordination between the city, the state, the counties and even other states is essential to reducing our rates of STI’s and HIV.

The program has been in effect four weeks and already we’ve been able to reach people exposed to an STI or HIV from places as far away as New York and are enthusiastic about the new program’s potential to intervene in the spread of disease.

Kegasus? Really?

Earlier this week, the Maryland Jockey Club unveiled a controversial new advertising campaign for the Preakness, Maryland’s leg of the triple crown of horse racing.

The star of the show isn’t the beautiful horses, or the determined jockeys who ride them to glory. Instead, we’re given Kegasus, a centaur who loves to party. REALLY? Why not Barney from the Simpsons, or other media symbols of alcohol overindulgence that appeal to largely adolescent boys?

Jockey Club President Tom Chuckas concedes the ads are designed to bring 21-40-year-olds out en masse for infieldfest, a big party on the track infield. The campaign, he told the Baltimore Sun, “talks their language.” “We have never hidden the fact that we want people to come to the infield and party.” 

Everyone loves to have a good time. The obvious problem here is that advertising ‘bottomless beer mugs” promotes binge drinking. Binge drinking, defined as consuming more than 4 (women) or 5 (men) alcoholic beverages on a single occasion, is especially problematic amongst young adults. According to the Robert Wood Johnson County Health Rankings, released the same day, in Baltimore City, 16% of people contacted in a CDC random telephone survey reported binge drinking at least once in previous 30 days. The national benchmark is 8% (90^th percentile).

Excessive drinking is a risk factor for a number of adverse health outcomes such as alcohol poisoning, hypertension, acute myocardial infarction, sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancy, fetal alcohol syndrome, sudden infant death syndrome, suicide, interpersonal violence, and motor vehicle crashes.

Advertisers have a social responsibility to tell the truth about what they are selling. The truth in this case is that no where on the infieldfest website is there any message about the importance of drinking responsibly.

Legendary ad man Bill Bernbach said, “All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.”

Sadly, the Jockey Club has missed an opportunity to responsibly promote an event that puts Baltimore City and their sport in the national spotlight.

Snuffing out tobacco use in Major League Baseball

I love baseball.  I’ve been a fan ever since I can remember.  I have fond memories of going to the “house that Ruth built” in the Bronx and rooting for my heroes.  I played stick ball with the boys on the block and was on teams throughout my youth and into adulthood.  Not only did baseball (and softball) keep me active, but it taught me the values of being a team player. 

Yesterday I joined Health Commissioners from 14 other cities with Major League Baseball teams to urge MLB to prohibit the use smokeless tobacco.  Baseball players are an inspiration to millions of children and adults throughout the country. They should provide positive role models and take a stand against smokeless tobacco. 

Tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable death in the United States, killing more than
400,000 people each year. As cigarette smoking has declined, the tobacco industry has increased its
marketing of smokeless products and is spending record sums to promote them. But smokeless tobacco
use is itself very dangerous, causing serious diseases of the mouth, including oral cancer. In addition,
there is reason to worry that smokeless tobacco use by young persons may serve as a gateway to
cigarette smoking, this nation’s leading preventable cause of premature death and disease.

In his post "Motivation to quit chewing tobacco," Dr. Stephen Matarazzo, D.M.D., shares a poignant testimonial from Joe Garagiola, former ball player who regrets ever picking up the habit. He quotes Garagiola as saying:

“I chewed tobacco because it seemed to be the thing to do if you were playing baseball,” says Garagiola. “Everybody chewed when I was playing, and nobody knew the dangers of it.” But he’s seen the dangers since, losing three close friends to oral cancer and seeing the harmful effects of spit tobacco on other people.

“You won’t die of gum disease or yellow teeth, but develop oral cancer and it’s a terrible way to go,” Garagiola says. “Here you are with oral cancer from using spit tobacco, your jaw has been removed and you have to eat through a tube. You die one piece at a time. Spit tobacco is a horrible, horrible thing. I just wish I could get this message across to everyone.”

I urge you to join Garagiola and others as we speak out against smokeless tobacco. We need MLB to help us promote tobacco free lives.

Reflecting on Youth Violence Prevention Week

As Youth Violence Prevention Week draws to an end, I am reminded of a site visit I recently conducted with one of our staff in the Office of Youth Violence Prevention, Lori Toscano.

 

Lori is the community liaison officer, and like me she is from New York. She has a long and impressive history working with youth including a stint as a probation officer. She’s a ball of energy who regularly monitors the two Safe Streets sites we fund to make sure they are meeting their benchmarks.

About a month ago, we visited both sites, one in McElderry Park and the other in Cherry Hill, where we are implementing the Cease Fire model developed in Chicago. It’s an evidence-based approach at reducing violence in neighborhoods by engaging individuals in activities such as conflict resolution and mediation.

As we drove I would pepper Lori with questions about the importance of the work and why we should continue. Without hesitation, she replied “I’ve been in this work a long time and I stay because no one else does it like we do and it makes me feel good when we show that we are getting results. We are demonstrating that we are reducing the amount of violence in these communities.” 

In speaking with the outreach workers, what struck me the most was the eloquence with which they spoke about how they came to this demanding work. Many of them have histories of “wreaking havoc” in their communities and see this as a way of making amends. Others see themselves more through the lens of a medical model and refer to the work they do as a “vaccination (against violence) that goes into a community and works with people to help them see that there are other ways to deal with issues.” What was common to both groups was their assertion that “everybody wants a way out” of a life of violence. What they provide is an invaluable and life-saving service to their communities oftentimes on a 24-7 basis.

I remember the story an outreach worker shared in McElderry Park of what his father said to him when he visited him in jail: “It’s time for you to put a stop to this. I was in your seat and your grandfather was in your seat. I failed you. You don’t have to fail your kids.”

These are powerful stories of individuals taking responsibility for their actions and contributing to the betterment of their communities, one person at a time. And that’s the message of Youth Violence Prevention Week – that we all can play a role in reducing and PREVENTING violence in our communities.

Youth Violence Prevention Week ends tomorrow, but our prevention work and that of our partners will continue until homicide ceases to be the leading cause of death for young people age 15-24 in Baltimore City.

2011 Baltimorphosis Award Winners Announced

As part of National Youth Violence Prevention Week, we wanted to take an opportunity to recognize the accomplishments of some of our city’s residents who are Standing Up and Speaking Out against youth violence. That is why yesterday afternoon at City Hall, I had the pleasure of honoring the winners of the 2011 Baltimorphosis awards. 

The Health Department created this award as our way of recognizing those who join us in the fight against youth violence. On the evening news, all too often we see reports about people who have made poor choices. Faced with a choice, they chose to embrace a culture of violence.

Rarely do we get to hear about people who make the right choice. Rarely do we hear about people who are teaching kids nonviolent ways to resolve their problems. Rarely do we hear about young adults who have made a conscious decision to spurn violence and work instead to better their community, neighborhood or school.

With the Baltimorphosis awards, we hope to raise the profile of individuals who do make these right choices. Today, we recognized the following four Baltimoreans who are fighting against youth violence:

• Anita Foster, who was nominated by two individuals – Ashley Moore and Ericka McRae was nominated for her passion for getting youth back in school and off the violent streets of Baltimore City.
• Tard Carter, who was nominated by Daniel Webster, for his work as an outreach worker with the Safe Streets East program.
• Michael Williams, who was nominated by Linda Wicklein, for is dedication to making a profound difference in the lives of Baltimore City youth, by teaching kids about the effects of violence through his own story. 
• Robert Madden, who was nominated by Regina Lansinger for his work in forming Helping Boys Understand, an after-school program that targets at-risk young males.

We also honored 3 Baltimore youths:

• William Murphy, who was nominated by Jay Gillen, for his efforts as a member of the Baltimore Algebra Project  leading his peers to renounce violence by focusing on education, positive youth employment, ending the school-to-prison pipeline, and turning away from gangs and drugs.
• Tavon Smith, who was nominated by Hansberry Moore, for showing younger children in the neighborhood that they can change the direction that their life is heading, just as he was able to positively affect the direction of his life, through a strong desire and hard work to change his ways.
• Molly Phillips, who was nominated by Stanley Smith for starting an started an “Anti-Bullying Campaign” at Northwestern High School. 

Thank you all for being part of the solution and for contributing to help to make Baltimore achieve its potential.