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Cheerleaders from Girls in Action were on hand to help promote the kickoff of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s new anti-obesity program called Healthy Children in the Heights on Fri., June 17.
by John A. Gutiérrez
It isn’t often that you see some of the nation’s leading experts on pediatric health and wellness hopping like bunnies. But if you had been in the Wintergarden of the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian on Fri., June 17 that is exactly what you would have seen. The doctors, public health professionals and fitness experts assembled where hopping like ninja bunnies, to be more precise, as part of the hospital’s kick-off of its Healthy Children In the Heights program, a new initiative that seeks to address the obesity crisis in Northern Manhattan by promoting health eating and health living among the area’s children.
“This is a very serious issue,” said Dr. Herbert Pardes, New York Presbyterian Hospital’s (NYPH) long-time president and CEO. “We have to teach people how to take care of themselves.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly 17 percent of all children in America are obese. And according to data from the New York City Department of Health, nearly twenty percent of kindergarteners in the city are obese. But here in Northern Manhattan the crisis may be more acute than at the national or citywide levels. Data collected in Northern Manhattan reveals that as many as 31 percent of school children in Northern Manhattan are obese and that another 22 percent are overweight.
Jackie Mucaria, NYPH's senior vice president for Ambulatory Care & Patient Centered Service, said she sees many of these children in her clinics. Some 34,000 children are treated for illnesses at NYPH’s clinics, Mucaria said, and many of them are there for conditions that are “treatable and preventable”, including many that are the result of obesity.
For years, NYPH has been working to address the obesity crisis by partnering with parents, schools, and local community groups to promote good nutrition and exercise as counterweights to the area’s ubiquitous fast-food establishments and the increasingly sedentary nature of childhood in the area.
But Healthy Children in the Heights is something different. NYPH has brought together all of its various programs addressing pediatric health and wellness to create a comprehensive program that engages all of the Northern Manhattan’s key institutions in the battle against obesity.
Dr. Emilio Carrillo, one of the nation’s leading experts on health disparities in the United States and the architect of the new program, says that Healthy Children in the Heights is designed to be a community-wide initiative aimed at both providing children with the tools they need to make good decisions about what they eat and how they exercise and also getting everyone in the community invested in health and wellness of the area’s children. “This is about making Washington heights a national leader in addressing childhood obesity,” Dr. Carrillo said.
As part of the Healthy Children in the Heights Program, NYPH is encouraging schools, businesses, supermarkets, restaurants and others to sign a pledge that they will support healthy activities and eating for young people in Northern Manhattan. And the hospital will partner with groups such as the Community Association of Progressive Dominicans (ACDP) to leverage the manpower provided by the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program to do grassroots canvassing throughout the area to educate parents and children about things they can do to curb the obesity epidemic.
Much of this work, more than one speaker pointed out at the kickoff, is building on the success of NYPH’s Choosing Healthy and Active Lifestyles for Kids or CHALK Program. For years, CHALK staff and experts have been leading the fight to reduce childhood obesity in Northern Manhattan by, among other things, supporting the creation of a greenmarket in Washington Heights and promoting exercise through its Vive tu Vida campaign. Hospital officials said that they hoped that Healthy Children in the Heights could expand on CHALK’s success and produce meaningful results. “We think that we can see results in five years,” Dr. Carrillo said.
If the children present at the kickoff event are any indication, the success of the program could surprise even its most ardent supporters. Among the kids participating in the program at the Wintergarden were young cheerleaders from Girls in Action, a local non-profit organization. Taking the stage the young, fit and energetic girls exhorted the audience to make smart choices about food and exercise. “Don’t be a fool, be physically active every day!” they cheered.
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