San
Mateo County Health Services Agency
www.co.sanmateo.ca.us
Active for Life program contact:
Doris Estremera
DEstremera@co.sanmateo.ca.us
The San Mateo County Health Services
Agency and Berkeley City Health Department’s Chronic
Disease Prevention Program are teaming up to offer Active
Choices to the 50 plus population in their service
areas. The agencies are especially targeting people in urban,
low-income groups, including African Americans, immigrant
Latinos, Filipinos, Pacific Islanders and multi-ethnic individuals
age 60 and older.
“Active
Choices is a chance for us to focus on increasing physical
activity with older adults. Since older adults gain so much
from increasing or maintaining their level of activity in
terms of independence and self-sufficiency, this is a vital
program for our community. We have already seen Active
Choices participants taking great strides, from clients
being able to walk to the market again instead of taking
a shuttle to clients who have rekindled their love of dancing,”
notes Justine Kaplan, formerly of Berkeley City Health Department’s
Chronic Disease Prevention Program.
The Health Education Unit of the San
Mateo County Health Services Agency provides:
- Client and community needs assessments
- Program development, implementation
and evaluation for target populations
- Community mobilization and organization
- Implementation of health promotion
and intervention
- Evaluation, assessment, and design
of educational materials
- Facilitation of group meetings
and coordination of collaborative programs
- Community outreach, coalition building
and partnership development
- Social marketing campaigns
- Youth education and intervention
- Contract development, negotiation
and monitoring
- Policy analysis and development
- Media relations
- Promotion of physical activity
for older adults
- Programs for older adults on the
misuse of medications.
Partnering with the Health Education
Unit of the San Mateo County Health Services Agency is the
Berkeley City Health Department’s Chronic Disease
Prevention Program. Berkeley’s Chronic Disease Prevention
Program focuses on using physical activity and nutrition
promotion to help prevent or lessen the effects of diabetes,
heart disease and obesity in the Berkeley community.
The Chronic Disease Prevention Program offers:
- Active
Choices - helping older adults get more physical
activity
- Nutrition education and curriculum
with local Head Start and child care centers, elementary
schools, middle schools, high schools and alternative
schools
- Policy work on increasing access
to local, fresh, affordable produce
- Policy work on increasing physical
activity opportunities in workplaces, schools and neighborhoods
- Programmatic and policy work related
to reducing health disparities.
