“Healthy People 2010 – A 2010 Profile of Health Status in the San Joaquin Valley,” released Monday, May 7, by the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at Fresno State indicates little improvement and deterioration in some key indicators of the region’s health over the past decade.

The report was presented at a news conference that announced steps toward taking a collaborative and coordinated approach to resolving some of the highest-priority challenges facing the Valley counties of Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tulare.

The Fresno County Department of Public Health, Central Valley Health Policy Institute and a coalition of community partners have begun meeting to work in Fresno County on tobacco-free living, active living and healthy eating to reduce obesity, and clinical preventive services. This Community Transformation Grant is funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to Fresno County in 2011.

“We have the tools to meet national health goals,” said Dr. John Capitman, the institute director and a co-author of the “Healthy People 2010” report. The county’s grant offers the opportunity to “come tougher on a shared agenda.”

The goal, Capitman added is promoting “healthy environments where people live, work and play to make ‘the healthy choice the easy choice.’”

Following federal objectives established in 2000 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, report authors assessed health indicator progress in the region. Report findings show that, throughout the region over the past decade, there was little to no improvement, and in some instances, a worsening of status on these key indicators.

“Healthy People 2010” culminates a decade of biannual reports that document the severity of the Valley’s health crisis and also demonstrate the range of successful policies and programs that have been piloted on a smaller scale around the region during this time. For the most part, these initiatives have worked toward individually focused goals without integration with one another.

Capitman and lead authors Dr. Marlene Bengiamin of the institute and Xi Chang, a former institute employee now with the Fresno County Department of Public Health, were joined at the press conference by county Public Health Director/Health Officer Edward Moreno and community partners.

“Healthy People 2010” concludes that besides establishing a collaborative approach to resolving regional health issues, there were several other concerns:

  • “Life opportunities are unequal and unfair across Valley communities,” the report said. Data indicate it’s because regional and neighborhood efforts to improve living conditions are limited and isolated from each other, and “the full measure of despair in many Valley places is not well recognized” by public and private policymakers.
  • Young people and their families need opportunities to actively engage in their community and a vibrant nonprofit and philanthropic sector to support attainment of the common good. A key component is having a recognizable cadre of emerging leaders of color for engagement in civic affairs.
  • Building infrastructure must consider developing and providing the environment that seeks increased efficiency, collaboration and racial equity and inclusion as it continues to invest for a stronger, more-effective and responsive nonprofit sector.
  • Public health efforts for 2020 and beyond must continue to stretch beyond traditional health sectors. A reinvigorated public health leadership would help engage nontraditional partners to create healthier choices that are easier for all people to make.

The work started in 2001 will continue. Bengiamin said, “We plan to follow the progress of the region’s health based on the national initiative designed as a guide to priorities regarding health care. We will use the National 2020 health indicators as our guide for this assessment.”

The recommended overarching goals for Healthy People 2020 “continue the tradition of earlier Healthy People initiatives of advocating for improvements in the health of every person in our country,” added Bengiamin. “They address the environmental factors that contribute to our collective health and illness by placing particular emphasis on the social determinants of health.”

For more about “Healthy People 2010” and Central Valley Health Policy Institute, visit www.cvhpi.org

For more about Community Transformation Grants, visit www.cdc.gov/communitytransformation.