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Join the Healthy Aging Movement

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A little inspiration from Brown County!

Tell Us Your Story!
We know there are all kinds of inspirational stories of people who have helped themselves to better health. Tell us yours! If you're a program leader, coordinator or participant, we want to hear how evidence-based health promotion programs have helped you or the people in your community.

Click here, fill out the story form, and submit. We may use your story on the WIHA website, include it in our list of program testimonials, and share it with others to inspire and motivate.

Help Yourself to Better Health

A movement to enlighten and empower people to better health

We're all aging from the day we're born, but somewhere along the way we begin to think that being older is a bad thing. Why? Because getting older has become synonymous with physical and mental decline - so why bother taking steps to take care of our health? The good news is that we can all do something to improve our health - no matter what our age - but it starts with believing we can and changing negative perceptions of growing older.

Are you ready to help yourself - and your community - to better health?

The Campaign
Building Awareness
Improving Access
Outreach Materials

Help Yourself to Better Health

A campaign - no, a crusade - to encourage people to take charge of their lives by taking control of their health.

We know that evidence-based self-management programs play a major role in living well and aging well. We want everyone to be motivated to find programs that help them avoid injury, improve their health, and ultimately, live a better life as they age.

Goals of the Campaign

Increase public awareness of and engagement in evidence-based health promotion programs, and
Ensure access to programs by advocating for funding to support and implement evidence-based health promotion programs that prevent injury and improve wellness.

If you're interested and want to get involved, contact Kris Krasnowski to join the campaign distribution list and get invitations to campaign conference calls.

You've Gotta' Believe You Can Be Healthier

If you're a health promotion Program Provider, Leader or have a personal or professional interest in motivating people to take charge of their health through evidence-based programs, we need you!

Help Yourself to Better Health makes the case for individuals taking charge of their health. Rather than feeling like a health condition or circumstance is out of our control, we believe that people can play a significant role in their own health through self-management and have established some key arguments in favor of self-management:

Another 7.5 Years

Research shows that people who have a positive perception of aging live an average of 7.5 years longer than those who don't. A positive outlook on aging makes you more likely to engage in health promotion activities which provide better health outcomes.

Your Health: You play a role

Did you know that only 20% of your health is determined by what happens in the doctor's office? The other 80% is based on your environment, social and economic factors like your education, health disparities, etc - and a full 30% is based on how well you take care of yourself.

Your Independence

Research indicates that the biggest fear older people face is the loss of independence. Managing ongoing health problems and avoiding injuries are key factors in staying out of nursing homes and maintaining autonomy and independence in the community.

Your Wellness

Older adults cite declining health as another major concern. We all want to be well and have control over our health. Self-efficacy - the confidence in ones' ability to manage - is an outcome of health promotion programs.

Your Money

Running out of money is yet another major worry for older people. Avoiding the need for costly medical care by better caring for yourself can be a factor in maintaining your financial security.

Help Grow the Resources to Make Programs More Widely Available in Wisconsin

The second initiative of the campaign is to ensure access to programs by advocating for state funding for support and local implementation of evidence-based healthy aging programs that prevent injury and improve health.

Strategy: Engage decision-makers to both educate and encourage them to support funding for Healthy Aging Grants in the 2019-20 State Budget.

The Ask: Provide an amendment to increase the budget appropriation from $250,000 (currently included in the 2019-21 Executive Budget and less than one-third of what is needed to fully support the expansion) to $870,000 each year for healthy aging grants to counties/tribes, YMCAs and other community-based organizations for proven programs and to support a statewide clearinghouse and support center to broaden the reach and impact of proven programs.

Click for pdf

If you're interested and want to get involved, contact Kris Krasnowski to join the campaign distribution list and get invitations to campaign conference calls.

Campaign Outreach Materials

The materials below are designed to help you promote local programs. Check back regularly for updates and new materials. If you have questions on how to use the materials or problems downloading documents, please contact Kris Krasnowski.

See Posters at right.

Conversation Starter Cards

Print as is or add your own logo and content to these conversation starter cards. Pages print back-to-back. Place cards in places where people gather to start discussions about healthy behaviors and health promotion programs. There are several topics to choose from.

Help Yourself to Better Health - #1 (Word doc)

Help Yourself to Better Health - #2 (Word doc)

Falls Prevention - #1 (Word doc)

Falls Prevention - #2 (Word doc)

Chronic-condition management (Word doc)

Diabetes management (Word doc)

Caregiver Support (Word doc)

Help Yourself to Better Health PowerPoint presentation

This PowerPoint presentation can be adapted to help you promote programs in your community.

Download here

Elevator Pitch Template

Want to convince a decision-maker of the value of your programs? Check out the sample and follow the outline to build your own elevator pitch to help you generate support.

Download here

Help Yourself to Better Health Campaign Outreach Materials

The materials below are designed to help you promote local programs. Text boxes in the documents can be edited/customized or deleted based on your needs, OR you can draw your own text box (click Insert, Text Box, Draw Text Box).

If you have questions on how to use the materials or problems downloading documents, please contact Kris Krasnowski.

Posters/Flyers - Click to download