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Taking steps to a mecca of wellness

By ERNEST HOOPER
Published January 27, 2007

In Columbia, Mo., they have the walking school bus.

Parents and supervisors go door to door gathering school kids so they can walk together to school, eschewing the bus and taking the first steps towards a healthy lifestyle.

All across the nation, cities aren't just lamenting the societal ills caused by the health crisis, they're engaging residents to create healthier approaches.

It's the kind of effort the Patel Foundation for Global Understanding wants to replicate in a way that will turn Tampa Bay into a "wellness mecca." On Friday, foundation founder Dr. Kiran Patel detailed plans for the Healthy Together initiative.

The foundation largely is motivated by some staggering statistics about Florida and Tampa Bay. The United Health Foundation recently ranked the state 41st in overall health, citing a low high school graduation rate, a high violent crime rate and a high rate of infectious diseases as challenges for Florida.

"When we were thinking of a project, we wanted to keep the goals of our foundation in mind," Patel said before a gathering of influential political, cultural and health care leaders at the Centre Club. "One, it should touch many, many lives. Two, that it should involve health, education and culture.

"If you define health, you think of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease."

The organization does not plan to go it alone. It hopes to create a broad-based coalition that will deal with an array of issues, including infectious disease, air quality, access to health care, gender and racial inequities, safer roads, mental health and even domestic violence.

It is a daunting undertaking, but Patel said, "Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."

The coalition building already has started. The initiative is being co-chaired by Sidney Morgan, West Florida region market president for BlueCross and BlueShield of Florida and Tintagel Holdings president Jeff Knott. Bright House Networks also is a primary sponsor, and former county commissioner Phyllis Busansky is on board with her new consulting firm, Reliant Partners. The leaders nodded in approval when Busansky stressed the importance of teamwork and what she termed "reciprocal accountability."

"We're both standing on the same turf," Busansky said. "If one of us fails, the other will not succeed."

Specific approaches will be announced at a mid-morning press conference on March 30, and that night the foundation will formally kickoff the health initiative with a Global Citizen & Healthy Heroes Awards celebrations. Eight Healthy Hero awards in different categories will be given to local citizens, and Dr. Paul Farmer will be honored as the 2007 Global Citizen of the Year.

For more information about the Healthy Together initiative, e-mail info@global-understanding.org or go to www.global-understanding.org.

Although the challenges of this undertaking are significant, the community has institutional assets such as Moffitt Cancer Center and All Children's Hospital to help. More importantly, as Busansky noted, it has social assets: committed, caring people.

That's all I'm saying.

Ernest Hooper can be reached at hooper@sptimes.com.

[Last modified January 27, 2007, 05:51:51]