Tag Archives: literacy

DHEC in the News: Community baby showers, swimming advisory, heart disease

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Here’s a look at health and environmental news from around South Carolina.

Community baby shower draws 100 expectant mothers

Sequoia Rivers waited outside of the Palmetto Electric community room in Ridgeland on Friday, anxious to enter the community baby shower being hosted by Sen. Margie Bright Matthews in partnership with Molina Healthcare of South Carolina.

Rivers, a Ridgeland resident, who is expecting her fourth child, has twins and a 7-year-old child. She said she attended to get the most up-to-date information about what opportunities are available for expectant mothers.

SCDHEC lifts swimming advisory for North Myrtle, Surfside

A temporary ban on swimming along portions of the Grand Strand coast has been lifted, South Carolina Department of Health and Environment Control announced Friday afternoon.

General Interest

Limited health literacy is a major barrier to heart disease prevention and treatment

Limited healthy literacy is a major barrier blocking many people from achieving good cardiovascular health or benefiting from effective treatment for heart attacks, heart failure, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases, according to a scientific statement published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.

Health literacy encompasses not only the ability to read, but skills such as being able to ask questions about your care, understand documents with medical terminology, perform the basic arithmetic needed to take medication correctly and negotiate with health care providers and insurance companies. Inability to do these things effectively can have serious health consequences.

From Other Blogs: National School Breakfast Week, lowering your cancer risk, tackling eHealth literacy & more

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A collection of health and environmental posts from other governmental blogs.

A Healthy Start to the School Day Leads to Bright Opportunities Ahead

Wholesome meals at school support educational achievement – and bright SchoolBreakfast-launch 2opportunities ahead for our nation’s kids and teens. Which is why, each year, during National School Breakfast Week (March 5-9), USDA recognizes the importance of a healthy start and the many ways the School Breakfast Program improves the health and nutrition of school children nationwide. — From the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) blog

Lowering Your Cancer Risk: A Matter of Ups and Downs

Think of listening to your favorite song. No matter what kind of music it is, someone was behind the scenes making it sound great: bringing out certain parts or instruments, balancing it, getting rid of background noise.

Cutting your cancer risk is a little bit like making great music. You turn some things up, turn some things down, and get rid of some things altogether. And you don’t have to be a professional to make choices that can help keep you doing what you love for a long time. — From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) The Topic Is Cancer blog

Prevent Colorectal Cancer: We Can Do It!

“A childhood friend has late-stage colon cancer. The prognosis is grim. But this is one cancer you can prevent,” writes Cindy Gelb, lead of CDC’s Screen for Life campaign. “One more late-stage diagnosis is one too many. Each of us really can make a difference.” — From the CDC’s The Topic Is Cancer blog

Tackling eHealth Literacy

As I waited in the exam room on a recent visit to my doctor’s office, I noticed there was a large wall display with an interactive screen. It resembled a smartphone and I could use the touchscreen to scroll and learn about various conditions, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and colon health. Each menu included signs and symptoms of illness, and information on diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. The designs were bright, jargon was kept to a minimum and defined when used, and navigating was simple for routine smartphone users. The display also included short videos supporting the on-screen text.

“Great!” I thought, “But what about patients who don’t have strong English skills or those who don’t feel confident engaging with the display? How do they get the information if they don’t directly ask for it?” — From the CDC’s Public Health Matters blog

2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans: We Want to Hear from You

Interested in being part of our process as we develop the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA)? Start today at DietaryGuidelines.gov. — From the USDA blog

SC Plants The Seed: A Marriage Between Nutrition And Literacy

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Plant the right seed and good things will grow. That’s the goal of SC Plants the Seed,  multi-component, library based intervention program that was developed to improve nutrition access and literacy, among low-income families.

Program driven by partnership

SC Plants the Seed is a partnership between DHEC (SNAP-Ed), the SC State Library, and the SC Department of Social Services.  The program currently integrates activities within four components: nutrition education, increasing access of fresh produce, USDA Summer Food Service Program, and literacy.

A summer of nutrition and reading

Once a month at the Bishopville and Pelion libraries and weekly at the Orangeburg Library, local farmers were invited to set up a farm-stand to give patrons the opportunity to purchase local farm fresh produce.  One of the goals was promoting the Healthy Bucks Program, the SCDSS farmers market incentive.  The program also set out to make it more accessible for SNAP, WIC, and Seniors Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) participants to redeem their vouchers.  Persons on SNAP could spend $5 in EBT and receive an additional $10, which only can be used with a local authorized farmer.FreshFruitVeggies

Not only did patrons have the opportunity to purchase produce but the SNAP-Ed program conducted food demonstrations and provided recipe samples prepared with the farmer’s local produce. They were also able to learn and ask about how to select, prepare, and store produce and find out what is in season.

At each event, every child received a free book, by a grant provided by the State Library, and there were arts and crafts activities. The Lee County Library in Bishopville served free meals at each event for children under 18 years of age through the USDA Summer Food Service program.

The farms and libraries that participated

The local farms that participated in the program were Martin Farms of North, SC; Rogers Vegetable Farm of Sumter, SC; and Beason Farms of Pelion, SC.  The host libraries for the summer of 2017 were Lee County Library in Bishopville, Orangeburg County Public Library-Main branch, and the Lexington County Library-Pelion Branch. The program was implemented in conjunction with each library’s summer reading programs.

SC Plants the Seed will return in the summer of 2018!