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Cabinet Members Promote Healthier Habits
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Three U.S. Cabinet secretaries fanned out across the country Tuesday to promote healthier lifestyles, especially among the nation's snack-filled, exercise-starved youth.
Visiting a handful of election battleground states, they also handed out grant money to support new health programs.
"The cities have got to set aside (safe) places for kids to get outside and walk or even ride their bicycles," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who talked up nutrition and exercise at the Penn-Alexander School, a public-private model school in West Philadelphia.
Thompson announced that 22 communities, from American Indian tribes to church-based groups to public school districts, will share "Healthier U.S." grants totaling $37.5 million. The funding is to aid in disease-prevention or management programs, ranging from after-school health clubs in Philadelphia to stop-smoking programs for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.
Nine million schoolchildren in the United States are overweight, three times the number in 1980, according to a new report by Action for Healthy Kids, a coalition started by former U.S. surgeon general David Satcher.
In Minnesota - like Pennsylvania, a battleground state in the presidential race - Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced $2.8 million in "Healthier U.S." grants for that state at a school in Woodbury, a Twin Cities suburb.
In addition to the Cabinet members, other health officials were also on the road. U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona trumpeted the cause in Cleveland, Ohio, another state that President Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry are working hard to win.
Although students were mindful of the Nov. 2 election - one Philadelphia youngster asked Thompson which man he supported, while another asked if he was a Democrat - Thompson denied the check presentations were politically timed.
"It has nothing to do with the election," he said after the event, where he shared the stage with injured Philadelphia Eagles defensive end N.D. Kalu and four Eagles cheerleaders.
In Raleigh, N.C., Education Secretary Rod Paige tossed a beach ball with students as he announced $1.3 million in grants over three years for health and fitness programs at Wake County schools.
That money came from President Bush's No Child Left Behind initiative, Paige said. The school system is the only recipient of such funding in North Carolina.
The North Carolina Democratic Party criticized Paige's visit, saying Bush has hurt disadvantaged children by underfunding No Child Left Behind.
Philadelphia groups received $2 million in funding this year from the "Healthier U.S." program, of which $190,000 will go to the Philadelphia School District. The district hopes to use some of the money to start pilot health clubs for children at risk for asthma, diabetes or obesity at 25 schools.
Other programs in Pennsylvania were to share another $1 million in "Healthier U.S." grants this year, the department said.
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Associated Press Writers Karren Mills in Minneapolis and Steve Hartsoe in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.
© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Storm Stress Hitting Many Floridians
By JILL BARTON
Associated Press Writer
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- It's not just roofs that have come apart and walls that are falling down. After four hurricanes in six weeks, many people in Florida are suffering emotional breakdowns.
Mental health centers have been flooded with calls from people distraught, depressed or anxious, and authorities say suicides and domestic violence are up in some places.
At an enormous, crowded relief station at a fairgrounds, one woman climbed out of her car before she reached the end of the line and began screaming, "I can't take this anymore! I don't want to do this anymore!" Relief workers calmed her before taking her to a hospital for treatment.
For another woman, Delores Davis, the stress started taking its toll three weeks ago after Hurricane Frances smashed her windows, flooded her carpets and forced her to throw away food she could not afford to replace.
This week, after Hurricane Jeanne took a swipe at her apartment over the weekend, she found herself waiting again at a relief station under a relentless sun. She managed to get a bag of ice, but wondered where she might find water or a meal for her three children. Relief workers had no answers.
"The first one, I stayed strong. But this second one, I started crying and couldn't stop," Davis said as she hugged her two oldest children to her chest. "I tell them God will see us through, but I can't control all the hurt that I feel."
Davis said she has tried calling the American Red Cross hot line to find a counselor, but clogged phone lines kept her from reaching anyone.
Mental health experts caution that the emotional strain will worsen in the next few weeks as numbness wears off and people grasp the devastation around them. Authorities are warning of an increase in alcohol and drug use, as well as child abuse and other violence.
"This is a time when a great majority of people show their strength of character and act on that to help others, and some get so stressed out that they hurt others," Gov. Jeb Bush said. "We've got provide support for them so it doesn't happen."
Residents have besieged mental health centers with calls for help since Charley struck Florida's southwestern coast in mid-August, and clinics and hospitals have been overwhelmed since Jeanne.
"The stress and anxiety seemed to escalate exponentially," said Christine Cauffield, chief executive of Coastal Behavioral Healthcare in Southwest Florida, where calls increased 150 percent in August and September compared with last year.
Suicides in the southwestern section of the state have increased 13 percent since Charley struck on Aug. 13, compared with previous years, she said. Domestic violence incidents have also risen, state officials said, and the governor and his wife planned a public awareness campaign to offer help.
"We are slammed with people that just are not able to cope," Cauffield said.
The time it takes to get back to normal can seem the longest to children, whose regular routines are scrambled with school closings and hours inside steamy houses. Debris and downed power lines make playing outside dangerous.
Counselors try to help children understand their feelings are normal.
"This is not therapy. It's letting them know it's normal, it's hard, and helping them understand it will get better," said Capt. Peter Delany, a social worker with the U.S. Public Health Service working in Daytona Beach.
Counselors urge parents to try to return to pieces of their regular routines - even sticking to the normal bedtime in a motel or having cereal for breakfast on the front porch.
Stressed-out counselors have even sought help themselves. Many relief workers live in communities struck by hurricanes and have had no time to straighten out their own lives before helping others.
"To them, it's not been a number of storms. It's been one long disaster for them. It's getting to a point that's too overwhelming," Delany said.
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On the Net:
American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: http://www.hhs.gov/emergency/hurricane.jspl
© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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