A Conversation With ... Mary Ellison

I work in the health education office, and we have three people. We provide program support for air quality and help with education, materials development, that sort of thing. … We do that with animal control, with food safety, with a whole host of nursing programs (such as immunization) and also (dealing) with child abuse. We teach an awful lot of classes (and) put together an awful lot of displays, do health fairs and a lot of guest speaking with schools and community organizations for special products. Beyond that, we do a lot of community outreach.

What key health issue is prevalent locally?

We are overweight or obese as a citizenry. This generation of children is the first generation, experts say, that will most likely live fewer years … and that is very disturbing. We’ve got all kinds of folks in the community who are working on obesity and obesity-related issues, nutrition and physical activity at the top of the list. … The hospitals are working on it, wellness programs across the Ozarks are focused on diet and exercise and trying to help folks live a healthier life. … Why it’s important is, if we are overweight, that’s going to impact our joints … our joints break down faster. (Obesity) is also related to the big chronic illnesses, which are the most costly. If we can be healthier – and we don’t have to be skinny to be healthy, we just have to be fit … that’s going to lower our risks for all kinds of chronic conditions. We’ll live longer, have a better quality of life, and our health-care costs will be less.

So is obesity the No. 1 health issue?

Well, in point of fact, tobacco is the No. 1 (issue) still. If we could get folks to quit smoking or not (start) smoking, the health of our community would be improved exponentially. The effects are immediate. While we’ve made fabulous strides with tobacco – tobacco education, tobacco policy for kids, restaurants, clean indoor air – we still have a lot of work to do. Obesity is creeping up, but those are the top two things.

Is Breathe Easy Springfield, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in April, focused on tobacco use?

Breathe Easy Springfield really is about promoting clean air for everyone in public spaces, restaurants, cars and homes and workplaces. We really have been working hard with organizations that are part of Breathe Easy, and with community members, legislators and City Council – and similar folks who make changes. While we’ve got a lot of work to do, we have come a very long way.

Why do you think obesity and tobacco use are so prevalent?

It’s behavior, and behavior is very difficult to change. (But) it’s not just behavior. With obesity or being overweight, it’s also our environment – how easy is it for any of us to get from Point A to Point B, to walk to the store or to ride our bikes? Can children ride their bikes freely so their parents don’t have to worry about their safety. So we have infrastructure issues. Here in Springfield and Greene County, we have tremendous resources in our park system (and) greenways … but we need to sort of kick up our culture a little bit so that we are more likely to use our own power to get from Point A to Point B. … (Obesity) involves economic issues, social issues, emotional issues, environmental issues, and the list can go on.

You’re also the wellness coordinator for the city of Springfield. What does that entail?

The city of Springfield has an employee wellness program … that a few years ago, moved into health education at the Health Department. We support healthy activities for city of Springfield employees. We coordinate activities like blood drives and annual health-risk assessments. We provide incentives for folks who are trying to live healthier. We have walking clubs and fitness areas.

What goals are you pursuing?

The first is in air quality. We’re now doing community focus groups to try to ascertain what people know about air quality, and we’ll use that information to figure out how to better educate folks. Obesity is also a priority, and how we’re working on that is through the Healthy Community Collaborative, part of the Community Partnership of the Ozarks … . We meet once a month … and in the last meeting, we were talking about childhood obesity … (and) out of that discussion, (we decided) to start a new group. But what we don’t have in our community is a focus or a vision for health. … What we’re going to do is pull together a group of community leaders and experts, and we’re going to move ahead (and) develop a vision for health for the future of Springfield and Greene County. While it’s going to be (for) health in general, we will have a focus on childhood obesity and obesity in general.

Interview by Features Editor Maria Hoover. You can e-mail her with suggestions for future installments of this feature at mhoover@sbj.net.[[In-content Ad]]