Healthy People/Healthy Communities Resources
Health U.: A Nutrition Curriculum for Teenagers with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities
Developed by researchers and clinicians at UMass Medical School/E.K. Shriver Center.
The Health U. curriculum is designed to be taught by registered dietitians or educators who have had college-level courses in nutrition. It contains age-appropriate nutrition education materials for adolescents and young adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities. The goal of the Health U. program is to encourage a healthy lifestyle and includes 10 lessons, each of which provides a short discussion where new concepts are introduced, an activity that provides hands-on learning, time to engage in movement/physical activity, and a “taste test” that encourages expansion of students’ food repertoires.
Health Matters: The Exercise and Nutrition Health Education Curriculum for People with Developmental Disabilities
A research-based, field-tested program composed of 59 one-hour sessions for professionals to implement to help adults with disabilities make the best choices about health, exercise, and nutrition.
This book provides detailed information on the Active Engagement program which was developed and tested by the author. This is not a cookbook, although there are a number of adaptive recipes embedded as examples throughout. This book outlines how to implement the Active Engagement program including cooking as nutritional intervention, a teaching framework for cooking skills, teaching basic skill sets with adaptive tools, and more.
Other Information and Resources
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Healthy Weight Issue Briefs
The CDC’s issue briefs describe what people and organizations can do to help combat obesity among people with disabilities and assist them in achieving healthy weight and an improved quality of life.
National Center on Health, Physical Activity, and Disability (NCHPAD)
NCHPAD’s mission is to effect change in health promotion/obesity management among people with disabilities through advocacy, services, and programs that reach numerous organizations and people throughout the country. NCHPAD’s primary focus is to collaborate with the nation’s leading health advocacy and disability organizations in linking them to program initiatives ongoing across the nation with the aim of building inclusion and integration into existing programs.
Special Olympics Center for Inclusive Health
Special Olympics, founded in 1968, is the world’s largest sports organization for people with I/DD. Special Olympics Health was launched in 1997 and focuses on the health of Special Olympics athletes and applying research findings to help improve the health of all people with I/DD.
Let’s Go! is an obesity prevention initiative working with communities to create environments that support healthy choices and has developed a toolkit for children with I/DD.
KidsHealth
KidsHealth provides physician-approved health information for children and adolescents. Created by The Nemours Foundation’s Center for Children’s Health Media, KidsHealth provides families with accurate, up-to-date and easy-to-understand health information.
GirlsHealth.Gov
A site created to help girls (ages 10-16) learn about the topics of health, illness and disability in ways that they can relate to and draw motivation from. It is a project of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women’s Health.