Dr. Kina White, Director of the Office of Community Health Improvement (OCHI) at the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH)

The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) was recently awarded Age-Friendly Public Health Systems recognition by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH). We spoke with Dr. Kina White, Director of the Office of Community Health Improvement (OCHI) at MSDH, to talk about this great achievement and learn more about efforts to make Mississippi a more age-friendly state. Read on to see what Dr. White had to share!

What is healthy aging?

If we use the World Health Organization’s definition, healthy aging is defined as the “process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age”. It enables people to be and do what they value throughout their everyday lives.

Something that’s very important to consider when we think about healthy aging is that we’re all aging. I think that there’s this misperception that healthy aging is only applicable to older adults and it is not. The goal is for all of us to healthily age in our communities.

How is MSDH working to make Mississippi more age-friendly?

Through work with Trust for America’s Health, the Mississippi State Department of Health is building age-friendly ecosystems in Mississippi. The state department has adopted Trust for America’s Health’s model for creating age-friendly public health systems, and is using that model to guide its work in this regard.

The model is based on the “6 C’s Framework” outlined by TFAH and centers equity not only when creating health plans but also when collaborating with other health organizations across our state. Right now, we’re working to support a local university to become more dementia friendly and we’re also helping employers take on more age-friendly practices in the workplace. So with this ecosystem, Mississippi is on a path to becoming an age-friendly state where we can create a healthy community that respects all persons so that we can all healthily age.

What resources indicate that a community supports healthy aging?

Affordable and reliable transportation. If a community is able to provide transport services for older adults–whether through a community-based van service or non-emergent medical transportation–then that community is helping to support healthy aging. Proper infrastructure, like walkable sidewalks, is another example.

Another example would be adequate training for service staff–like grocery store workers or cashiers. If those staff are effectively trained to work with older adults, who may have a language barrier or communication issue, then those customers would not feel stigmatized or ashamed that their communication needs may be different from someone else’s.

It’s really about creating an environment where individuals can live and thrive and not have to relocate because the support services are not there. And it does require an elevated level of planning, communicating, and coordinating with individuals. There is also a policy element. There has to be a need for policy change in these communities to ensure that transportation or infrastructure-related policies are in place to create those community van services and safe sidewalks.

And so this work happens on multiple levels–a policy level, or it could be a systems level–or it could be an environmental level–but that work is ultimately necessary to building age-friendly communities within our state.

In your opinion, what does it mean to create a culture of health?

For me, a culture of health is one that is equitable and where all persons, collective individuals, and organizations are respective of differences and similarities. Without equity, that culture, in my opinion, is not well established or sustained.

What projects are you excited about?

We have a new initiative called “Health Aging Champions”. It’s a volunteer-based program where older adults can volunteer to support our effort to become more age friendly as a state.

Volunteers can help us learn what local communities need and how to best offer age-friendly services. This project also gives our older adults a voice at the table for a change, which is really exciting.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell our audience?

We are proud to do this work and support all of our Mississippians as we age! I think this will be yet another great opportunity for collaboration in our state.

For more information, reach out to Dr. Kina White at kina.white@msdh.ms.gov.

Responses edited for brevity and clarity. Views expressed in interviews published on this site are solely those of the interviewees.

Addressing Food Insecurity in the Nation’s ‘Hungriest State’

On April 4, our team, along with one of our Battling Obesity workgroups attended the Mississippi Food Network Conference to learn more about local efforts to eliminate one of our state’s most pressing issues: food insecurity.

At the county level, Mississippi has the highest rate of food insecurity in the nation and has been considered as the most food insecure state in the country by Feeding America for nearly a decade.

1 in 4 Mississippians deal with food insecurity, and it is a disparity that has been shown to put people at higher risk for obesity and chronic disease. And, although it may seem like a one-problem-one-solution issue, it actually requires a more holistic approach.

Food insecurity is caused by a number of factors, or social determinants of health, such as income, transportation access, and local food availability. It’s also caused by food deserts–which, unfortunately, are very common in Mississippi.

Food deserts are communities that have limited access to healthy, affordable foods. When identifying whether or not a community is a food desert, distance plays a key role. Residents must live between 1 and 10 miles from their nearest supermarket in order to have adequate access to food. But, in areas like the Mississippi Delta, where nearly 20% of the state’s population resides, residents have access to just one food market per 190.5 square miles. There is also store inventory to consider; as one participant of our community listening sessions noted, “most stores do not have enough variety of healthy food.”

When people aren’t able to access fresh, healthy food–either because of distance or lack of availability–they may turn to eating at fast food places or restaurants as an alternative. This is how food insecurity leads to poor nutrition and adverse health outcomes like obesity.

Our plan is to reduce food insecurity by 10% in the next five years by increasing food access and eliminating food deserts across the state. We’re proud to work with organizations like the Mississippi Food Network to strengthen our efforts and raise awareness around the importance of ending food insecurity.

Click here to learn more about the latest State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP) and how you can help improve our state’s health. Then, show us how you’re bettering community health by sending us your success story! Visit https://uprootms.org/contact to get started.

FAT to Fit Olympic Games Makes Health Fun

In 2004, Jefferson County was reported as the most obese county in America. In 2010, Janell and Anthony Edwards attended the Global Obesity Summit in Jackson, and they realized that something needed to be done in terms of improving public health in Mississippi, starting in their community of Jefferson County. That same year, they created the FAT to Fit Olympic Games.

This past year, the Fayette Community Service Organization (FCSO) held its 9^th Annual FAT to Fit Olympics Games on July 19 and 20 at Alcorn State. The FAT to Fit Olympic Games consists of many field day games, ranging from 3-on-3 basketball to tug of war, and they have recently added a qualifying event in other counties for four of the tournament games. Winners of all of the games receive a bike or a cash prize. All participants also go through a free health screening.

“Our mission is to foster health and wealth among young men and women, including youth, by empowering service and guidance. Our vision is to create healthier and wealthier communities in Mississippi by turning a negative that has plagued our state for so many years into a positive,” says Janell Edwards.

To date, the Fayette Community Services Organization has conducted over 15,789 free health screenings, and has awarded over 1000 new bicycles and over $4000 in cash and healthcare products. Their goal for the 2020 event is to have a total of five counties participate, and they hope to reach even more counties.

One of the most helpful people in their journey has been Dr. Olu T. Ekundayo, who helped them realize the importance of getting clean data.

“When you get the data on somebody’s blood pressure, it comes from a hospital where they have a blood pressure issue. So, we had an event where you’re at the best health possible, and we’re getting those real numbers. You get clean data — you’re not getting sick data,” says Anthony Edwards.

FAT to Fit Olympic Games outgrew both their locations at the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors facility and the local junior high gymnasium in Fayette, and when they realized they were going to be expanding into multiple counties and attracting more people, they decided to partner with Alcorn State and use their larger facilities.

“We are dedicated to be a part of the solution. We are the inspiration for the nation fighting obesity. We want FAT to Fit to go nationwide. We’ve had participants from thirteen different Mississippi counties and five U.S. states. It will be based in health and people just coming out to have fun,” says Janell Edwards.

FCSO is also involved in other projects that work to create a culture of health and help lessen the high rates of obesity in our state:

The Fitness is Fun – Community Health Engagement Awareness Program (FIF-CHEAP) implements community engagement activities in targeted counties to increase health knowledge. They provide community meetings, live radio talk segments, and live social media prize campaigns to foster deeper understandings of obesity risk factors and its correlation to social and lifestyle factors, while also promoting obesity prevention and treatment strategies.

The Healthy Intervention Project Community (HIP-C) tracks the health of 3rd-6th graders with annual health screenings up until their senior year of high school. They have been doing this program for seven years, and their first class of students just graduated. The goal for this project is to establish health consciousness in young children.

The Community Garden in Fayette, MS will open in March 2020 and includes a pond, a walking trail, and a garden. The garden will also have a classroom style demo set up, and through partnerships with MSU Extension and Alcorn State Extension, they will offer gardening classes on site.

Health Radio Segments – FCSO will have segments on their local radio with healthy advice and recipes in hopes of expanding health literacy throughout the community. This project is funded by the Mississippi State Department of Health.

Learn more about the Fayette Community Service Organization on their Facebook.

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What if you got experience for your future career as early as high school? The Academies of Jackson Public School District, installed at each of the seven high schools and the district’s Career Development Center, give students the opportunity to get a head start on their next step in life. Whether they’re interested in healthcare, technology, business or academia, students get special opportunities to learn how professionals operate in the real world.

At the first-annual Youth Health Matters Symposium at the Jackson Medical Mall, Health Science Academy students got a health-professions smorgasbord. Students browsed information tables and attended mini seminars hosted by local colleges, universities, state agencies, and nonprofits.

“Considering how so many students don’t get an opportunity to know about the different fields, (the Symposium) gives them some important exposure,” said Felicia Wolfe, Academy coach at Lanier High School.

Students aspired to have careers in a variety of health careers. Lanier High School juniors Sabastian Robinson, Jamauria Davis, and Toyana Funches, who want to be a veterinarian, pharmacist and cardiologist, respectively, all said they appreciated the insight offered to them by the Symposium. Students with career aspirations besides healthcare found the event helpful, too.

“It’s helped me learn more about mental health,” says 16-year-old Rosalio Hernandez, a Jim Hill High School junior who wants to become a lawyer.

Events like the symposium are important for JPS students. The 27,000-strong district has mostly black students, who alongside Latino and Native American students nationwide are largely underrepresented in STEM majors in college, despite their high interest in the subject matter. These numbers are especially low for girls and women, and their low numbers in the STEM workforce reflect that. But with events like the symposium, students not only see their community members represented in these fields but also the real-world impact of the work of health professionals. These educational opportunities make them more likely to stick to and complete their STEM major upon enrollment in college—and hopefully return to their communities to build an even stronger culture of health at home.

How Young People Can Help Create a Culture of Health

Encourage them to get involved. Young people are extremely powerful agents of change. When they volunteer, they gain empathy for different groups and better learn how to serve the needs of a diverse group of people.

Educate them. Most schools have vocational programs and a variety of science electives and extracurricular activities. Talk to your school board about ways to empower kids to learn new healthy skills, or ways to engage health professionals in the community to put on health fairs.

Expand their perspectives. Health is not just about medical issues. Consider how public spaces like the availability of walking and biking trails can affect health. For students who are not pursuing biology, for example, volunteering to clear a walking path can contribute to the community’s health. Emotional and mental health are also critical to total wellness; this health symposium put on workshops on healthy dating and domestic violence awareness. Reach out to mental health professionals, too!