FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE        Connecticut Department of Public Health

February 1, 2011                                 Contact: William Gerrish

                                                            (860) 509-7270

Hartford – The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) is partnering with the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center and health agencies across New England to launch a new resource to promote and share public health practices and programs. 

According to health officials, prevention, health promotion and chronic disease management programs have the potential to make a positive impact on the nation’s health status and save the country trillions of dollars in unnecessary health care spending.  While wellness and prevention programs have been in existence for decades, they have never been shared in a comprehensive manner for large scale uptake. 

“A flood of factors into our daily lives contribute to the development of obesity and chronic diseases in children and adults alike,” stated David L. Katz, MD, MPH, Director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center.  “To stop the flood, we need to build a levee – and for everyone to be part of that process, they need to get their hands on a “sandbag” that suits their situation.” 

The New England Region PHINDER (Promising Health Interventions Inventoried by a Network of Diverse Experts for Regional Application) project is the first such program positioned to serve as an exciting national model to disseminate tested and effective, best-practice programs designed for a variety of settings, such as worksites, schools, and communities to address the seven most prevalent chronic diseases.

“That’s just what PHINDER provides:  health promotion programs for diverse settings, many of which are free, so that everyone can be part of the solution,” according to Dr. Katz, who designed the project. 

Many promising health promotion practices of widely varying intensity have been devised for diverse settings, however, universal access to a detailed searchable inventory of such practices does not exist.  PHINDER was developed to do just that. 

According to RADM Michael R. Milner, Assistant Surgeon General, HHS Regional Health Administrator and PHINDER Advisory Board member, “PHINDER supports our departments’ national health care reform efforts that promote prevention practices at the community level and will help assist parents, teachers, policy makers, health leaders and other “prevention champions” locate tools to empower positive change that promotes healthy living.” 

The PHINDER clearinghouse includes program information supplied by faculty at the schools of public health, medicine and nursing, as well as the six state health departments in the New England region.  PHINDER is available free of charge and can be accessed at http://www.yalegriffinprc.org/communityconnections/PHINDER.aspx. 

PHINDER was developed through a collaboration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease – CT Chapter, the Connecticut Cancer Partnership, Connecticut Department of Public Health, and the Commissioners of Health in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. 

The Connecticut Department of Public Health is the state’s leader in public health policy and advocacy with a mission to protect and promote the health and safety of the people of our state. To contact the department, please visit its website at www.ct.gov/dph or call (860) 509-7270.

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