Author: Gwen O'Cull
Planning Unit: Fleming County CES
Major Program: Accessing Nutritious Foods (general)
Outcome: Initial Outcome
Comprehend is a Mental Health and Substance Abuse Outpatient Services, made up of men and women, who are court appointed, that meets twice a week with counselors. The Fleming County Extension and Expanded Food Nutrition Education Program Assistant (EFNEP) program, was invited to come in once a week and help them with their nutritional needs Addiction can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle. This group changes every three months when the class graduates from the program. Healthy Choices for Every Body curriculum is being used with this group. One of the men in the group lives by himself and has no control over what he eats or drinks. The others in the group are always laughing or making fun of him about how he eats so his self-esteem is always low. This man is over 400 pounds and has a hard time walking, climbing steps where the meeting room is, or doing any type of outside work. Alone with his weight, he has several health problem due to his weight. He has no family to encourage him to eat better. Expanded Food Nutrition Education Program assistant worked with Comprehend and took this challenge to help this person make better choices. During the weekly visits, we have worked on portion control, serving sizes, and reading labels in the class. Comprehend paid the registration fee for him to join the Health Department Wellness Program so he could go there and walk every day in the cool. At the end of the third month, he was still in the program and he reported that his doctor said he was on the right track and had lost 100 pounds through his new eating habits and doing physical activity every day.
Another group member said she had started eating vegetables for the very first time after attending the EFNEP classes once a week with the group.
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