Lt. governor, community members discuss wellness

Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, along with area health professionals and concerned citizens, gathered at the Newton Public Library on Wednesday night to discuss wellness and what individuals and the community can do to improve the health of Iowans. “Iowans are concerned about the same things whether in Newton, up in Davenport or in Sioux City, health care comes up every time,” Judge said. In Judge’s opening statements, she cited statistics on Iowa’s health care costs related to obesity, taking a proactive approach to health and the challenges the youngest generation will face regarding wellness and health. “The current generation of children are projected to have a lower life expectancy than the generation before,” she said. “That’s the first time in history.” With that in mind, Judge, representatives from her Commission on Wellness and Healthy Living and area residents discussed the components of wellness, identified barriers to wellness and steps that could be taken to improve wellness. Among the components of wellness discussed was good nutritional health, environmental health including air and water quality, dental health, emotional/mental health, vocational health and social health. Many people raised their hands to discuss how communities and individuals can take action to improve the health of the community, including accepting responsibility for individual health, rewarding individuals for healthy living, making exercising opportunities more accessible and more affordable, and educating the public on the need of healthy living. “One reason to have these meetings is to raise awareness of wellness and what we all need to do to be well and reach the optimum level of feeling and being well,” said Rowe Winecoff, who attended the town hall meeting and who is the executive director of Capstone Behavioral Healthcare in Newton. “Wellness is both an individual responsibility and also a community responsibility.” Judge said the discussion, which was recorded by officials with the Iowa Department of Public Health, will be used as Gov. Chet Culver and Judge formulate new policy initiatives for the 2007 legislative session. “We want to talk about how we can live healthy, because we think we can impact our well being on the front end then hopefully we can control the cost on the back end,” Judge said. A total of 10 town hall meetings have been scheduled with four remaining in Oskaloosa, Atlantic, Cedar Rapids and Cedar Falls.