The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians Executive Vice President Ann Spicer was invited to represent the Academy on the Ohio Health Education Model Curriculum Advisory Committee and participated in the committee’s first meeting held June 21.
Ohio is the only state in the nation that doesn’t have health education standards. The goal of the committee is to develop a framework for curriculum that influences life-long health behaviors in ways that improve health. The model curriculum would ideally move health education from an information to a skills-based approach. Also important will be the integration of a health education curriculum into other subject curriculums.
The Ohio Association on Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance is leading this effort. They have partnered with the Health Policy Institute of Ohio to convene this committee to provide input on the creation components and structure of the model curriculum.
This is a long overdue effort to include Ohio in what every other state in the nation realizes…it is important to give every citizen in the state a basic understanding of the components of good health. Our patients too often lack even minimal understanding of what we all would consider basic health knowledge, leaving us little to build upon and adding to the health literacy problem. This will help us join the rest of America as we seek to achieve what the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has set for their 20 year strategic goal…to create a Culture of Health in America!