Health + Wellness Archives – Page 85 of 107

New certificates at UC focus on sustainability

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October 2, 2012

The University of Cincinnati recently added four new degree certificates to the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. The Sustainable Landscape Design, Urban Agriculture, Urban Landscapes and Green Roofs certificates are in the horticulture department and focus on green living. The four certificates are available at the undergraduate level, but graduate students can arrange for credit. A certificate in Sustainable Landscape Design focuses on the sustainability aspect of building and landscape design. The Urban Agriculture area of study examines contemporary issues in horticulture, urban design, livability and quality of life, food security and sustainability. A certificate in Urban Landscapes focuses on the role of plant life in a sustainable urban environment. The certificate in Green Roofs addresses contemporary issues in living architecture, while focusing on the environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainable urban design. The certificates give students the opportunity to add a specialized area of study to their overall horticulture degree. Plus, it allows them to enhance their skills and build their resumes, says Virginia Russell, associate professor of architecture at DAAP. She teaches a class on infrastructure and green roofs in the Urban Landscape realm of study. New courses in urban agriculture and ecology, living architecture and plant biogeography were added to the horticulture program in response to students’ passion for sustainable living. Many horticulture students have done service projects in the community to gain experience and enhance their skills, says Russell. Students aren’t the only ones interested in green projects. The UC Master Plan, which was developed by Hargreaves Associates, a landscape architecture firm, includes different aspects of sustainable landscape design. These aspects have been incorporated into projects around campus, including the sub-grade retention basin near the student recreation center that uses recycled storm water for irrigation purposes. UC also installed two green roofs over the summer—one on Procter Hall and one on the DAA building of DAAP. Russell believes that green living is important for everyone because so many areas of expertise are beginning to show concern for the environment. For example, professionals in medicine, the culinary arts and all fields of design should understand the importance of plant-based tools, such as new types of packaging, a food-secure supply chain and the therapeutic uses of plants and gardening. By Caitlin Koenig Follow Caitlin on Twitter

(3E) Summit touts, teaches benefits of green business

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Education + Learning

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October 2, 2012

"Going Green" isn't just a feel-good initiative for businesses. It can have real economic benefits. Those benefits -- lower utility bills, less waste, among others -- are there to take advantage of regardless of whether the business considers itself green. That's the message organizers of this year's Energy, Economy and Environment (3E) Summit want businesses to grasp. The 4th annual 3E Summit is Oct. 5, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Xavier University's Cintas Center. Tickets are $50 each, with discounts for Green Umbrella Members and students. "There's a lot of small and medium businesses out there, the people making widgets, who don't always have time to think about how to green their business," says Cincinnati's Sustainability Coordinator Steve Johns. The Summit hopes to remedy that, giving these businesses concrete ways to become more energy efficient, as well as insight into how that affects the bottom line. There will be two panel discussions on Green Business. One is a CEO Roundtable featuring local companies that decided to incorporate green concepts into their businesses. The panel will feature Mac's Pizza, emersion DESIGN, Compost Cincy and Burke, Inc. "Most of these companies aren't producing green products, but thought it was important to take care of energy and waste needs more effectively," Johns says. A second panel discussion will feature reps from UC Health and Procter & Gamble highlighting their efforts to green their supply chain by seeking out sustainable suppliers. "You can really have a competitive advantage by having a green business," Johns explains. The Summit also will feature a "Speed Greening" session, where experts will be on hand to answer specific questions about greening businesses. Those experts can answer questions related to electric and natural gas, waste disposal, transportation and water. In addition to the City of Cincinnati, the 3E Summit is hosted by Green Umbrella, Xavier University's Brueggeman Center for Dialog, the Greater Cincinnati Green Business Council, and USGBC Cincinnati Chapter. Register and find more information at the 3E Summit website. By Feoshia H. Davis Follow Feoshia on Twitter.

Environmental forum assesses ‘state of the city’

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Diversity

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October 2, 2012

Green Cincinnati. It’s ubiquitous these days, with our civic progress appearing both in national headlines and at eye-level, in the bike-shares and local markets that seem to spring up almost daily. If you’re struggling to keep up with all this change—in a good way, of course!—or if you just have two cents to share, head to Northside Tavern at 6 p.m., Oct. 10 for the free, public “State of the City” environmental forum. The forum, organized by Cincinnati Green Group, hopes to recreate the success of last year’s event, which saw over a dozen city council candidates fielding questions—on everything from curbside recycling to fracking—from more than 150 attendees. This year will feature WVXU’s Ann Thomson as facilitator, with speakers Mark Fisher from the Cincinnati Zoo and Neil Seldman from the DC-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Cincinnati council members will be on hand once again for Q&A. Larry Falkin, director of Cincinnati’s Office of Environmental Quality, will deliver the State of the City address. Falkin plans to highlight recent strides in the areas of energy, green building and waste management, as well as a number of transportation solutions—such as the forthcoming Zip Car auto-share program—making Cincinnati debuts in 2012. Falkin points to the Green Cincinnati Plan, an 80-point sustainability blueprint officially adopted by the city in 2007. “We wanted to use less energy, more renewable energy, and we had a series of strategies for how to get there,” he says. “In five years, city government has done energy efficiency retrofits on 70 city buildings and installed solar energy systems on 20 city buildings. We’ve created a nonprofit organization and gotten funding for them to do work in the private sector, and that organization, the Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance, has completed energy retrofits on more than 1,000 homes.” As a city, Falkin says Cincinnati reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 8.2 percent, surpassing the goal outlined in the 2007 plan. Falkin also plans to discuss Cincinnati’s energy aggregation program, which now provides 100 percent renewable energy for 60,000 residents and small businesses. Despite recent progress, there is still room for improvement, particularly in recycling and adoption of zero-waste strategies that other cities use. “There are communities around the nation and around the world that have made zero-waste pledges,” says Melissa English, Development Director for Ohio Citizen Action, an 80,000-member coalition that canvasses the state promoting environmental consciousness. “[These cities] pledge to send as little as possible of their waste streams to landfills or incinerators, and instead recover those materials—which is essentially money, it’s resources that we’re choosing to bury in the ground—and put that back to work in our economies.” The environmental group leader points to the Rumpke landfill as an example of how much waste the region still discards ineffectively. “We have the nation’s sixth-largest landfill in our county, in Colerain Township, and it’s not just the city of Cincinnati that’s filling it up,” English says. “Any sort of zero-waste strategy will be much more effective and farther-reaching if it is [adopted as] a regional strategy.” Find out more: • Post questions in advance of the event. • RSVP for the State of the City environmental forum. • Download the city’s sustainability plan. By Hannah Purnell

Local organizations awarded grant to aid homeless vets

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Diversity

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October 2, 2012

When veterans return from war and can’t find jobs, they may live in poverty and get their meals from soup kitchens. In 2009, the American Community Survey estimated that about 1.4 million veterans lived in poverty. But there is help out there for veterans who are struggling to make ends meet. In 2009, the federal government called for an end to veteran homelessness by 2015. To help achieve this goal, the Department of Veteran Affairs awarded agencies across the country with the Supportive Services for Veterans and Families grant. The grant enables organizations that help the homeless to expand their reach to veterans and their families who are at-risk for becoming homeless. Ohio Valley Goodwill Industries is one of nearly 185 agencies to receive the grant this year. It was awarded $600,000 to provide housing stabilization services for veterans and their families. Starting Oct. 1, Goodwill will partner with Strategies to End Homelessness and The Healing Center to assist homeless veterans in Cincinnati. The three organizations will work to refer their customers to the other organizations if they are in need of different services. Strategies to End Homelessness started in 2007 to oversee the allocation of federal funding for the homeless in Cincinnati and Hamilton County. It is involved with many organizations in the area and helps with shelter diversion, oversees street outreach and helps find emergency housing for those in need. Although the federal stimulus money designated to aid homeless veterans ran out in July, the organization hasn’t stopped helping them. The agency’s Central Access Hotline will play a role in helping vets find shelter. The grant allows Strategies to End Homelessness to identify callers who are veterans and connect them to Goodwill. The Healing Center will provide food, personal care items, household goods, clothing and a wide range of job support services to veterans, including one-on-one job coaching, support groups for job seekers and computer training. “The Supportive Services grant allows us to continue to provide a high level of service to veterans and their families,” says Kevin Finn, executive director of Strategies to End Homelessness. The Healing Center helps about 1,500 households a month. “The grant provides The Healing Center the opportunity to take our relationship with Goodwill to the next level and provide holistic support to veterans and their families,” says Monica Roberts, associate director of program development for The Healing Center. The Ohio Valley Goodwill has been helping veterans for about 20 years; last year, Goodwill provided services to more than 650 veterans in the area. Previously, the Ohio Valley Goodwill received two Department of Labor grants that were designated for helping homeless veterans find employment, a VA grant and HUD housing grants, says Bill Darnell, the grants manager for Ohio Valley Goodwill. “Our job is to make sure the resources in our community are used to help homeless people or those at risk of becoming homeless as strategically as possible,” says Finn. “This grant is a great new service.” By Caitlin Koenig Follow Caitlin on Twitter

CancerFree KIDS to bring pet visiting center to Children’s Hospital

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For Good

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October 2, 2012

A partnership between Loveland-based CancerFree KIDS and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center will let sick kids visit their pets at the first ever hospital based animal visitation center in the United States. CancerFree KIDS, a non-profit group that has raised $1.3 million in the past decade to help fund pediatric cancer research, will use a $107,500 grant awarded to them by Impact 100 to build the visitation center at Children’s Hospital sometime next spring, says Ellen Flannery, founder and executive director of the group. “The Pet Center will be a model for similar facilities in other children’s hospitals, increasing the impact of the grant,’’ says Flannery, whose now 15-year-old daughter is a cancer survivor. “We are thrilled to win the grant.” Flannery and her husband Sam founded CancerFree KIDS after their daughter, Shayna, was diagnosed with cancer in both of her eyes at just five months old. Shayna lost one of her eyes to the cancer and – thanks to advances in pediatric cancer research – was successfully treated. “She’s a healthy, bratty 15-year-old, I am happy to say,” Flannery says. Celebrating its 10th year, the non-profit’s goal is to continue to raise money through fundraisers, sponsorship or through grants to continue to help fund pediatric cancer research at Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital. Applying for the Impact 100 grant aligned with that mission. Research has shown that a pet can improve not only a sick person’s emotional well-being, but also has positive and measurable physical outcomes as well, she says. There is a similar pet visitation area at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Alberta, Canada. Flannery received multiple letters and emails from social workers, hospital staff as well as children and adults suffering with long-term illnesses who supported such a center. A 12-year-old blind boy, battling brain cancer since he was four months old, wrote: “I hate spending time in the hospital … My favorite time of any day has been to go home and ‘chillax’ in my bed and my dog crawls under the covers and gets as close as possible. I feel like she has always been there for me, and I can tell her anything. She will make noises so I know she is listening, and I do not feel as alone.” A 14-year-old girl who lives out of state and travels to Children’s for months at a time to receive treatment for re-lapsed leukemia told Flannery she most misses her puppy, Abe. “Abe is my comfort blanket in a way and someone who listens to me without any comments only support,’’ the teen wrote. “I really miss him all the time.” The center, which will be wheelchair and hospital-bed accessible, will have multiple visitation bays where children undergoing long-term stays can visit with their pets. The center will have electricity, but will not be heated or cooled, she says. As part of the agreement, Children’s will continue the ongoing upkeep and maintenance of the building. Flannery says she is hopeful the visitation area can also be a place where, one day, children who don’t have pets can also schedules visit with animals. Do Good: • Join CancerFree KIDS mailing list. • Support one of their upcoming fundraisers. • Like them on Facebook. • Follow their news on Twitter. By Chris Graves Chris Graves is Assistant Vice President of Digital and Social Media at the Powers Agency.

Mercy Neighborhood Ministries wins $107,500 grant

By Newsroom

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Diversity

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October 2, 2012

What do you get when you combine the needs of vulnerable senior citizens who want to stay in their homes with the needs of undereducated women struggling to find work? Answer: Mercy Neighborhood Ministries. The coupling of needs seemed like a no-brainer to Sue Kathman, now executive director of the non-profit agency sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy. The agency, in East Walnut Hills, was formed in 2007 by merging three smaller programs that each served disadvantaged adults, youth and seniors. "Over 20 years ago, I was working with homeless women, and in the middle of the night I had this a-ha moment. I thought, 'They are homeless because they don’t have skills,' ’’ says Kathman, a critical care nurse by training. “And we have these vulnerable seniors who don’t need nursing, but just need someone to help them with basic needs and activities." Kathman has worked ever since to merge adult education and workforce readiness training programs with those that teach health care skills to provide care to older adults living in inner-city neighborhoods, who may suffer from poverty, infirmity and loneliness. A year ago, the health care training program grew exponentially when it took over the Council on Aging Learning Advantages (COALA) program that was founded and operated by Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio. “We really had not planned on growing that quickly,’’ Kathman says. “We jumped in, and we more than doubled really quickly, and we’ve been working on our processes ever since. “As the only home health care training program in southwest Ohio, we get requests for workers from Butler, Clermont and Warren counties. And that is not slowing down anytime soon,’’ she says. “There is a huge crisis staring at us -- with the lack of supply of home care aides and an aging population that is staying in their homes longer.” Currently, the agency trains about 190 adults - primarily women – annually to become certified home health care aides. The program, through intensive training, begins to break the cycle of poverty and unemployment. “I have women who were once homeless and on welfare, who now own homes, drive cars and are putting their children through college,’’ she says. “They pay taxes and are consumers who contribute to this economy.” And she says a $107,500 grant recently awarded to the agency by Impact 100 will enable Mercy Neighborhood Ministries to expand its reach outside of Hamilton County, add extra hours to their workplace training skills program and add a job retention specialist to its roster. “I am still in awe that we won the grant,’’ she says. “This grant will truly impact and transform many lives, making Cincinnati a stronger community.” Do Good: · Donate. Whether you donate cash or prefer to give in-kind with donations of gift cards and the like, your support will make a difference at Mercy Neighborhood Ministries. · Volunteer. Deliver food to a senior who needs the help and some company; tutor a GED student; help with a fundraiser. Use your skill, talent and time to further Mercy's mission. · Like Mercy on Facebook to keep up with the non-profit's latest news. · Keep up with their news on Twitter. By Chris GravesChris Graves is Assistant Vice President for Digital and Social Media at the Powers Agency.

Medacheck app aids in medication compliance

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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September 25, 2012

Dawn Sheanshang, a pharmaceutical sales rep, became sick of medications one day. Despite her insider knowledge, she couldn’t handle the medication regimen of a loved one who’d recently been discharged from the hospital. Determined to help, Sheanshang searched online for solutions but found no easy answers. Out of her frustration, MedaCheck was born. With the help of startup acceleration Innov8 for Health, and a partnership with Jeffrey Shepard, a self-described “serial entrepreneur with a Ph.D.,” this high-tech health startup – and its eponymous app – were born. “More and more today, medication regimens are extremely complicated, with many different drugs and people’s changing presciriptions," Shepard says. “People are using mobile devices for a slew of different things. We wanted to target our product around medication adherence – ensuring they’re taking the right pill at the right time, in the right amount and having it set up with a system to ensure they’re actually doing it.” Instead of simply placing a reminder on your phone, this app works with the pharmacies, utilizing frequently updated, high-resolution images of the approximately 16,000 medications catalogued by the National Library of Medicine. When it’s time to take a medication, a user can click on the pill box to open it, then view their medications using photos and bulleted lists of pertinent details: medication name, dosage, etc. Reminders, including a phone-call reminder if a dose is missed, are also built in. The challenges of developing such an app include the necessity of HIPAA compliance and generics that constantly change. “The challenge is making sure that you’re not making specific claims around medication consumption,” says Shepard. “We don’t give anybody advice or share any information about any specific individual.” The company is running a pilot of the app in November in collaboration with Cincinnati-based Kroger, with the hopes of making the app public in mid-November. Users will pay a small fee to download the app, which will be available through their pharmacy. A web-based app as well as native apps for mobile devices is available. By Robin Donovan

Medacheck app aids in medication compliance

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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September 25, 2012

Dawn Sheanshang, a pharmaceutical sales rep, became sick of medications one day. Despite her insider knowledge, she couldn’t handle the medication regimen of a loved one who’d recently been discharged from the hospital. Determined to help, Sheanshang searched online for solutions but found no easy answers. Out of her frustration, MedaCheck was born. With the help of startup acceleration Innov8 for Health, and a partnership with Jeffrey Shepard, a self-described “serial entrepreneur with a Ph.D.,” this high-tech health startup – and its eponymous app – were born. “More and more today, medication regimens are extremely complicated, with many different drugs and people’s changing presciriptions," Shepard says. “People are using mobile devices for a slew of different things. We wanted to target our product around medication adherence – ensuring they’re taking the right pill at the right time, in the right amount and having it set up with a system to ensure they’re actually doing it.” Instead of simply placing a reminder on your phone, this app works with the pharmacies, utilizing frequently updated, high-resolution images of the approximately 16,000 medications catalogued by the National Library of Medicine. When it’s time to take a medication, a user can click on the pill box to open it, then view their medications using photos and bulleted lists of pertinent details: medication name, dosage, etc. Reminders, including a phone-call reminder if a dose is missed, are also built in. The challenges of developing such an app include the necessity of HIPAA compliance and generics that constantly change. “The challenge is making sure that you’re not making specific claims around medication consumption,” says Shepard. “We don’t give anybody advice or share any information about any specific individual.” The company is running a pilot of the app in November in collaboration with Cincinnati-based Kroger, with the hopes of making the app public in mid-November. Users will pay a small fee to download the app, which will be available through their pharmacy. A web-based app as well as native apps for mobile devices is available. By Robin Donovan

Earthineer.com grows sustainable minded online social network with 11K members

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Entrepreneurship

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September 25, 2012

Dan Adams' online sustainable living social network has grown from an independent study project into an emerging part of the U.S. self-sufficiency community, with more than 11,000 members and 350,000 monthly page views. Adams, a Northern Kentucky University graduate student, launched Earthineer.com in late 2010. The Covington software consultant's interest in sustainable living practices was stoked by his home garden. The self-satisfaction that came from growing some of his own food led Adams to learn how to can, preserve and pickle. Earthineer.com is for people with the same interests as its creator. It's for people looking for tips on living more in tune with nature, creating a healthier home environment and creating less waste. Much of the site's content centers on food: preparing it, growing it and storing it. The site has a spot for blog posts for sustainable living "experiments" like different composting, canning or wine-making methods. It also has typical social networking features, including personal profiles, news feeds and status updates. The site should host a trading section by early next year. "If there's a bee keeper producing extra honey and wants to trade for something else, they can do it there," Adams says. Adams spent the summer updating the site, and received some expert mentoring in NKU's inaugural INKUBATOR program. The new 12-week program is for entrepreneurial NKU students looking to start businesses. The program ended with a Demo Day where participants pitched their products and services to a group of investors, entrepreneurs and advisors. Earthineer received $5,000 in seed funding. "I had great access to mentors and more networking opportunities," Adams says. "We had mentors from Queen City Angels and Mindbox Studios. They spoke on different topics like fine tuning your value proposition and business model." Adams has also been spreading the Earthineer gospel, talking about DIY Solar Panels at the Mother Earth News Fair and in an Edible Ohio Valley article on keeping backyard chickens. The site has a sizable following from Kentucky and Ohio. Adams' Mother Earth talks have upped the representation from Pennsylvania as well as the west coast, with members joining from California, Oregon and Washington State. By Feoshia H. Davis Follow Feoshia on Twitter

MyHealthyTale app’s interactive, digital stories teach diabetic children

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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September 25, 2012

Like all with an entrepreneurial spirit, Xavier University junior Anthony Breen is a problem solver. While he was spending a few days at a local hospital visiting a friend, he met some young children who'd been diagnosed with illnesses. He immediately saw a challenge that he could meet. "When kids are diagnosed, they are given pamphlets written for adults and by adults. It's not in any way engaging. It's scary," says Breen, a finance and entrepreneurship major, with a minor in accounting. It was from that experience that Breen developed a web-based app that uses storytelling to teach diabetic children about their disease in an understandable way. It's aimed at ages 2 to 12. The app, MyHealthyTale, follows a diabetic character through a 15-minute story where the child can answer questions about their chronic disease by following the character through the story. The story pulls from a database of questions, mixing them up. So each time children read the story, they get different questions. "The can name a bear that goes through the story and customize it," Breen says. "It's a fun way to learn that's not scary." MyHealthyTale is the inaugural offering of Breen's Minerva Health Learning Systems, one of the winning companies for the new Innov8 for health Startup Accelerator. MyHealthyTale will soon be available at the iPhone App store, and available on Android in the next three months. In addition to the story book, there's also information and support resources for parents, including the ability to direct email caregivers and other parents with diabetic children. Breen is working with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and diabetic educators at Cincinnati Children's and The Christ hospitals. Eventually, he wants to expand the app, with stories that cover a range of illnesses. "Really, this can be used for any medical condition," he says."Right now we're just entering the market, and we want to move this into asthma and obesity." By Feoshia H. Davis Follow Feoshia on Twitter.

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