When the Heart and Stroke Foundation recently released its 2010 Annual Report on Canadians’ Health, media across the nation rallied to interview local experts on what we need to do to improve the odds of living a better quality of life — particularly for our youth, the statistics for whom show their waists are getting bigger and their strength and flexibility is waning.
The area covered by the Sudbury and District Health Unit ranks 27th out of 36 health units in Ontario for risk factors such as obesity, smoking, physical inactivity, vegetable consumption and high blood pressure.
The report, released Jan. 25, is based on statistics from the government-funded Canadian Community Health Survey.
“It’s not so much where we want to be ranking, but about asking ‘Where do we have a lot of room to grow and improve?’” Dr. Greg Ross, the local medical spokesperson for the Heart and Stroke Foundation and associate dean of research at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, said.
“We do well in some areas. Arguably, we’re better than the rest of the province in terms of how much exercise we get. But we shouldn’t be proud, overall, of how much exercise we get. We should get a lot more exercise.”
As a community, we have some opportunities to help our citizens become more active. Let’s start with city council. In 2007, council passed a resolution to become the most pedestrian-friendly city in Ontario by 2015. The Rainbow Routes Association was named the lead agency to conduct research and collect input on how to make the city more walkable and safer for cyclists, and to develop a Sustainable Mobility Plan for the community.
As a community, we have some opportunities to help our citizens become more active.
“One of the things we need to do — it’s also recommended in the official plan for Greater Sudbury — is to come up with a bicycle route plan for the city,” she said.
“We also need to investigate safer ways of getting across intersections and start implementing some safe street features, such as raised crosswalks, count-down crosswalks, and refuge islands in the middle, because some of these intersections are far too big.”
For people like McIntosh, who have been promoting active living in their community for years, the plaintiff “we need to do this” is starting to sound the same. It’s a mantra that is repeated, over and over, but rarely garners enough political will and community interest to make profound changes.
When CBC news anchor Peter Mansbridge recently spoke with the director of Ottawa-based Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group, Marc Tremblay, he concluded the interview with the poignant question: are governments beginning to listen? To which Tremblay responded: “the problem (of declining fitness levels) is getting worse because the action hasn’t happened yet.”
Tremblay noted we have not established the resources required to battle this epidemic the same way we did for smoking cessation. A prolonged, sustained plan of action has not been put in place to encourage healthy, active living.
“It’s very complicated,” Tremblay said. “We have to figure it out. I think there are solutions using the social-ecological approach ... educating people ... having social marketing campaigns, putting supportive legislation and regulation in place, (and) making our physical health and education more robust in schools.”
However, it’s easy to put the onus for change on government organizations, schools, and the medical community.
Fundamentally, there needs to be public will to make these important changes happen.
There are many grass-roots organizations, like Rainbow Routes or the YMCA, that are taking proactive steps to help individuals and families become healthier and more active.
This week I was thrilled to pick up a “raising healthy kids” information packaged at the Y. It was chock-full of ideas on how I can help my family eat healthier and exercise more. Also at the Y, one of our community’s unsung heroes — squash instructor Tracey Roett — is busy organizing a squash tournament as a fundraiser for the Y’s Strong Kids campaign.
The campaign is focused on raising financial support for children, teens and families who are unable to afford the full cost of participation in a YMCA program or activity. This could mean providing funds for a child to attend day camp for the first time or enabling a child to participate in a recreation or fitness activity. The tournament, called Strong Kids Squash It, is being held Feb. 6-7 on the YMCA’s four squash courts and is open to members and non-members of all ages.
Roett, 26, who was born and raised in Barbados, has been playing squash since she was 10 years old, and represented her island as part of the Barbados national squash team. After attending Laurentian University for sports psychology, Roett was hired on at the YMCA as a squash coach.
“I love to see when any of my clients — either kids or adults — start to get something,” she said.
“It gives me a little bit of pride to be able to show other people this game that I love.”
Roett is a like a magnet for kids of all ages, and delights in encouraging them to have fun while getting fit. At the grass roots level, we need more people like Roett.
There is no Wii game or other electronic substitute that will help us through this epidemic of declining health and fitness levels. For decades we have deprived ourselves and our children the joy of getting out in nature, the skill of interacting with community and the knowledge that active living — every day — is key to our survival.
Let’s get moving.
Wendy Bird is managing editor of Northern Life.
