For my practicum I will be working at the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) working within the Bureau of Tobacco and Chronic Disease (BTCD) as well as the Bureau of Nutrition and Physical Activity (BNPA). My practicum supervisor, Julie Garcia, who prefers to be called a mentor instead, is helping Arizona bridge the gap between services offered by ADHS and the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) in terms of Coordinated School Health Programs. I will be helping Julie by reviewing current literature and data on how academic performance is affected by students’ health status.
Thus far I have attended two meetings with Julie. The first one was with county partners who described their barriers and success stories in working with local schools. The primary barrier we heard about is getting into the schools to discuss programs such as School Health Advisory Council (SHAC) and School Health Indexes (SHI). The CDC has tools already developed for schools to create a SHAC and complete a SHI. However, schools are already overwhelmed with all of their other required duties, which is why they are reluctant to take on another task. Julie did point out a great way for partners to be able to get their foot in the door. She mentioned how the Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 requires schools to have a wellness policy. Schools have been required to have a wellness policy since the WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, but they haven’t been held accountable to implementing it, just having it. The Hunger Fee Kids Act is a little more stringent and sets a few more rules for schools. A great way for schools to be sure they are abiding by the Act is to form a SHAC and begin a SHI! I am looking forward to working with Julie this summer and fall (for the project) in working with counties and schools on implementing these programs.
I’m a little nervous about this project because I have worked for the WIC Program for the past six years. I am learning a whole new set of acronyms, and am meeting a lot of new people. I hope I can be successful with this practicum.
Hi Marlene.
It’s great to hear about your practicum. I just finished teaching an online course that helps teachers integrate nutrition into their science classes. I gave them an assignment to locate their schools’ wellness policies and discuss various aspect — unfortunately, with only one exception, all wellness policy documents were sitting on the shelves gathering dust. So what you’ve posted about lack of accountability for implementation appears, sadly, to be true.
Enjoy your experience and don’t be nervous — you’ll do great!
Dr. Patsy
Hi Marlene – with all of the acronyms you have used, you look well-initiated into the field of public health 🙂
It sounds like you will be a very welcome addition to the program to help facilitate the beginning of SHACs.
Dr C