The state Health Department wants a strategic plan to address chronic disease in Hawaii.
The state Health Department wants a strategic plan to address chronic disease in Hawaii.
To get that plan, department officials are visiting the state’s various communities, talking with people who work in chronic disease management, in day-long, town hall meetings, including one Thursday at King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel.The meeting is open to people working in fields relating to chronic diseases.
“The community members know what works best,” Chronic Disease Management and Control Branch Acting Chief Gregg Kishaba said.
Getting that community input will help increase the community’s “buy in” to the plan the department eventually puts together, he added. That, in turn, will create ways to prevent chronic disease across each community.
The plan is intended to be an “umbrella plan” to cover other chronic disease and primary prevention plans, department officials said.
Communities can help people manage chronic diseases in a number of ways, officials said, including reducing exposure to tobacco smoke and second-hand smoke and creating more and easier access to healthier foods and physical activities.
Chronic Disease Management and Control Branch officials will also provide an update about the program’s highlights and successes, as well as provide information on the burden chronic disease places on the community.
The statewide meetings will produce information published in a five-year plan, Kishaba said.