From UKNow:
HDI has received a three-year grant totaling $600,000 from the Administration on Community Living. The project, Wellness Edge, is a Paralysis Resource Center State Pilot program grant. It will build connection within local communities to enhance and facilitate access to recreational programs to better serve people with paralysis and their support networks. Continue reading
HDI’s Elaine Eisenbaum, Lindsey Mullis, and Anna Fuller promoted good health with friends at the Special Olympics Kentucky State Basketball tournament—the Healthy Athletes event! Lindsey and Megan are the Kentucky Clinical Directors for the Health Promotion discipline, and Elaine is the Kentucky Clinical Director for the Strong Minds discipline. Strong Minds is a newly added Healthy Athletes discipline and this is the first time it was hosted in Kentucky! Strong Minds focuses on emotional wellness and developing strategies for coping with stress.
Athletes learn about and try different active coping strategies. This is important because we know that there are high rates of co-occurring mental health disabilities among people with intellectual disabilities. The Health Promotion discipline educates athletes on healthy living and healthy lifestyle choices, and also provides screenings for BMI, blood pressure, and bone density.
by Lindsey Mullis
The Kentucky CARE Collaborative (Cardiovascular, Assessment, Risk-reduction and Education) is a free blood pressure awareness program that aims to increase the number of people who are taking action to help control elevated blood pressure through appropriate counseling about health behaviors and/or lifestyle changes. Because Kentuckians with disabilities can have higher blood pressure than those without disabilities, HDI is coordinating the Project CHEER effort to provide more inclusive CARE programming. Continue reading
Healthier Together! A Dyad Approach to Inclusive Health & Wellness Programming
For people with disabilities, maintaining health and wellness is essential to self-sufficiency, becoming or staying independent, actively participating in the community, and preventing the onset of secondary health conditions. This research brief highlights the pilot efforts of the Health Partners project that works to incorporate a dyad social structure with inclusive universal design for learning strategies for health and wellness programming geared towards individuals with intellectual disabilities and a partner of their choice.
by Lindsey Mullis, Megan Jaspersen, Tela Warren, Alice L. Rhodes, & Rachel Jacob
The HDI Health and Wellness Initiative has been highlighted in a number of spotlights over the past few months, including Stephen Love’s impressive accomplishments through the HealthMatters program at Tri-Generations in Somerset; a collaboration between Health Partners and Fayette County Public School System to teach students about exercise and healthy eating; and an Impact article on community based organization programming to build healthy cultures for people with disabilities.