New year, clean slate — practicing what we teach and inauguration day at the School

Looking at our own behavior

Early Saturday morning as I was reading the New York Times, before going to the gym, I became absorbed in an article by Sam Freedman, called When Serving the Lord, Ministers Often Neglect Themselves. It was about a discovery made at the Duke Divinity School that many Methodist ministers are so focused on their parishioners’ needs that they neglect their own health. It made me think about people in public health, our School, and our own behavior. Could the same be true of us?

The story caused me to reflect, as I have before, about one of the paradoxes of being public health professionals. We teach (and sometimes preach) about good health practices that data show extend the quantity and quality of our years, like eating 5-9 fruits and vegetables each day, exercising briskly several times a week, getting enough sleep, nurturing one’s social network, managing chronic diseases and getting screened for cancer.

But we are human beings. As such, there often are inconsistencies between what we know and what we do. (As Goethe said, “Knowing is not enough. We must do.“) Oprah Winfrey publicly told her very painful saga of having lost a lot of weight and then regaining nearly all of it over the last couple years. This is the time of year when we try to realign the inconsistencies by making resolutions to do better. I’d like us to think about how we can make the School an environment more nurturing of good health practices. In our midst, there are people who have lost 100 or more pounds and kept it off for years as well as people who have lost smaller amounts of weight successfully and perhaps an even greater number of us who are always struggling.

Among us are amazing role models for fitness—from people who ride their bikes to School several times a week to marathon runners and devoted swimmers to regular walkers and committed participants in aerobic exercise classes. There are ways we can make their expertise and that of the successful weight losers/maintainers available to people who are trying to figure out how to put an eating and exercise program together. Our Nutrition department has done a great job of providing tips about healthy eating. Maybe Amanda Holliday, Clinical Assistant Professor of Nutrition, would do some healthy cooking demonstrations in the teaching kitchen for our faculty, staff and students.

Here are a few things I’ve done or am trying to do in our office.

• Our advisory boards and Dean’s Council meetings generally don’t start before 8:30 AM to allow people time to exercise first. Except for a few events a year, we try to end at a reasonable hour so people can get enough sleep.

• We rarely schedule formal weekend meetings that involve multiple people to maximize the opportunities people have for family and friends—and maybe some reflection as well. (Of course, it doesn’t mean we don’t work.)

• I review menus for our events to be sure there are healthy choices and to remove most unhealthy options. That includes, selfishly, making sure there’s a healthy, low carb vegetarian option, not a plate of dense, soggy pasta. We’ve stopped serving sugary sodas at meetings in the School for which we provide food and have been selecting vendors that provide healthy Mediterranean options rather than oversized sandwiches with huge cookies when we order food. We are trying to figure out how to handle bottled water from an environmental perspective. Folks in ESE have made some good suggestions.

• We are trying to avoid food with trans-fats.

• For a lot of reasons, including the local economy, we have asked our caterers to try, if at all possible, to buy locally.

Several of us have a vision of a Public Health Commons that circles the School. It would include attractive water features, maybe a meditation garden, and a walking trail with art and signage with health tips. The School covers a fair amount of land, and we could use it to greater advantage to promote health—our own and others’. Hopefully, one of these days, a donor will help.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Without being moralistic or intolerant, it seems that schools of public health should be model environments for health behaviors. Certainly, we should do our best to practice what we teach. If anyone has suggestions about how we can do a better job, please let me know. I’d welcome other suggestions about how to make our own environment healthier.

And On a Totally Different Topic—the Presidential Inauguration

I asked our information technology folks to make it possible to view coverage of inauguration day activities several places in the School on January 20^th, besides desktop computers. A couple people asked why and said this wasn’t done last time there was an inauguration. Well, first, I wasn’t dean then. Second and most important, this is a very significant event, one I believe we will look back on and see as a moment that signaled huge change in America. Some people want to experience that as a private event, but some people want to come together as a community. Experience it as you wish; there will be choices. Also, not everyone in this School has a computer at his/her desktop. We have people in the Café, mail, maintenance and other domains who would have no access. I want them to have a place also. We need to get past the election; the election is over. In less than two weeks, Barack Obama will become our President, the President for all of us. It no longer matters who I supported or who you supported. To get out of the mess we now are in, the new President will need our help and support. He’s got mine!

Happy Monday. Barbara