Tackling Health Issues for those with Physical Disabilities and Limited Mobility

Our Plan:

The Raritan Valley YMCA in conjunction with Keep Middlesex Moving, Rutgers School of Public health, and Healthier Middlesex, a partnership between Saint Peter’s University Hospital and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, will harness resources and community partners to collectively address and improve health issues for those with physical disabilities and limited mobility.  We will tackle 2 issues identified in area’s Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP):

1) Decrease the prevalence and severity of leading chronic health conditions with strategies that improve overall well-being.

2) Promote healthy lifestyles through practices that reduce health risk factors

We will accomplish this by engaging operators of fitness, recreational businesses, and parks to take part in an interactive assessment process that will examine the accessibility of their facilities for use by the physically disabled and older adult populations.  Similarly, we will approach the providers of social programs for the disabled and elderly and review their food and snack menus and make written recommendations for healthier options.

Our Progress: 

We have drafted an assessment tool that will help us review food service and snack menus for agencies serving the physically disabled.  We have participated in a collaborative call with other agencies doing like work and shared resources so that we may consider working together in some format.  We are rethinking ways in which we can complete some of this work through phone calls as opposed to onsite visits.

Our Hope:  To drive policy and environmental change that fosters healthy habits at home and in the public delivery of services.