Have a great program?  Want to have it highlighted on LiveHealthyPA?  the submit your program to LiveHealthyPA through the Healthy Living Practices feature.

A Healthy Living Practice is a “real-life example” of a program, activity or campaign created and executed to improve the health of participants.

To learn more about Healthy Living Practices including where to see other submissions and where you can submit yours click here.

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What is the Community Guide?

The Community Guide is your online guide of what works to promote healthy communities.  The Guide to Community Preventive Services (The Community Guide) is a collection of evidence-based findings of the Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF). It is a resource to help you select interventions to improve health and prevent disease in your state, community, community organization, business, healthcare organization, or school.

Community Guide reviews are designed to answer three questions:

1. What has worked for others and how well?
2. What might this intervention approach cost, and what am I likely to achieve through my investment?
3. What are the evidence gaps?

Using the Community Guide:

The Community Guide can help you:

• Overcome public health challenges and identify effective solutions
• Pull communities together to address public health issues
• Educate others about the systematic review process and evidence-based public health
• Develop policies
• Evaluate programs, services, and other interventions
• Establish priorities for seeking and using financial resources
• Develop an overall program strategy
• Plan evidence-based interventions
• Justify existing programs
• Enhance public health programs

Search Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) findings by topic, finding, or the year the review was completed.  

Find a comprehensive list of all active CPSTF Findings [PDF - 653 kB]

Use this quick-read description of the Community Guide as a handout for presentations or as a stand-alone piece for exhibits, webinars, meetings, and conferences.  https://www.thecommunityguide.org/sites/default/files/assets/CG_flyer.pdf

Putting the Community Guide into Action:

Community Guide in Action stories feature decision makers, program planners, employers, and leaders from across the country who have used The Community Guide to make people safer and healthier.  To view highlighted stories, click here:  https://www.thecommunityguide.org/stories

The Pennsylvania Healthy Corner Store Initiative (PA HCSI) partners with SNAP-Ed to provide nutrition education lessons in corner stores in 9 cities across the commonwealth. Heart Smarts, a SNAP-Ed approved curriculum created by The Food Trust to be used in small retail settings, aims to reduce the risk of diet-related disease. Shoppers participate in a nutrition education lesson, experience taste tests and are directed toward healthy options available in the store. PA HCSI funds Heart Bucks incentive coupons to encourage shopper participation. Heart Bucks provide a participant with up to $4.00 to use toward healthy items in the store. Heart Smarts relies on the contribution of many partners, including SNAP-Ed organizations, hospitals and non-profits. PA HCSI’s partner, the Erie County Department of Health, and their SNAP-Ed partner, Adagio Health, found that their community embraced the Heart Smarts program which garnered excitement and media attention. For more information on Heart Smarts, visit http://thefoodtrust.org/heart-smarts-toolkit.

Protect your family and spread awareness in your community to prevent Lyme Disease:

Pennsylvania is currently one of the leading states for reported Lyme disease cases nationwide.  Lyme and other tick-borne diseases can be serious but are preventable and awareness is key.  The most important action you can take is to spray your skin with repellent, and spray your socks and shoes with permethrin.  These two steps are effective and only take one minute. 

You can also protect yourself by avoiding tick habitat areas and being adamant about checking yourself after being outdoors.  Also, bathing or showering as soon as possible after coming indoors allows you to wash off and more easily find ticks that may be crawling on you.  If you find an attached tick on yourself, be sure to remove it properly.  Also, remember to check your pets every time they go outdoors.  Our pets can carry these poppy seed-sized ticks into your home where they may latch onto another family member.   Prevention is the key to avoiding this illness. 

To find out more about Lyme Disease, please visit https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/index.html. 

To find out more about how to protect yourself, your family and spread awareness in your community, below are some local organizations that may be very helpful:

PA Lyme Resource Network

Journey 4 Josie

LymeDisease.org

Local Lyme Disease Support Groups Listing (includes Central PA and Harrisburg):

http://lyme-aware.org/blogs/my-blog/1332-pennsvlvania-lyme-disease-support-groups.html

http://www.getoutdoorspa.org/

http://www.health.pa.gov/

The 2017-2020 Pennsylvania Oral Health Plan (Plan) has been published! The Plan is the guiding document for oral health activities in Pennsylvania, with a focus on access, workforce, and infrastructure. The Plan was developed by the Oral Health Core Stakeholder Team under the coordination of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Bureau of Health Promotion and Risk Reduction with input from more than 100 individuals and organizations who participated in regional meetings to provide valuable input that is reflected in the document.  All individuals and organizations interested in improving oral health in Pennsylvania are invited to view the Plan and help with implementation. The Plan can be found on the Oral Health section of LiveHealthyPA.com and the Pennsylvania Department of Health Website.

View Plan
      

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Tips® campaign helped more than 500,000 U.S. adults quit smoking from 2012-2015. The campaign promotes smoking cessation resources, such as 1-800-QUITNOW.

The Tips® campaign features real people who have diseases caused by smoking. Christine Brader, from Allentown, PA, is featured in the current national campaign.  This year, the campaign highlights oral cancer, periodontal disease and tooth loss. At 44, Christine was diagnosed with oral cancer. In her commercial, Christine talks about how oral cancer treatments and reconstructive surgery have affected her appearance.

Christine began smoking in high school to fit in. Christine is now 55 and has been smoke-free for 11 years. She spends her time offering support for the Oral Cancer Foundation, where she’s a board administrator and volunteer patient advocate. She also gives speeches about oral cancer and the dangers of smoking. “Tobacco is not cool, not cool at all! It almost cost me my life,” says Christine. “Even though the surgery and cancer treatments were hard, I’m thankful for them. They gave me the chance to keep living and keep building happy memories with my children.”

Christine Brader is a member of the Tobacco Free Northeast Coalition and can be reached through the American Lung Association (Cait Cluck 717-971-1121). For more resources for healthcare and dental providers, go to The Tips® campaign.

Visit The Tips® campaign