Health Fundamentals Newsletter

An online newsletter published by the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund.

Volume 1 - Issue 3 - September 3, 2004

Access to Health Care

Working to make professional health care available to all

The Health Fund is continuing its efforts to increase access to health care. Check back soon for the latest information.

Oral Health

Working to improve oral health through education, prevention, and access to care

Hutchinson Water Fluoridation Question to be Decided by Voters

Hutchinson voters will be empowered to improve oral health in their community November 2 through a question on the general election ballot regarding water fluoridation. The Hutchinson City Council in July unanimously approved an ordinance to bring the level of fluoride in city water up to the optimum level for the prevention of tooth decay. Fluoridation opponents subsequently arranged a petition drive and produced enough signatures to bring the issue of recalling the ordinance to a vote.

Unfortunately the ballot question may be confusing to voters, who will have to vote "no" to approve fluoridation.

Healthy Teeth for Hutchinson, a coalition of local dental and medical health professionals and citizens concerned about oral health, will be leading a campaign in support of fluoridation. Healthy Teeth for Hutchinson is chaired by local pediatric dentists Dr. Roger Gausman, DDS, and Dr. Kricket Young, DDS.

The Health Fund has offered the city a grant of $247,534 to pay for the equipment and related costs to begin fluoridation.

Oral Health Grants Available from the Health Fund

A Request for Proposals (RFP) for oral health grant projects remains available from the Health Fund, but the deadline is soon. Examples of eligible projects include, but are not limited to:

Dental hygiene projects in public settings
Community water fluoridation
Access to care for unserved and underserved persons
Integration of oral health into medical and other settings
Professional education and conferences
Other special opportunities to advance oral health

The next deadline for proposals is October 11, 2004. Interested organizations should contact Health Fund program staff to discuss project characteristics. If the program officer determines that the project has the potential to be funded, authorization to submit a grant request will be provided. The Health Fund has an online grant request submission system which makes applying for a grant simple and straightforward. Details of the RFP are available at:

http://www.healthfund.org/oralhealth/htkrfp04.php

Community Water Fluoridation Grant Deadline Nears

The established application deadline for fluoridation grants is October 11, 2004. Since 1998, the Health Fund has offered grants to fund the start-up costs of community water fluoridation due to fluoridation's time-proven oral health benefits, safety, and practicality. Persons living in communities with fluoridated water enjoy 20 to 40% less tooth decay than those in areas without adequate fluoride.

Although the fluoridation grants deadline is approaching, an extension is possible. If an extension of the deadline is needed, please contact Virginia Elliott, Senior Program Officer for the Health Fund, and visit with her about your situation today. Virginia may be reached at 620-662-8586 or 800-369-7191.

Oral Health Kansas Meeting to be held September 22

The first Oral Health Kansas Annual Meeting will take place September 22 in Wichita. Topics to be covered at the meeting include:

Building the political will to improve oral health
Oral health public engagement campaign
Emerging oral health care delivery models
Oral Health Coalition: Past, Present, and Future

Special speakers for the event include Tracy Garland, Washington Dental Service Foundation and Dr. Robert Crittenden, MD, MPH, University of Washington.

The first OHK "Dental Champion" award will also be presented at the meeting. The meeting will be held from 9:30 am to 4 pm at the Airport Hilton Executive Conference Center. Registration is $25 for members and $50 for non-members.

Oral Health Kansas is a statewide organization dedicated to improving oral health in Kansas through advocacy, public awareness, and education.

For more information, visit http://www.kpha.bluestep.net/my/shared/home.jsp

Questions and Answers about Community Water Fluoridation

The Health Fund’s Healthy Teeth for Kansans oral health initiative has offered grants to fund the start-up costs of community water fluoridation since 1998 due to fluoridation’s proven oral health benefits, safety, and practicality. As a supporter of community water fluoridation, the Health Fund frequently fields questions from people seeking to find the facts about fluoridation. We have prepared a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) we hope will be helpful in sorting fact from fiction.

The Community Water Fluoridation FAQ is available on our website

Healthy Lifestyles

Promoting healthy nutrition and healthy activity to maintain and improve health

Walking for Fitness and Health

Striving to "practice what we preach," by modeling healthy behaviors, the Health Fund staff recently started a program to encourage healthy exercise through walking while at the same time building team spirit and camaraderie as we walk toward a common goal. Our first destination goal is the "Hawaiian Beaches" at 3,624 miles away. We don't plan to let the water slow us down a bit.

Health Fund staff, joined by the staff members of the Kansas Area United Methodist Foundation and the Hutchinson District Office, are participating together in the walking program, which measures weekly progress toward a chosen "destination." Using pedometers to track daily mileage walked, participants will work to accumulate enough total miles to have "walked" to the destination. On reaching the destination, the building staff will enjoy a shared theme luncheon with the foods and atmosphere of the chosen destination.

Child and Adolescent Obesity Prevention Conference to be held in September

The University of Kansas and the Maternal & Child Health Care Coalition are sponsoring the 6th Annual Conference on the Prevention and Treatment of Overweight and Obese Children and Adolescents, to be held September 9th through 11th 2004 in Kansas City, MO. The conference aims to raise awareness among health care and educational providers of increasing childhood and adolescent obesity and overweight and related health problems, while highlighting school, community, and family strategies for the prevention and reduction of childhood obesity.

The conference brochure lists several sobering facts about increasing obesity among America’s youth:
Medical problems in obese children and adolescents are common and can result in problems with cardiovascular health, the endocrine system, and mental health.
Ten times as many children had Type 2 diabetes in 2002 compared to 1997.
Nearly 22 percent of preschool children in the US are overweight, and 10 percent are obese.
Four cities in the Midwest are listed among the 25 fattest cities in America by ABC News. Those cities include Kansas City, MO and Wichita, KS.
Overweight adolescents have a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese adults, increasing to an 80 percent chance if one or more parents are overweight.

For more information about the conference, contact Kim Johnson at 785-864-0797 or visit KU's Energy Balance Laboratory site.

The Health Fund is providing a grant of $7500 to support three of the event’s presenters.

Congregational Health Partnership

Working together with local United Methodist churches for a healthy Kansas

Latest Congregational Health Ministry Grants Announced

The Health Fund has recently awarded Congregational Health Ministry grants to two churches in support of parish nurse ministry programs.

Lyndon United Methodist Church receives a $5,000 grant to establish a health and wellness ministry to serve the congregation and the community. Grant funding will be used for parish nurse training, equipment, supplies, and other health ministry resources. The grant project is directed by JoAnn Pouch with the support of pastor Rev. Robert Conway.

The West Heights United Methodist Church, Wichita, has been awarded a $4,981 grant to help expand its parish nursing program. Grant funding will be used to purchase equipment and educational materials, provide parish nurse training, and sponsor a health fair. The grant project is directed by parish nurse Janet Miller with the assistance of pastor Rev. John Martin.

Under the Health Fund's Congregational Health Ministry grants initiative, start-up grants of up to $5,000 are available to local Kansas United Methodist Churches to stimulate the development of comprehensive congregational health and wellness ministries. It is the hope of the Health Fund that these one-time grants, added to local church resources, will mobilize strong volunteer efforts to address many facets of health, healing, and wholeness in congregations and communities throughout Kansas.

Save the Date - Fourth Annual Health Ministry Renewal Conference, April 8-9, 2005

The fourth annual Health Ministry Renewal Conference is tentatively scheduled for April 8 and 9 at Rock Springs 4-H Center. Add those dates to your calendar and look for updates as the conference planning progresses!

The conference is designed to provide participants with a number of benefits, including:

Information about what local churches are doing to encourage healthy lifestyles through healthy physical activity and healthy food choices, one of the Health Fund's strategic Focus areas.
Renewed personal energy through shared spiritual activities in a scenic retreat setting
Useful information about current health ministries in Kansas United Methodist congregations
Networking opportunities with others having shared interests and motivations toward congregational health ministries

General/Other News

New Kansas Bishop Scott Jones Joins Health Fund Board

The Health Fund would like to welcome as the newest member of its Board of Trustees Bishop Scott J. Jones, who replaces outgoing Bishop Fritz Mutti. Bishop Jones, who took office September 1, is coming home to Kansas after 27 years in Texas.

Jones, a University of Kansas graduate, was ordained a deacon in the Kansas East Conference in 1978 and, after completing a Ph.D. at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology, was ordained an elder in the North Texas Annual Conference in 1987.

Jones returns to Kansas with his wife, Mary Lou Reece, and three college-age children, Arthur, Jameson, and Marynell. The Health Fund staff and trustees look forward to working with Bishop Jones.

Spirituality and Mental Health Recovery Conference scheduled for October

The Conference, scheduled for October 28 & 29 at the Holiday Inn Holidome in Lawrence, KS, will address issues including:

Partnerships between mental health professionals, clergy, congregations, and consumers
Resilient responses to mental crises and challenges
Healing powers of meaning, purpose, hope, and faith
Diverse religious and cultural resources

The Conference, sponsored by the KU School of Social Welfare, the KU Association for Spiritual Diversity in Social Work, and the Society for Spirituality and Social Work, will feature several nationally and regionally known speakers.

Keynote speakers for the Conference include:

Edward R. Canda, MA, MSW, Ph.D., is Professor and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Social Work at the University of Kansas. Dr. Canda has produced over 100 publications and over 100 international presentations relating to the connections between spirituality, cultural diversity, and social work.
Patricia E. Deegan, Ph.D., is an independent consultant on the topic of recovery and empowerment of those diagnosed with mental illness. Affiliated with the Boston University Institute for the Study of Human Resilience, the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare, and Advocates for Human Potential, Inc., Deegan is an activist in the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement and a co-founder of the National Empowerment Center, Inc.
David Lukoff, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist in California and Professor of Psychology at Saybrook Graduate School in San Francisco. The author of 50 articles and chapters on spiritual issues and mental health, he trained in psychology and anthropology at the University of Chicago, Harvard, and Loyola University of Chicago and has been a faculty member at Harvard, UCLA, Oxnard College, the California Institute of Integral Studies, and the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.

The Health Fund has made a grant of $20,000 to provide funding support for the Conference.

For more information, visit the KU School of Social Welfare site at: http://www.socwel.ku.edu

2003 Annual Report now Available Online

The Health Fund's 2003 Annual Report is now available on our website at http://www.healthfund.org and is a good source of information about who we are, what we do, and how we do it. The Annual Report features information about our strategic focus areas, our work in congregational health ministries, a list of grants made in 2003, and financial and other background information. It's required reading for anyone interested in Kansas United Methodist Health Philanthropy in Action!

You can view our annual reports at http://www.healthfund.org/annreports.php and you can sign up to receive annual reports via e-mail at http://www.healthfund.org/commsignup.php

If you are already receiving this newsletter by subscription, you can click the "Update your preferences" link at the bottom of each newsletter to join the annual report list or update your information.

Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Program Seeks Nominations

The Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Program (CHLP) honors ten outstanding individuals each year for their work in creating or enhancing healthcare programs serving communities whose needs have been ignored and unmet. Each leader receives $120,000 to be used for personal and program enhancement over a period of up to three years.

If you know someone who finds creative ways, despite complex odds, to bring health services to their communities, they may be eligible for this award. Candidates...

must be working full time at the grassroots level
may not have received significant national recognition
must be in "mid-career" with at least five and no more than 15 years of community health experience.

Nominations are open and can be made by consumers, community health leaders, health professionals, and government officials who have been personally inspired by the nominees.

The CHLP Letter of Intent (LOI) must be received by September 22, 2004. For more information, visit the CHLP website at http://www.communityhealthleaders.org or call the program office at 617-426-9772.