Our program initiative, Healthy Women, Healthy Lives, serves as the umbrella for the entire Women's Health program. This comprehensive program brings a focus on wellness to the community. It provides substantive educational information on exercise, nutrition, prevention and early detection of diseases that affect women (heart disease, lung, colon, ovarian and breast cancers, inflammatory bowel disease, and osteoporosis), and patient/doctor communication. This program empowers women by providing them with the knowledge necessary to make appropriate and informed medical decisions for themselves and their families. It teaches them how to partner with their physicians, thus resulting in improved health care.
Research shows that there are several key factors that play a critical role in determining whether a woman will develop a disease. The risk for heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis plummets if a woman is active, eats sensibly, watches her weight, abstains from smoking, and limits alcohol consumption. In order to reach out to all women and provide the best possible resources, The Partnership for Women's Health – begun by the Lilly Center for Women's Health (of which Hadassah was a founding member) – works to form coalitions in each community. Across the country, Hadassah chapters have been implementing this educational program in their respective communities, bringing various experts together to address each issue comprehensively.