It's Not So Much What You Spend As What You Know

Friday, February 20, 2009 at 12:42PM
Talk Radio News Service (Admin) in Centers for Disease Control, Coffee Brown, Community Health Programs, Community resources, National Advisory Committee On Rural Health and Human Services, News/Commentary, The CDC, University of New Mexico, Wayne H. Giles, talk radio news service

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, for Talk Radio News Service

Several programs based on knowledge and teaching, rather than intensive funding, have proven effective in test communities, according to Wayne H. Giles, MD, MS, of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

The CDC has promoted programs like giving flu shots at voting sites, inspecting the homes of the elderly for trip-and-fall hazards, and educating patients to ask the right questions at clinic visits.

Substantial gains resulted in markers like the percentage of at-risk individuals getting flu shots, safer homes, and better blood sugars.

Giles noted that it's not enough to tell communities they need safe places for people to walk and exercise; action plans, "step by step cookbooks," are available online free through the CDC (http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/DACH_CHAPS/Default/LinksResourceType.aspx?topic=7) and HHS(http://www.communityhealth.hhs.gov/homepage.aspx?j=1). These resources have proven effective and are intended for use by communities all over the country looking for low cost ways to improve the health of their members, Giles told the National Advisory Committee On Rural Health and Human Services.

Article originally appeared on Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media (http://www.talkradionews.com/).