MIAMI-DADE COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT SPRING 2004 ...

Consortium for a Healthier
Miami-Dade Addresses
Chronic Disease in
Our Community
"In 2001, chronic diseases
accounted for six of the top ten
leading causes of death in
Florida. Of the 167,181 deaths
that occurred in Florida, 71.2%
were due to chronic disease."
John O. Agwunobi, M.D., M.B.A.
Secretary, Florida Department of
Health
Statistics for Miami-Dade coincide
with those of the State with heart
disease as the leading cause of
death followed by cancer and
stroke. As a community, we wanted
to work together to reduce chronic
disease in our community and
formed the Consortium for a
Healthier Miami-Dade (Consortium)
in September 2003. Since that first
meeting, membership has doubled
and now includes over 50 organizations,
businesses and government
agencies.
Healthy People 2010 serves as a
guide to improve the health of people
in the United States and
includes a section related to chronic
disease.
The State of Florida Department
of Health has set the statewide
goals based upon Healthy People
2010 addressing arthritis, cancer,
diabetes, heart disease and stroke,
nutrition and overweight, physical
activity, tobacco use and epilepsy
through health promotion and prevention
of illness, disability and premature
death. It is designed to
reach two major goals, increase
quality and years of healthy life and
eliminate health disparities.
The Consortium is
working with the
Health Council of
South Florida on the
Planned Approach to
Community Health
to promote disease
prevention programs.
Since addressing chronic diseases
is a multifaceted issue, the
Consortium members formed committees
to address the priorities that
the group has set. The committees,
which meet regularly, are:
1) School Based Issues
The co-chairs are Carol Chong,
RD, from Miami-Dade Public
Schools and Begoña Calcerrada,
from North Beach Coalition and
publisher of Hola Amigos. The overall
goal of this committee is to promote
health and wellness in the
schools
2) Worksite Wellness
The co-chairs are Santiago Leon,
from ACC Hall Insurance Brokers
and Dr. Donna Riley, from Miami-
Dade Public Schools.
The group decided on promoting
healthy lifestyles through worksite
activities by sharing information on
best practices and by creating partnerships
to implement worksite
wellness activities.
3) Health Promotion and Disease
Prevention
The co-chairs are Tori Gabriel,
from Miami Heart Research
Institute, Inc. and
Peggy McLoughlin, from Jackson
Health Systems. The group will
address chronic disease through
the promotion of a healthy lifestyle
including good nutrition, regular
physical activity and not using
tobacco products.
The Consortium is also working
with the Health Council of South
Florida on the Planned Approach to
Community Health (PATCH) to promote
disease prevention programs.
The Consortium and committee
chairs make up the steering committee
that will help guide the
PATCH process through the five
phases. Upon completion, the community
will have added information
that will enable them to better identify
and target priority health problems.
The Consortium is open to all
who are interested. For additional
information or to participate in the
Consortium, please call (786) 845-
0335. A web site will be online
soon.
Contributing Writer: Barbara Adkison
14
HealthBeat