Identified community areas of concern for King County that are based on the Healthy People 2020 goals are nutrition and weight, tobacco use, and access to health services. Located in the U.S. state of Washington, King is the most populous county in the state. Seattle is the county seat, which is the state's largest city. King County is included in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Nutrition and obesity seems to be a hot topic just about everywhere these days be it television, internet, or radio, it seems there is always some sort of new facts or statistical data around these two subjects. Healthy People 2020’s goal is “Promote health and reduce chronic disease risk through the consumption of healthful
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Department of Health and Human Services • 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20201 • © 2014 Site last updated 03/06/15) there challenges and barriers to meeting those goals. Understanding the population including; age, ethnicity, cultural, education, resources, and economic status, are just some of the considerations when defining and outlining the interventions that will support and meet the goal. In King county, ways to raise awareness such as using the media has been extremely limited due to the recent loss of all statewide media funds for this cause and even if there were funds, the message may not meet certain disparity populations effectively through this outlet. In terms of businesses and attempting to ban self-service or vending machines, and enforcing licensure requirements, it’s currently preempted. When looking at the large chain pharmacies, many are reluctant to voluntarily discontinue the sale of tobacco products, although CVS is now advertising they are no longer selling these products so some change appears to happening. Other approaches including raising the tax rates for such products have been preempted as well. Social support is another very important consideration. Finding effective model programs to meet the needs of tobacco related disparity populations is lacking. Cessation programs through Medicaid are only available through the state Quitline which creates barriers for some disparity populations due to homelessness, lack of phone, and communication barriers due to
Department of Health and Human Services • 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20201 • © 2014 Site last updated 03/06/15) there challenges and barriers to meeting those goals. Understanding the population including; age, ethnicity, cultural, education, resources, and economic status, are just some of the considerations when defining and outlining the interventions that will support and meet the goal. In King county, ways to raise awareness such as using the media has been extremely limited due to the recent loss of all statewide media funds for this cause and even if there were funds, the message may not meet certain disparity populations effectively through this outlet. In terms of businesses and attempting to ban self-service or vending machines, and enforcing licensure requirements, it’s currently preempted. When looking at the large chain pharmacies, many are reluctant to voluntarily discontinue the sale of tobacco products, although CVS is now advertising they are no longer selling these products so some change appears to happening. Other approaches including raising the tax rates for such products have been preempted as well. Social support is another very important consideration. Finding effective model programs to meet the needs of tobacco related disparity populations is lacking. Cessation programs through Medicaid are only available through the state Quitline which creates barriers for some disparity populations due to homelessness, lack of phone, and communication barriers due to