“Muskegon leaders face local health and wellness issues, commit to drastic improvements - MLive.com”

Muskegon leaders face local health and wellness issues, commit to drastic improvements - MLive.com

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Published: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 8:55 PM Updated: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 11:11 PM

MUSKEGON — Leaders representing the breadth of the community have agreed to the ambitious goal of making Muskegon the healthiest county in Michigan.

The goal flies in the face of national statistics that show for health behaviors Muskegon County is 80th out of 82 counties in the state.

"There is not much more important than the health of your community," Muskegon Rotary President Jim Fisher told more than 70 community leaders at a Muskegon County Wellness Summit Wednesday afternoon at the Holiday Inn Muskegon Harbor.

"We know that we have a lot of work to do," Fisher said at an event coordinated by Muskegon Rotary and supported by a steering committee representing a dozen key community organizations. "We have to shift the culture in Muskegon from one of healthcare to one of wellness. On an individual basis, we need to embrace a healthy lifestyle and have our own skin in the game."

The three-hour wellness discussion facilitated by Mercy Health Partners President Roger Spoelman looked at what it would take for a complete transformation of community attitudes and culture. Spoelman said the community must overcome "environmental heredity" — attitudes in families that allow unhealthy behaviors.

The University of Wisconsin county health rankings released a year ago was a wake up call for a community with poor health habits and plenty of chronic illnesses but is the third best county in the state when it comes to clinical care.

"We're 80th in healthy behaviors in the state and third in quality treatment but we must realize that we are not going to treat ourselves out of the problems," Muskegon County Health Director Ken Krause said. "We have to do something different."

The national study of county health rankings by state — supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation — looked at such factors as tobacco use, diet, exercise, alcohol use and unsafe sex. It found Muskegon health issues surrounding obesity, diabetes, heart disease and high-blood pressure.

"This isn't going to be easy but we are trying to get to a point that something moves," Spoelman said. "This is just a beginning."

The Muskegon Rotary Club used its influence throughout the community to bring leaders from 16 separate sectors of Muskegon together. Participants represented businesses, governments, healthcare providers, churches, non-profit organizations and educational institutions.

"At some point, the powerful are going to have to commit to this healthy ideal," said Stewart Jones, program director of Head Start in Muskegon and Oceana counties. "Every organization has to participate."

The three-hour exercise ended with the group starting to place priorities on a large list of ideas that were generated through a brainstorming session. Spoelman asked the group to think in terms of the next 1,000 days and what could be accomplished in the short term yet this year, in the medium term through 2012 and in the longer term for 2013 and beyond.

Short-term ideas were as simple as organizing a German-style community walk where people would get out to meet neighbors, enjoy the natural beauty of Muskegon and start to exercise. Such an event could be organized this spring or early summer and lead to weekly walking, running or biking groups meeting throughout the county, participants said.

Other immediate actions might include building an inventory of all of the current community resources for people to embrace a healthy lifestyle and a communications plan to inform and engage all residents in Muskegon County.

A more mid-term goal would be a community competition to find the healthiest school in the county or in a public school district. Similar competitions could be among businesses, churches, neighborhoods and families.

Longterm, the group suggested finding adequate funding for the Muskegon County Department of Public Health, a development of a downtown grocery store so inner city residents would have easy access to fresh foods and securing public and private sources of funding to support local healthy initiatives.

Many of the topics discussed were much broader than diet, exercise and smoking cessation but they have strong influences on a community's health, community leaders said. They would include unemployment, poverty and racism.

Community leaders also pointed out the strengths that Muskegon can build upon to address its health and wellness issues. The community has a history of coming together to solve problems and has a citizenry willing to volunteer, participants said.

A consolidated hospital system with the 2008 merger of Hackley and Mercy hospitals has formed a foundation of excellent healthcare delivery, the community leaders said.

The community has been a state and national leader for decades in areas such as community mental health and access to healthcare through such programs as Access Health — a national model for a community-based, shared-cost health plan for low income workers.

"There are great ideas and energy in this room," Spoelman told summit participants.

A Rotary steering committee represents private businesses, the Community Foundation for Muskegon County, the Employers Association of West Michigan, Access Health, Mercy Health Partners, the Muskegon County Health Project, United Way of the Lakeshore, the Muskegon Area Chamber of Commerce, the Muskegon Family YMCA and the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District.

The committee has two follow up planning sessions for the group to reconvene the morning of April 29 and the afternoon of May 20. The locations of the sessions have yet to be determined.

Email: dalexander@muskegonchronicle.com

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Health and Beauty

Wednesday, March 16, 2011