MCHB ALL GRANTEE MEETING

Child Health Day- “Eat Healthy - Move More”

October 4-7, 2004

CLAUDE ALLEN: Thank you, you got your vegetables and fruit? I love this, this is great. The kids are going to love this too, thank you. It is indeed a privilege and an honor to be here with you this morning, and I want to thank both Dennis Williams, Doctor Williams for his service in the department, many years and as he described, I do recall 9-11 as we all would, but Dennis I want to thank you for your leadership, working in the department now moving over to HRSA and providing leadership there and support to Doctor Betty James Duke. And all of our HRSA staff, and Dr. Van Dyck, I want to thank you too for your leadership and the work and your staff, and working with Maternal Child Health issues and particularly focusing on the needs of women and children throughout this great nation of ours. Little do most of you know, that as a department not only do we focus on these issues domestically, but are very active internationally. In Afghanistan , working to help restore the health of women and children who for so long have been neglected. In Iraq , another nation where women had been abused and neglected, and children were simply an after thought, and often times discarded and left to their own devises in the streets, and so thank you for the work of HRSA and working not only domestically, but internationally. I also want to recognize Doctor Koop, our much loved former surgeon general, and now a senior scholar of the C. Everett Koop Institute at Dartmouth University, just a privilege to get to know Doctor Koop, I had the privilege of sitting on panel with him a couple of years ago at the commission core offices association, and was just in awe, just his tremendous leadership.

I also want to welcome all of you, all the federal staff, and to the HRSA MCHB grantees from the 59 States and jurisdictions, you represent a broad range of maternal and child health areas and you represent federal, state, and local governments, tribal governments, health officials, health care professionals, and families served by the program. The purpose of this meeting today is to gather together to build synergy and collaboration as we seek to develop strategies and expand our strategies that maximize the effectiveness of our efforts to meet the needs of the Maternal Child Health population. This is an opportunity to share vision, to present new and critical information that will augment MCHB partners’ performance and to discuss contemporary challenges for the MCH field. This is also a great opportunity to enhance MCHB’s partners of awareness and appreciation of each other and provide opportunities for working together, both within and across the broad array of programs. In addition, you can identify critical opportunities for collaborative effort that can make more effectively meet the needs of the MCH population and to begin work on these partnership activities. The theme of this meeting, “The Power of Partnership, Meeting Today’s MCH Challenges through Partnerships” represents an expansion of the annual partnership meeting that state MCH directors have attended each year, for the past six years.

This meeting is an opportunity for local, state, federal and tribal grantee leaders and other partners including families to provide national leadership and partnership and strengthening the MCH structure. This year the partners combined efforts will help the nation to meet the MCH challenges and opportunities of the future. Today, we also observe Child Health Day, there is no better community to celebrate this day with, than with you, the title five MCH community. Title five is indeed the backbone in assuring the well being of children and their families, and you are the glue to that backbone the infrastructure that holds the safety net together for our nation’s families especially our most vulnerable children and women. Calvin Coolidge was the first President to issue a Child Health Day proclamation and under a joint resolution of Congress the President of the United States has proclaimed a national Child Health Day every year since 1928. Each years Child Health Day has a focus on identified health related theme. Topics have range from children with special needs issues to the prevention of childhood injury to the importance of immunizations. I am pleased to announce that this year’s Child Health Day theme is, “Eat Healthy, Move More” with the focus on partnering with families to prevent childhood overweight and obesity.

You’ve heard of my wife and I, Janise and I, we’re the proud parents of four children, and so we pay very close attention to this, this weekend as been a busy weekend for us as a family, our oldest son turned twelve on Saturday, our oldest daughter turned eight on Sunday, and our other two, our Christian he is four, and Joy she’s our newest, she is six months, and so for us health is important. We have one child who loves carbohydrates, he loves bread and cake and so this weekend was an opportunity to overload. Our desire is to give them balance, and so why there was much cake to be had, there was also, broccoli, and carrots there was fruit, and we even had some shrimp there, Lila had a West Indian party, she wanted a Jamaican theme party, so that was a lot of fun as well. And so for us we take this very seriously, and so I can identify with the work you do every day out there because we do that work at home everyday as well. President Bush and Secretary Thomson have all asked us to, at the Department of Health and Human Service to focus on disease prevention and health promotion and make them our top priorities. You see, poor diet and physical inactivity are pose to become the leading preventable causes of death in the United States, however, the science is conclusive, by taking a few simple steps in our personal lives we can greatly improve our health outcome and the health of our nation, both today and for the future.

While most of the major preventable causes of disease and death have shown decline or little change since 1990, a study released by HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that deaths due to poor diet and physical inactivity have increased 33 percent over the past decade. At this rate poor diet and physical activity may soon over take tobacco as the leading preventable cause of death. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. , the statistics are simply staggering, for example more than sixty-five percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, with nearly thirty-one percent of adults, over sixty-one million people meet the criteria for obesity. Levels of childhood overweight have nearly tripled since 1970, and today nearly two out every three American adults and approximately sixteen percent of children in teens ages 6-19, are now overweight. That is more than nine million children, one in every seven kids, who are at increase risk of weight related chronic diseases. These facts are simple astounding, but they are just he beginning of a chain reaction of dangerous health problems, many of which were once associated only with adults. Because of the increasing rate of obesity unhealthy eating habits and physical inactivity we may see the first generation that will be less healthy and have a shorter life expectancy than there parents.

Obesity is a strong risk factor for diseases such as, type II diabetes, or what use to be called Adult onset diabetes, and heart disease. It is also a risk factor for certain cancers and is associated with depression and other medical conditions. Particularly serious are the implications for the health of the nations children; pediatric overweight has serious implications for the development of serious diseases, not only during childhood but into adulthood as well. Today, the United States spends more on health care than any other country in the world, yet chronic diseases which are largely preventable through again, attention to healthy life styles and preventive services caused seventy percent of all deaths and account for seventy-five percent of the nations 1.4 trillion dollar health care cost. And the economic cost of obesity and overweight are staggering, total direct and indirect cost attributed to overweight and obesity were estimated at one hundred seventeen billion dollars in 2000, among American adults seventy percent do not get enough physical activity to provide health benefits. More than one third of young people in grades nine through twelve, do not engage in regular vigorous physical activity, a fourth of American children spend four hours or more sitting in front of a television eating fattening foods.

The good news is that there is a lot that’s still could be done to reverse this dangerous trend in children’s lives and events like today are proof that we are ready to start tackling this issue with great earnest and great vigor. In June of 2002, President Bush launch the Healthier U.S. initiative to help Americans take steps to improve their personal health and fitness by encouraging children and adults to be physically active everyday to eat a nutritious diet, to get preventative screenings and make healthy choices. The initiative is based on very simple formula every little bit of effort counts. The initiative directed federal departments including HHS to develop plans to promote physical activity and health of all Americans. HHS has long spearheaded initiatives to motivate Americans of all ages to become more active and learn more about healthy living. In 1979 for example, the public health service in the first publication of Healthy People the surgeon generals report on health promotion and disease prevention, this address the problems of obesity and both the health promotion and healthy children chapters. Secretary Thomson has continued HHS commitment to addressing and combat overweight and obesity. In support of the Presidents Healthier U.S. initiative for example, Secretary Thomson launched several bold initiatives, including Healthy People 2010 and Steps to Healthier U.S. that focus attention on the importance of overall disease prevention and help promote activities.

The central theme of promoting healthy behaviors for healthy weight is threaded throughout the Healthy People 2010 documents. Focus area 19 for example, of Healthy People 2010 is dedicated to nutrition and overweight, with the top two leading in health indicators being physical activity and overweight and obesity. Steps to a Healthier U.S. launched as the steps to a Healthier US Putting Prevention First Summit in 2003, is a bold new initiative for prevention that focuses on four key messages. First, be physically active each day. Secondly, eat a nutritious diet. Third, get preventative screenings. And fourth, make healthy life style choices. Building on a growing body of evidence in prevention research, this initiative pulls the resources of the department and other federal agencies to reduce the burden of six chronic diseases and conditions; diabetes, obesity, asthma, heart disease, stroke and cancer, by encouraging Americans to make small behavioral changes. In addition to leveraging the expertise and resources of the department, the steps to a healthier US initiative fosters public policies that enable healthier behavior, encouraging prevention efforts in states and communities and facilitating public, private partnerships. In 2003, the HSS Steps to a Healthier US Community program awarded 13.7 million dollars to twenty-four communities to implement action plans, and the number of applications for 2003, funding far exceeded the amount of money that was able to be awarded.

Funding for 2004 has risen to forty-four million dollars and the President as requested that congress increase funding for this program to one hundred twenty-five million dollars in 2005. Last week our department announced continuation of the original grants and the addition of 16 new communities totaling 35.7 million dollars for the steps to a healthier US program. The grants focus on reducing the burden of diabetes, overweight, asthma, in addressing risk factors such as physical inactivity, poor nutrition, and tobacco use in forty communities. These community initiatives including, walking programs, smoking cessation programs and increasing access to healthy foods in schools. Secretary Thomson is always one to lead by example, and so last year the Secretary announced the Secretary’s challenge program put the Department of Health, HHS on a diet. He challenged every HHS employee to be physical active for thirty minutes a day, five times a week. Employees actual tracked their progress through the web site for the Presidents council and physical fitness, which was www.fitness.gov and as part of the steps to a Healthier U.S. initiative this HHS pilot program encouraged employees to be more physically active and to work towards earning the Presidential active life style award of the Presidents challenge. I’m not going to put my friends on the spot here, by asking how many of them completed that and got their awards, but I’ll be glad to say I got mine.

Agencies and offices in the Washington D.C. area our southwest complex where divided into teams and through the effort of many dedicated coaches and captains, approximately twenty-five percent of the eight hundred forty-nine people who registered earned a Presidential active life style pin award. And as it probably should be the centers for disease control and prevention was the winning team. I see that you’re luncheon speaker tomorrow Melissa Johnson, who is the executive director of the Presidents council on physical fitness will be speaking on the Presidents challenge program, I hope that she also will put you to work as well, in terms of make sure you get active while you’re here, to talk about physical activity, but also to engage in physical activity. In March of this year, Secretary Thomson also announced a new HHS ad council advertising campaign titled, Healthy Life Styles and Disease Prevention, to educate Americans about the small steps that they could take. You know consumers don’t have to go to extremes to improve their health, but they do need to eat healthier and become or stay active, or should I say they need to eat healthy, and move more. Again, this is the theme for the Child Day slogan, the healthy life styles and disease prevention initiative includes multi media public service announcements, which are available at the World Wide Web, also at www.smallsteps.gov.

At the same time Secretary Thomson announced the new HHS education campaign; he announced a new research agenda for the national institute of health and releases in 2004 the strategic plan for NIH obesity research, builds on scientific advances from previous NIH supported efforts. And seeks to maximize collaboration across the NIH institutes, its centers and offices and capitalize on the expertise and interest of developing obesity research nationwide. You see the increase in obesity has fueled by a very complex interplay of both environmental, social, economic and behavioral factors acting on a background of genetic susceptibility. NIH can greatly contribute to the existing scientific knowledge of this multi-facetted disorder by focusing on these areas, and so the funding levels for NIH will increase from 2005 currently they’ve been $378 million dollars for FY 03 and four hundred million dollars for FY 04. The monies will increase in the request for the budget for 05 is now four hundred forty million dollars, which represents a ten percent, increase over ’04. And promoting the concept of prevention of every American, we need to reach people where they live, where they work, where they go to school. Prevention is an investment of our Nations future, and the dietary guidelines for Americans, advises Americans on building a healthy diet and making healthy life style choices.

Importantly my congressional mandate, the guidelines service, the federal governments principal food and nutrition policy document for people ages two years and older, and so our department working with the department of agriculture, have convened a dietary guidelines advisory committee, charged with reviewing the 2000 document and making recommendations including recommendations for physical activity based on the preponderance of the evidence, the current scientific evidence that exist. The results of this effort will be reported to the secretaries of both departments, which will be translated into the sixth edition of the nutrition and your health dietary guideline for Americans, which is scheduled for release in ’05. Public health efforts, to a reduce smoking over the past 35 years have shown us that unhealthy behaviors are not easy to change. And we believe this is the same with unhealthy eating habits and life style habits as well. And so the secretary is working with industry to assure that healthy choices are developed and made available to all Americans. We are partnering with private sector groups, such as the Girls and Boys Scouts, Girls and Boys Clubs to make the best use of the resources for targeted prevention related initiatives. In the work that we do everyday and in the work that you do, specifically as grantees of the Department of Health and Human Services, health resources, and service administration, maternal and child health bureau, you play an important role in advancing the department disease prevention and health promotions.

I focus largely on nutrition issues, but let me share one last thing as well the work that you do to save a child and rescue a child from being abused, being neglected, from being abandon is vitally important to prevention as well. As a young law student my first year of law school I got involved, and became a guardian at *Lydom in North Carolina where I saw children who were abused, I saw children who were abandon, I represented children who had been neglected. And many of these, cases it was a member of their own family, that was perpetrating the abuse, often times in many low income families often times the mother was unaware of the importance of healthy nutrition or had because she had been abused herself. It was over look or forgotten in the record. And it was only when I raised this issue that this mother was herself bulimic or a mother herself had experienced sexual exploitation or abuse did they make the link to her inability to care for her kids.

I want to urge you, never, never to forget the role that you play in rescuing those wonderful children, children who deserve the very best, and the best opportunities and also serving those families who for many reasons may not be a deliberate act of neglect of abuse, but sometimes may simple because their not equipped themselves to provide the care. Those who abuse and abuse purposefully, intentionally to harm any child, should be brought to the fullest measure of the law to be prosecuted. But where we can help a family to remain whole by giving them services and benefits based on what you do through the Maternal Child Health Bureau is a vital link as well. So as we talk about prevention as we talk about this years Children’s Health Day theme, as we talk about the power of partnership I want to encourage you to do your very best to continue providing assistance to those families that are so dependant upon your services and your partnerships. Thank you for the opportunity to be here with you this morning I hope you have a very successful conference and look forward to the results, God Bless You, and God Bless America.