National Prevention Strategy Plan Released

The National Prevention Strategy encourages partnerships among Federal, state, tribal, local, and territorial governments; business, industry, and other private sector partners; philanthropic organizations; community and faith-based organizations; and everyday Americans to improve health through prevention.

Implementation of the strategy includes several recommendations for action in the education sector including:

• Provide daily physical education and recess that focuses on maximizing time physically active.  
• Participate in fitness testing and support individualized self improvement plans.
• Support walk and bike to schools programs and work with local governments to make decisions about selecting school sites that can promote physical activity.
• Make physical activity facilities available to the local community.
• Integrate appropriate core public health competencies into relevant curricula (e.g., nursing, medicine, dentistry, allied health, pharmacy, social work, education) and train professionals to collaborate across sectors to promote health and wellness.
• Incorporate health education into coursework (e.g., by embedding health-related tasks, skills, and examples into lesson plans).
• Conduct research to identify new, effective policy and program interventions to reduce health disparities.
• Implement and enforce policies that increase the availability of healthy foods, including in a la carte lines, school stores, vending machines, and fundraisers.

Check out the rest of the National Prevention Strategy plan.