Rural Health

Salud en sus Manos - Health is in your Hands

 
Editor’s Note: Last year the Washington Health Foundation awarded a Healthiest State Grant to Radio KDNA 91.9 FM and its partners to continue broadcasting its Spanish-language health education program throughout the Yakima Valley. Many members of the Hispanic immigrant population face health inequities due to geographic isolation, cultural separation and low incomes. The Salud en Sus Manos (Health is in Your Hands) radio show helps overcome these barriers by promoting adoption of healthy habits and use of preventive practices and services. The program also provides information on how to access care and meet immediate medical needs. As Executive Director Amelia Ramon observes in one report below, the program engages its listeners in important health topics and helps move them to action. We thank the leaders of KDNA and their partners for creating and sustaining a critical resource for the people of Washington state. Only with efforts such as yours can we make Washington the Healthiest State in the Nation.

Salud en sus Manos - Radio Cadena Productions                                              

Sponsored by: Washington Health Foundation
Hosted by: Lily González, Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital
Guest: Dr. Heriberto Flores, Specialist in Family Therapy
Topic: Growing Healthy Children (Criando Niños Saludables)

This one hour program hosted by Lily González was a telephone interview with Dr. Heriberto Flores from Ocotlán, Jalisco, Mexico. Dr. Flores’ primary message was the importance of good parenting skills in the home. He expressed that the family is the central focus of society and it can’t ignore the transformation of values and norms that have occurred over the last few years. He emphasized that families need to have the capacity to adapt to those structural changes in order to maintain the stability of the family unit and to prevent parents from becoming disoriented.

After the program, several calls were received congratulating Dr. Flores for his participation in the program and to request his telephone number. A week later, a person came to one of the Yakima Memorial Valley Hospital classes on colon cancer and expressed that he was enchanted with this particular program that he had heard, and personally asked for Dr. Flores’ number. He gave us his testimony on being a father and the great need in the community for training on how to become a good father.

 

Growing Good Dirt

By Elise Krohn, Traditional Foods Educator and Herbalist

 
As part of the Native Plant Nutrition Program at the Northwest Indian Treatment Center, patients learn to plant, maintain, harvest, prepare and preserve many types of food plants. At the end of June we added over 75 salmonberry, thimbleberry and strawberry plants to the garden. By next year these delicious wild foods will help feed the patients along with local wildlife including deer and birds. 

As I planted strawberries, I took a moment to ponder the substance that sifted through my fingers – dirt. It is miraculous, really. According to Seattle Tilth, one gram of healthy soil is home to as many as 500 million organisms including bacteria, yeast, algae, protozoa and insects! These tiny creatures can build soil nutrients, hold water and ward off plant diseases. If soil is alive, plants will be healthy and robust.  If not, plants will struggle for survival. Just as people get run down when they are not eating enough good food, plants will fail to thrive when they are growing in poor quality soil.

Last year, our food garden suffered despite that fact that we watered regularly and brought in organic fertilizer and bagged compost. Plants stayed small and were attacked by insects including aphids, cutter beetles and other pests. Because we are committed to growing our gardens free of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, we needed to look deeper to solve our problem. The obvious answer was to build our soil quality.  Nature is our best role model here. In healthy forests, everything is recycled and turned back into useful material. But how could we recreate a similar model in our gardens? This is how our compost project was born.

There is no shortage of compostable materials at the treatment center. Our large grounds are laden with beautiful trees, grassy areas and several gardens. For the last several years, we have been piling yard debris into a giant heap that has become a thriving tangle of blackberries. Over 35 patients and staff eat three meals a day, which creates over 15 gallons of food waste per day. We also generate an immense amount of paper and cardboard waste, which goes into the garbage because we do not have a local recycle program. All of this can be turned into fertile soil for our gardens.

There are a lot of ways to compost, so we went to our local experts to ask for advice. With help from a local Master Composter and a county extension officer from the Washington State University Extension Master Gardener Program we decided that our best option was to build a cinder block multiple bin. This design allows us to have several piles composting in different phases at once. Our basic ingredients are equal parts of “browns” and “greens.” Greens include grass clippings, fresh leaves, garden clippings, small prunings and kitchen waste. Browns include dry leaves, dried garden clippings, shredded paper, shredded cardboard and wood chips. We also added a couple shovels full of finished compost and water to get the pile started. These basic ingredients provide everything organisms need to create rich compost that our plants will thrive on. Patients are turning the pile once or twice a week to speed up the composting process. I’ve never seen so many people so excited about dirt!

The results of our compost project were almost immediate. Within the first week we started seeing worms, beetles and other insects moving in and decomposing our pile. We are reducing our waste while saving money on costly fertilizer and bagged compost. 

The Native Plant Nutrition Program is offered through a partnership between the Northwest Indian Treatment Center and the Northwest Indian College’s Cooperative Extension Department. For more information please contact Elise Krohn at ekrohn@nwic.edu 

 
   

Whitson Students Get Active

By Vicki Prendergast, Principal at Whitson Elementary

It has been a remarkable year at Whitson Elementary School in White Salmon! There has been an increased focus on student health - particularly their fitness levels. We held all school fitness activities that began with a Walk Back to School and ended with a Play Day. Each month our PE teacher gave classroom teachers a calendar of Brain Gym or other quick movement activities that they could do to give students a break from academics and get their minds recharged.

As part of our Healthy Habits/Active Minds project, funded by a Healthiest State Grant through the Washington Health Foundation, we wanted to compare the engagement and activity levels of students on the playground if a supervised, organized activity was planned. Previous years we had two playground assistants supervising 100 students during each grade level recess. Students were responsible for choosing an appropriate activity. As might be expected, this can be difficult for some students no matter whether they are in kindergarten or in fourth grade. During soccer, football, 4 square or another group game arguments might break out about the rules or students would get aggressive in their play. We found that with the size of our playgrounds two people alone could not keep everyone playing harmoniously. Some students were unable to choose an activity and would just stand around. As part of the grant project we hired a third person to organize and lead activities on the playground. They also encouraged students who would normally not participate to get involved. The other playground assistants were freed up to interact more with students and more closely watch the other activities happening.

As a result almost all of our students were moving or playing on the equipment or involved in a game. Playground staff encouraged our more stationary students to get up and move. More students could be seen walking around the playground in small groups.

A side benefit of the increased activity was 50% fewer behavioral referrals from the playground. Teachers noted students were ready to transition to academics or lunch more easily after recess than in previous years. Students looked forward to playing more organized activities and felt having the adults supervising more closely cut down on aggressive or bullying behavior. They felt safer!

Recently a local church asked if our school site could be the location for their Day of Service on August 20^th. We have invited the community to participate as well. They will be completing a number of projects, including developing walking paths with distance markers for our two playgrounds. Our Parent Teacher Organization is donating materials and also purchased additional basketball hoops and a ball wall for our old tennis courts. We are very anxious to surprise our kids with this make-over when school resumes August 31^st.