Local nurses Kristin DeArruda Wharton, RN, of Cook County Schools (left) and Teresa Borak, RN (right), of Sawtooth Mountain Clinic were happy to meet with Dr. Sanne Magnan, Minnesota commissioner of health, at the Duluth kick-off of Minnesota’s Statewide Health Improvement Program.
Local nurses Kristin DeArruda Wharton, Joni Kristenson and Teresa Borak are very excited about Cook County’s involvement in a nation-leading effort to reduce chronic disease. The nurses, from School District 166, Cook County Public Health and Human Services, and the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic, are launching the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) in Cook County.
SHIP tackles the top three causes of preventable illness and death in the United States: tobacco use, physical inactivity and poor nutrition. ISD 166 school nurse and Cook County SHIP coordinator Kristin DeArruda Wharton said, “Together these three factors have been estimated to cause 35 percent of all annual deaths in the United States, or 800,000 deaths each year. These factors also drive up health care costs. SHIP interventions are projected to save an estimated $1.9 billion in Minnesota by 2015.”
DeArruda Wharton explained that SHIP takes a new approach toward prevention by focusing on changes that make it easier for individuals to make healthy choices daily. “Thisis a new approach as many public health prevention programs focus on individual behavior change, which can be difficult to sustain past the life of the program or the individual’s involvement in the program,” said DeArruda Wharton.
SHIP is locally controlled, so grantees can establish the plans that are best suited to their communities. In Cook County, Grand Marais has been designated as a focus community. SHIP will focus on school nutrition, increasing active living through more access to walking and biking, breastfeeding promotion and workplace wellness. DeArruda Wharton said, “All of these SHIP interventions have been chosen because they have been proven to decrease obesity and chronic disease.”
Throughout the two-year funding period, local SHIP staff will work with citizens, school district, city, public health, clinic and other groups to create sustainable changes to the environment, systems and policies which shape our daily lives. The goal of SHIP statewide and in the Northeast is to make the healthy choice the easy choice.
Grand Portage Health Service is also working under a SHIP planning grant, assessing the health needs of the community before moving forward with its implementation. The SHIP contact in Grand Portage is April McCormick, who can be reached at (218) 475-2235.
“SHIP succeeds when community members are involved!” said DeArruda Wharton. She encouraged anyone interested to contact her at (218) 387-2330, ext 150 (clinic) or (218) 387-2273, ext 633 (school).
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has awarded 39 SHIP grants to Minnesota communities. The $47 million appropriation will be shared by all 87 Minnesota counties and eight tribal governments over the next two years through grants and technical assistance. Cook County received SHIP grant funding as a part of a seven-county joint application. SHIP is part of the health care reform initiative signed into law in 2008.
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