Doctor's orders: Eat your veggies
<p>Dr. Joe Abate, Chief Medical Officer at Heritage Health, is one of the doctors that will begin prescribing fresh vegetables and exercise to patients as part of his new program, Health Education Resources and Organizations (HERO).</p>
<p>Dr. Joe Abate plans to use Veggie Vouchers to prescribe people fresh vegetables to improve their health. Work Ready is one of the organizations that will provide fresh produce to patients with the Veggie Vouchers.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Medical providers at Heritage Health will soon be writing prescriptions for fresh vegetables.
Dr. Joseph Abate, the chief medical officer at Heritage, said such prescriptions are just a part of a new and developing program called HERO, which stands for Health Enhancement Resources and Organizations.
HERO's aim is to bring together as many organizations as possible to provide people with healthy lifestyles. Individually, Kootenai County is home to a number of organizations addressing exercise, diet and healthy eating, psychological, financial and spiritual needs, the doctor said.
"The intent is for this to be community wide, to really be a total community effort to improve the health of all the residents," Abate said. "For me that means it needs to be inclusive and it needs to help even those who are underserved, people for whom a healthy lifestyle is a luxury."
A dozen doctors from Heritage will be referring people into the program.
"If you have a disease like diabetes or hypertension and you don't have a whole lot of money, you may go to a food bank and you'll get whatever is there," Abate said. "What is there at the food bank is whatever gets donated. So what that means is a lot of canned food, a lot of processed food, things that may be high in fat that you don't necessarily want the patient to have."
Two days per week, participants of Crosswalk North Idaho's Work Ready program will haul veggies to Heritage's campus so patients can fill their "prescriptions."
"It's expensive to eat healthy," said Brandi Smitherman, program director for Crosswalk North Idaho and Work Ready.
Work Ready grows pesticide-free vegetables at two locations and will soon have a food truck - called the Farmer's Grill - making stops around the community.
Smitherman said Work Ready will sometimes include recipe cards in its vegetable packages. She hopes that patients find more ways to include the foods in their diets.
Abate said Work Ready has offered 10 vouchers per week to fill prescriptions. HERO will need more groups like Work Ready to grow and deliver vegetables for patients.
Abate said medical providers would like to start writing prescriptions for exercise, too.
There are many individuals needing exercise for therapy, including those with diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, cholesterol disorders, anxiety, depression and chronic pain, he said.
The HERO program is seeking funding for a pilot project that could provide patients with affordable three-month memberships, Abate said.
"Most people if they get started with an exercise program, they can see significant benefits in three months," Abate said. "We think that if we help them through that three-month period that they will feel better enough to want to continue."
Potential partners for the HERO program have a meeting scheduled at 2 p.m. on June 24 at the Kroc Center. Representatives from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Panhandle Health District, Kootenai Health, University of Idaho, North Idaho College and others have expressed interest in the program.
"Really big organizations are interested in doing this," Abate said.