Get Healthy Utah News and Blog

Elisa Soulier

Elisa Soulier is the Vice Chair for the Get Healthy Utah Board. She works as Director of Health and Wellbeing at Castell. She focuses on delivering more high value holistic care for patients, our community, and healthcare system partners.

Does anyone else share in my disbelief that we’re at the halfway point of 2023? Are you looking back at goals set in January? As I’ve reflected and done some accounting, I realize my goals are really needs not met…yet. For example, I set a goal to sign up for ballroom dance classes (which I did!). The goal wasn’t only to take a dance class - it was my need to find a fun activity outside of the gym that enables social connection. I recently had the opportunity to complete the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business Design Thinking for Better Outcomes course. An insight that’s relevant to my message was that needs are verbs, not nouns - there is usually a desire to feel or do something behind the actual thing.

U.S. trends in healthcare, such as increased spending of $4.3 trillion in 2021, indicate we may not effectively be meeting patient needs. Unfortunately, even though Utah is a healthier state on average, we’re also not immune to seeing concerning health trends when considering rising obesity rates.

In healthcare, there is a tendency to focus on what the system needs. For example, we need a patient to come for an annual wellness visit in support of quality measures and prevention of avoidable utilization. Whereas the patient may want a visit but also need transportation, education on what to eat, and a safe environment to be active. They need these things to experience fuller lives and not more healthcare, and we know the majority of health is impacted outside the clinic walls. I urge us to not only focus on problems related to ballooning costs and worsening outcomes, but to also fall in love with solving the potential problem of not actually meeting the needs of our community where health is impacted most. 

With our shared strategic vision to create greater health for Utahns, strong collaboration, and collective expertise, we can close the needs gap. It requires being creative and quick to adapt, having deep empathy, partnering closely with community members, and spending sufficient time understanding the problem to design solutions which truly meet individual health and wellness needs. Please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. how you are engaging, or recommend engaging, community members in this work to improve healthy eating, active living, and mental wellbeing.

Jennifer Porter and Rachel Bowman

Jennifer Porter, RDN, is a Health Program Coordinator, and Rachel Bowman is a Nutrition Coordinator for the Utah WIC program. Visit wic.utah.gov to learn more.

Nutritious food is not always guaranteed for everyone in our world today. Millions of individuals and families in the U.S. struggle to afford adequate and nutritious meals. Programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) play a crucial role in improving the lives and health of vulnerable populations. Low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, infants, and children under the age of 5 can be served by the WIC program. WIC works to combat the problem of food insecurity by providing eligible participants with the means to purchase nutrient-packed foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy products, and protein-rich foods. 

Since its beginning in 1974, the WIC program has been known as a premier public health program throughout the world and has earned the reputation of one of the most successful federally-funded nutrition programs in the United States. The WIC program is cost effective in protecting or improving the health and nutritional status of low-income women, infants and children. WIC helps prevent costly health problems associated with inadequate nutrition, such as low birth weight, developmental delays, and chronic diseases. For every $1 invested in prenatal WIC participation, there is an estimated savings of $1.77 to $3.13 in health care costs within the first 60 days after the baby is born. Investment in WIC saves community dollars.

WIC aims to empower participants to make nutritious choices for themselves and their families by providing nutrition education. Nutrition education is a unique requirement of the WIC program and is provided to participants at least twice during a one year period. WIC provides individualized counseling and educates about the importance of proper nutrition during pregnancy, breastfeeding, and early childhood development. Participants receive guidance on meal planning, portion sizes, and how to incorporate a variety of nutrient-dense foods into their diets. These benefits continue to support individuals and families even after they leave the WIC program.

The WIC program plays a vital role in Utah’s fight against food insecurity and its work to build healthier communities now and in the future. WIC believes in a multi-faceted approach to supporting the Utah population and actively collaborates with and refers to other community programs and initiatives. There are 47 WIC clinics throughout Utah, serving individuals and families in each of the 13 local health departments. Visit wic.utah.gov to find information about eligibility criteria, benefits, and how to apply for the Utah WIC program. 

Key Takeaways:

• “Green streets” have more plants, soil, and water-friendly systems than traditional streets
• Originally, green streets were designed to capture rainwater locally
• Green streets also benefit physical and mental health, and increase green space in a community without having to build new parks or open spaces
• There is a correlation between areas with less green streets and poor mental health

Leota Coyne

Leota Coyne is a Master’s student in City & Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah. As part of her program, she prepared a report on how Millcreek could improve the health of some of its more vulnerable residents through changing the built environment. A portion of her report is included below. Other communities can also learn from this case study how they can increase green space in their communities to most benefit their residents.

Mental health and heat-related illness are important health considerations in communities that relate to the greenness of streets. By completing street greening through the EPA model of ‘green streets’, street greening additions provide benefits beyond health such as stormwater management and climate change adaptation (EPA, 2022). Academic research supports that there is a connection between street greening and improved mental health as well as reduced heat-related illness or death. Street greening is a viable opportunity to support positive health outcomes. 

Using this framework, areas in Millcreek with low street vegetation levels, poor mental health, and/or high vulnerability to heat-related illness were identified as spaces where street greening efforts may best influence mental health and reduce heat-related illness.

A vegetation analysis was calculated around roads in Millcreek using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. This analysis found that the western portion of Millcreek generally had less vegetation than the eastern portion of the city as of August 2022. Poor mental health indicators from the Utah Healthy Place Index and higher indicators of vulnerability to extreme heat from the Social Vulnerability Index were both concentrated in the western portion of Millcreek. On the other hand, the eastern portion of Millcreek had better mental health and lower social vulnerability in addition to more vegetation around roads. 

Combining the mental health and social vulnerability indicators with the vegetation data shows that western Millcreek could benefit from street greening. Specifically, areas with little vegetation, poor mental health, and vulnerability to heat where street greening efforts may have the greatest impact on health. Other cities can use this model to identify areas where street greening can have a positive impact on the community and improve health outcomes.

Read the full report here.

View a presentation here.

The Utah Foundation recently released a report, Healthy Communities: Advancing Wellness and Safety, focused on policy solutions for Utah communities to increase physical activity. The report is meant to be a guide for city and town leaders who want to learn more about real policies that have been successful in Utah and elsewhere.

This report is the second in a series of reports focusing on how policy changes can improve health in Utah communities. Get Healthy Utah, with the support of a UCAN (Utah Cancer Action Network) grant, partnered with the Utah Foundation to help fund this report on active living, and an upcoming report on access to healthy food, which will be released in July.

Some highlights from the report include:

• City and town leaders have many options to increase physical activity! Some solutions might be expensive, but others are low- to no-cost.
• Utahns want more trails and parks in their communities.
• Physical activity is directly linked to how we build our communities. We can make more walkable and bikeable communities by zoning reform, improving streets, and increasing safety.
• Many Utah communities are already doing great work to get people outside and moving!

To learn more, visit the Utah Foundation’s website, where you can download the report now.