Community Action Plan-Health

• Use evidence-based prevention practices for youth, including education, community awareness of the issues, and reinforcing the expectation of no underage drinking.
• Create changes in community norms (social expectations for adult and youth drinking). Reduce “acceptable levels” of alcohol consumption.
• Adults practice low-risk drinking (for themselves, and as an example for youth).
• Improving screening to detect underage use and adult abuse of alcohol.
• Closing the treatment gap (between those needing treatment and those receiving treatment).
• Stigma reduction through increased knowledge and understanding.
•  Meeting the needs of other family members, when an individual has a substance use disorder.

• Provide leadership to foster the development, support and sustainability of healthy lifestyles.
  
• Improve eating habits, resulting in appropriate nutrition—healthy types of foods, as well as moderation in the amount consumed.

      - Increase education regarding the importance of proper nutrition.

      - Involve parents/other adults in setting good examples and providing  
        encouragement for changing eating habits.

      - Increase collaborations to provide expertise and broadly deliver education.

• Increase physical activity—recommendations include moderate activity (increasing breathing or heart rate) performed for at least 30 minutes, five of more times per week.

      - Increase educational efforts, communicating the importance of exercising regularly.

            - Involve parents in setting good examples, and encouraging children to exercise regularly.

            - Increase collaborations to provide expertise and broadly deliver education.

            - Create more supportive environments for physical activity.

            -  Increase transportation options for youth access to activities.

•  Increased unit price of tobacco products.
•  Interventions for smoking cessation in hospitalized patients.
• Media campaigns with interventions.
•  Nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation.
• Provider reminders and provider education, with or without patient education.
• Quitter telephone support with interventions.
•  Reducing patient costs for treatments.
• Support smoking bans and restrictions.

Encourage the use of the “5 As” model for clinicians:

• Ask about tobacco use
• Advise to quit
• Assess willingness to make a quite attempt
• Assist in quit attempt
• Arrange follow-up

•  Promote public awareness of mental health issues and effective treatment.
•  Reduce stigma associated with mental illness.
  
• Improve the assessment of and recognition of mental health needs.
•  Increase access to and coordination of quality mental healthcare services, and eliminate racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities.
• Ensure the supply of mental health services and providers.
• Continue to develop, disseminate, and implement scientifically-proven prevention and treatment services.
• Tailor treatment to age, gender, race, and culture.

• Improve oral health education to increase understanding of what adequate, appropriate oral health care means.
  
• Support efforts at the federal level to improve dental access for children with public coverage by:
  

     - Expanding community health centers in medically underserved areas.
     - Providing grants to increase the number of pediatric dentists.
        - Developing prevention programs for high-risk populations.
        - Improving efforts to track children’s dental health.

• Encourage the state to increase provider participation and dental access through methods that have worked for other states, such as:

      - Raising provider payment rates.
         - Contracting with a dental benefits manager to administer benefits.
         -  Streamlining the billing process.
         - Allowing dentists to submit claims electronically.