From the Ohio Department of Health, Obesity Prevention Plan

[This is in response to the public comments made by Jenny Morgan and Alice Hohl, at a public hearing on the draft of this plan.]

On behalf of the Office of Healthy Ohio, Ohio Department of Health, I am writing to thank you for your participation in the public comment process used to develop the Ohio Obesity Prevention Plan. Your comments were received, reviewed, catalogued, and forwarded to the state agency with which they most aligned for consideration. Many comments were used in the development of the final plan.

At this time, the Ohio Department of Health is pleased to share the final Ohio Obesity Prevention Plan. As you know, the plan is a response to the state’s epidemic obesity rates and to Governor Ted Strickland ‘˜s directive to the Ohio Department of Health’s Office of Healthy Ohio to create a comprehensive obesity prevention plan for the state. The Ohio Obesity Prevention Plan represents a collaborative effort to implement a collection of strategies designed to halt the alarming obesity trend. The Plan was developed with guidance and contributions from numerous state agencies through the Interagency Executive Committee on Health Investment Strategies. The plan was also informed by input from public survey responses, expert opinion and consideration of multiple state and national recommendations for obesity prevention strategies.

The plan identifies the lead and partner state agencies for each objective, but recognizes and anticipates working with associations, local communities and agencies, private sector representatives and others to further develop the action plan and move each objective forward. By working together and following these proposed strategies, we can reach the goal of halting the growth rate in the prevalence of obesity among Ohioans by 2014.

I have attached electronic versions of the Ohio Obesity Prevention Plan to this e-mail, and the plan and executive summary can also be found on the Office of Healthy Ohio Web site at http://www.healthyohioprogram.org/. I encourage you to forward this e-mail to other interested parties in your agency as well as other state colleagues.

Thank you for your participation in the planning process, and for your ongoing commitment to improving the health of Ohioans. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. For media-related issues, please contact Kristopher Weiss, Ohio Department of Health Public Affairs at 644-8562.

Lisa Eible

Office of Healthy Ohio

Ohio Department of Health

614-466-1337

Lisa.Eible@odh.ohio.gov

From Alice:
ATTACHED: The executive summary of the 131-page plan. The full plan is available at http://www.healthyohioprogram.org/.Most of you will not have time to read it, but it’s fun to open it and search for keywords of interest to you. For example, nature, which sadly does not appear once. But there is an interesting section on safe neighborhoods, walkability and the role of drive-thru restaurants. Ohio Obesity Prevention Plan Executive Summary