A Rural Alternative School and Its Effectiveness for Preventing Dropouts

This article describes a successful alternative school located in northwest Wyoming. Students who attend this school need an atmosphere that is accepting of their differences and allow them to express themselves without fear of ridicule or punishment. These children are looking for a safe, secure place to complete their education, a place where their unique differences are respected. Bear Lodge is one such alternative high school. Students at Bear Lodge share their perspective and provide a living testimony as to the importance of alternative schools in allowing students to meet with academic success and social acceptance. Bear Lodge allows its students to work at their own pace in a caring and noncoercive environment. Here students attend school regularly, follow a standards-based curriculum, form close relationships with their peers and teachers, and know that the staff believe they can be successful in and out of school

Evaluating Success in Public Health Advocacy Strategies

Advocacy is conducted by public health organisations with the aim to bring about policy improvement for better health outcomes. Implementation of a new policy usually requires a change in government practice, often to be managed by relatively conservative, and resistant, government agencies. To better understand the change process, relevant frameworks for managing transition can be used, such as Kotter's The 8-step Process for Leading Change, as suggested by David Butt. This paper assesses the extent to which this framework can assist health advocates to determine the best approach and to evaluate the effectiveness of what they are doing as advocates. We evaluate the Public Health Association of Australia's (PHAA) advocacy campaign to incorporate environmental and equity considerations into the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating using Kotter's framework. The PHAA's advocacy actions clearly aligned with Kotter's 8 Steps management change process. Two additional steps were also identified - the need to build long-term relationships and the importance of opportunistic actions. Management frameworks can assist health advocates to determine the key elements of effective advocacy, to plan structured advocacy campaigns and to evaluate their effectiveness. Although the policy case example is an Australian one, the principles of effective advocacy are applicable internationally

The Nature and Quality of Australian Supermarkets' Policies that can Impact Public Health Nutrition, and Evidence of their Practical Application: A Cross-Sectional Study

Improving population diets is a public health priority, and calls have been made for corporations such as supermarkets to contribute. Supermarkets hold a powerful position within the food system, and one source of power is supermarket own brand foods (SOBFs). Many of the world's largest supermarkets have corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies that can impact public health, but little is known about their quality or practical application. This study examines the nature and quality of Australian supermarkets' CSR policies that can impact public health nutrition, and provides evidence of practical applications for SOBFs. A content analysis of CSR policies was conducted. Evidence of supermarkets putting CSR policies into practice was derived from observational audits of 3940 SOBFs in three large exemplar supermarkets (Coles, Woolworths, IGA) in Perth, Western Australia (WA). All supermarkets had some CSR policies that could impact public health nutrition; however, over half related to sustainability, and many lacked specificity. All supermarkets sold some nutritious SOBFs, using marketing techniques that made them visible. Findings suggest Australian supermarket CSR policies are not likely to adequately contribute to improving population diets or sustainability of food systems. Setting robust and meaningful targets, and improving transparency and specificity of CSR policies, would improve the nature and quality of supermarket CSR policies and increase the likelihood of a public health benefit

Alignment of supermarket own brand foods' front-of-pack nutrition labelling with measures of nutritional quality: An Australian perspective

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Two voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labels (FOPNL) are present in Australia: the government-led Health Star Ratings (HSR) and food industry-led Daily Intake Guide (DIG). Australia’s two largest supermarkets are key supporters of HSR, pledging uptake on all supermarket own brand foods (SOBF). This study aimed to examine prevalence of FOPNL on SOBF, and alignment with patterns of nutritional quality. Photographic audits of all SOBF present in three large supermarkets were conducted in Perth, Western Australia, in 2017. Foods were classified as nutritious or nutrient-poor based on the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGTHE), NOVA level of food processing, and HSR score. Most (81.5%) SOBF featured FOPNL, with only 55.1% displaying HSR. HSR was present on 69.2% of Coles, 54.0% of Woolworths, and none of IGA SOBF. Half (51.3%) of SOBF were classified as nutritious using the AGTHE, but using NOVA, 56.9% were ultra-processed foods. Nutrient-poor and ultra-processed SOBF were more likely than nutritious foods to include HSR, yet many of these foods achieved HSR scores of 2.5 stars or above, implying they were a healthy choice. Supermarkets have a powerful position in the Australian food system, and they could do more to support healthy food selection through responsible FOPNL

Exploring network structure and the role of key stakeholders to understand the obesity prevention system in an Australian metropolitan health service: Study protocol

Introduction: Little progress has been made to address the increasing obesity prevalence over the past few decades, and there is growing concern about the far-reaching consequences for health and well-being related to obesity on a global scale. Systems thinking is emerging as a suitable approach for obesity prevention, as it allows health researchers, practitioners and policy-makers to systematically synthesise existing data, expose gaps, inform priority setting and identify leverage points in the system. The aim of this study is to trial a systems thinking approach to better understand the local obesity prevention system, and identify gaps and viable opportunities for health promotion activities to strengthen obesity prevention efforts in an Australian metropolitan health service. Methods and analysis: A mixed methods design will be undertaken in a metropolitan health service area in Perth, Western Australia in 2019-2020. A systems inventory audit will be used to identify physical activity, nutrition and overweight/obesity prevention activities taking place in the study area. An organisational network survey will be administered, and a social network analysis undertaken to examine relationships between organisations in the network. The relationships and interactions will compare the level and type of interactions each organisation has within the network. Parameters including density, centrality and betweenness will be computed using UCINET and Netdraw. Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval has been obtained from the Curtin University Human Research Ethics Committee (approval number HRE2017-0862). Results will be reviewed with members of the advisory group, submitted to relevant journals and presented at relevant conferences to health promotion practitioners and policy-makers. The area health service, as co-producers of the research, will use findings to inform policy and strategy across the study area

Using short dietary questions to develop indicators of dietary behaviour for use in surveys exploring attitudinal and/or behavioural aspects of dietary choices

For countries where nutrition surveys are infrequent, there is a need to have some measure of healthful eating to plan and evaluate interventions. This study shows how it is possible to develop healthful eating indicators based on dietary guidelines from a cross sectional population survey. Adults 18 to 64 years answered questions about the type and amount of foods eaten the previous day, including fruit, vegetables, cereals, dairy, fish or meat and fluids. Scores were based on serves and types of food according to an established method. Factor analysis indicated two factors, confirmed by structural equation modeling: a recommended food healthful eating indicator (RF_HEI) and a discretionary food healthful eating indicator (DF_HEI). Both yield mean scores similar to an established dietary index validated against nutrient intake. Significant associations for the RF_HEI were education, income, ability to save, and attitude toward diet; and for the DF_HEI, gender, not living alone, living in a socially disadvantaged area, and attitude toward diet. The results confirm that short dietary questions can be used to develop healthful eating indicators against dietary recommendations. This will enable the exploration of dietary behaviours for “at risk” groups, such as those with excess weight, leading to more relevant interventions for populations