Around the Regions

Northern

The Northern Heart Health Coalition and Nurses from Roddickton showed their support for Nurses Week, May 8 - 14, 2000:

• The Nurses challenged the senior girls at Mountain View and Sacred Heart Schools to a friendly game of floor hockey.........which was followed by some healthy snacks!
• Roddickton Public Health Nurses participated in Canada Health Day activities at the Family Resource Center.........by promoting Healthy Beginnings, a program that focuses on nutrition for pre-school age children.

Additional Heart Health Activities.......

• The community of Forteau continues to coordinate heart health in the workplace initiatives on a monthly basis...........some initiatives include eating healthy for a day and staff skating.

Focus on Smoke-Free Initiatives

The Northern Heart Health Coalition partnered with Grenfell Regional Health Services to focus on smoking reduction and cessation programs for the year 2000.

• In January 2000, the Public and Regional Health Nurses throughout the region met in St. Anthony for a Smoking Cessation for Adults Train the Trainer Workshop. Following the training, an eight week smoking cessation program was offered in St. Anthony.
• Kick the Nic, a smoking cessation workshop for youth, was introduced to the province in November 1999. A Train the Trainer Workshop for this program was offered in St. John's in March with three participants from our region, including a community volunteer, participating. Following the workshop, a ten week Kick the Nic pilot program was successfully implemented in Forteau. The Northern Heart Health Coalition proudly supported the Kick the Nic program with the presentation of a cheque in the amount of $300 to go towards incentives for the youth participating in the program.
• A regional survey was implemented with the Smoke-Free Class of 2000 to determine how many students are currently smoking. The survey results showed that of the 166 students who signed the Smoke-Free Class of 2000 contract, while in grade two, 103 are currently smoke-free.

Coalition Supports SAED

The Northern Heart Health Coalition assisted in raising funds for the purchase of Semi-Automatic Emergency Defibrillators (SAED) for each Clinic site throughout the Northern Region.

New Co-Chairs

Coalition members Eva Blevins and Phyllis Caines are the newly appointed Co-Chairs of the Northern Heart Health Coalition. Many thanks to Gladys White, past Chair, for her work and ongoing support of the Heart Health initiative. Gladys will continue as a Coalition Member.