Palm Health Foundation provides information on critical health issues affecting Palm Beach County residents and offers practical solutions to addressing them with our community health campaigns. Each community health campaign encourages residents to adopt healthy behaviors into their daily lives to bring them closer to achieving their full health potential. Throughout the campaigns, residents are invited to participate in a variety of free activities and events that provide health education, fun and encouragement to continue the journey toward better health.
The Let's Move: Commit to Change Physical Activity Challenge is a county-wide initiative that focuses on physical activity, nutrition and healthy behaviors. The Let's Move initiative was originally introduced on a national level, by First Lady Michelle Obama in 2010, with the goal of decreasing childhood obesity throughout the United States. According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, nearly one in three children in the United States is overweight or obese. If this problem persists, 1/3 of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives, or will face other obesity-related health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, asthma and cancer.
Palm Health Foundation responded to the alarming statistics, and began the county-wide Let's Move: Commit to Change Physical Activity Challenge in 2012. The foundation invites residents to form teams, commit to exercising at least 30 minutes a day throughout the month of March, and log their minutes on the Let's Move website – www.LetsMovePBC.org.
Palm Beach County logged 100,000 minutes in the first year of the challenge, and the numbers have increased every year since. In 2018, Palm Beach County logged over 32 million minutes! Palm Health Foundation's goal is for residents who participate in the challenge to take charge of their health and continue incorporating physical activity in their daily lives beyond the month of March.
Palm Health Foundation was established from the sale of Good Samaritan and St. Mary's hospitals, and therefore has always had a heart for nursing. The foundation recognizes the impact that skilled nursing care has on the overall health of our community's residents and prioritizes uplifting and advancing the nursing profession.
In addition to granting nursing scholarships annually to support nursing advancement in Palm Beach County, Palm Health Foundation also hosts the Thank a Nurse campaign every year in conjunction with National Nurses Week (May 6 – 12).
Thank a Nurse is a nursing appreciation campaign that provides local nurses and community members the opportunity to express how important and cherished our nurses are through media features and events.
Train the Brain takes place between October 1st and October 31st, 2018. The goal of Train the Brain is to change the conversation around brain health by helping Palm Beach County residents understand that taking care of the brain is just as important as taking care of the body. The campaign empowers residents to take charge of their brain health. Participants are invited to visit the campaign website, www.TraintheBrainPBC.org, and take a pledge to "train their brains" to make changes in their thinking, integrate self-care behaviors into their daily routines and show compassion to individuals with acute and persistent mental health conditions. Throughout the campaign month, residents are also invited to attend free Train the Brain events throughout the county that could expose them to new brain health habits.
Train the Brain spreads the message that improved brain health leads to better health overall. Our brains can't do pushups or run laps, but we can train our brains to minimize the harmful effects of stress and achieve balance in our lives. It's important to learn how to feed, nurture and strengthen our brains while also eliminating activities that can cause the brain stress and ultimately lead to chronic health issues.