Group targets heart attacks, strokes

By Melissa Packer - County Health Department

(Article in The Robesonian, May 24, 2005)

 

It has been said that you should put your heart into your work, but members of Robeson County's Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Council have taken this phrase to a whole new level. They are actually putting their work into our hearts.

 

In fact, the newly formed council has made its mission to reduce the overwhelming burden of heart disease and stroke among local residents. The mission is quite fitting, considering that the rate of heart disease in Robeson County is 36 percent higher than the state rate and our heart attack rate is 56 percent higher than that of the state.

 

Council members have been meeting monthly since November to develop and implement strategies to aid residents in achieving their optimal cardiovascular health. The group is comprised of agencies such as health care, cardiac rehabilitation and emergency responders.

 

With a comprehensive community action plan currently under construction, the council has already begun laying the groundwork in three key areas. These include increasing awareness of the signs and symptoms of a heart attack and stroke, encouraging health-care providers' adherence to guidelines and recommendations for treatment and control of hypertension and high cholesterol and increasing community access and use of automatic external defibrillators.

 

A recent Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey conducted in Hoke, Robeson and Scotland counties indicated that only 6.6 percent of residents are knowledgeable of heart attack symptoms. The same survey also revealed that only 11.6 percent of residents from the tri-county area are knowledgeable of stroke symptoms.

 

To address this tremendous need for increased public education, council members have begun pitching their tents at restaurants across the county. This doesn't mean that members are camping out behind your favorite dining destination. Neither are they secretly counting your total number of visits or calories consumed from the "all you can eat" buffet line. Over the past few months, members have been quietly surveying your favorite eating spots and placing small cardboard tents boldly imprinted with information about heart attack warning signs on the many tables inside these establishments.

Thus far, these little public education pieces have staked their claims to tables at Ryan's Restaurant in Lumberton, Sheff's Seafood in Pembroke, LePetit Café in Red Springs and Tarpackers in St. Pauls. New restaurants will continue to be added.

 

In addition to the restaurant campaign, the council has also endorsed a series of newspaper ads recognizing May as High Blood Pressure and Stroke Awareness month. Some of the ads have already appeared in this month's The Robesonian and more are scheduled throughout the month.

Council members plan to work with area physicians to pilot a fruit-and-vegetable voucher program for high-risk patients. They will also pilot a heart health prescription pad campaign with several area providers. Additionally, the group plans to provide area physicians with reference cards indicative of the recommended guidelines from the Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee of Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure.

 

Lately, the council has dedicated a wealth of attention to the subject of automatic external defibrillators. Two key objectives involve increasing the number of the devices in government buildings and working with local school officials to ensure their placement in all 41 public schools.

Statistics indicate that on average just 7 percent of the 250,000 people who experience sudden cardiac arrest each year in the United States will survive; however, automatic external defibrillation can significantly increase the chances of survival.

 

Data also indicates that automatic external defibrillators are commonly located in public places; however, they are not commonly found in public schools.

 

In Robeson County, there are 100 automatic external defibrillators located in various community settings including health care facilities, fire departments, rescue squads and businesses. And, cardiac heath crusaders like Pennsylvania native Rachel Moyer are working to significantly increase the numbers in public school settings.

 

During three separate visits to the county, Moyer has met with the school health nursing staff, the superintendent, and with the Partnership for Community Health to advocate for the device's placement in our public schools. During each of her presentations, she has taken the time to share a personal story about the loss of her 15-year-old son Gregory to sudden cardiac arrest in December 2000.

 

Her son was stricken by a heart attack just moments after the beginning a big basketball game in the school's new sports complex. After learning that the life of her only son might have been saved had there been an automatic external defibrillator on the school premises, Moyer has made it her family's mission to advocate for automatic external defibrillator placement in all schools nationwide.

 

More than $250,000 has been raised through the Gregory Moyer Foundation to provide the devices in schools nationwide. The foundation will donate one to Robeson County, and the fate of the remaining 40 rests upon the shoulders of local advocates and public school officials.

 

For more information, or to become a member of the local Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Council, contact Betsy Redman, Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention coordinator for the Southeast Region, at 671-3418.