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I'm Carol speaking with Chris Bernard he's with the Nature Conservancy he's the South Florida Program Manager So Chris I know you haven't away now the respect our reef campaign I want to hear about that campaign and hear about the state of our reefs why don't we kind of put you in place here you with the Nature Conservancy and you're also working in combination with Noah on this program that's right the respect our reef campaign is a new communications an outreach effort targeted really at fishermen anglers and divers the people that know and you know use these reefs the most and really require healthy reefs for their livelihoods and for their recreational activities the Nature Conservancy has been focused on coral reef conservation both in the Florida Keys and throughout the mainland of southeast Florida as well as around the world for that matter for decades now our partners in this program Noah the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and then lots of other public agencies that are associated with what's called the Florida refreeze millions program agencies such as the Florida Department of Environmental Protection the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission the National Park Service and others we have established this respect our reef campaign in order to reach out to fishermen and divers about the importance of the reefs and to ask them to help us spread the word about that importance and about what they can do and what their their fellow fishers and divers can do to take pressure off the reefs so that they can withstand assault so many of the pressures that they're facing these days pressures from every every angle from warming oceans and more acidic oceans associated with global climate change water quality problems associated with the altered Everglades ecosystem as well as our local wastewater and storm water challenges in South Florida as well as a whole host. Of individual local impacts from anchors and boat damage and divers touching reefs fishing gear touching reefs that cumulatively are really really giving our reef the hard time I grew up in the Florida Keys fishing and diving and it's been hard to watch over the years the declining condition of the reefs they're still incredibly beautiful and interesting place to fish and dive and it's not that they're ruined or not worth not worth visiting it's that we see them slipping in the wrong direction we want to catch that before it gets any worse and we need fishermen and divers to be part of the solution let's go ahead and paint a picture of those wreaths and I'd like to hear from you what they look like for those of us who haven't been and have wanted to see them and also talk about how those reefs and where they are impact the state of Florida. Well sure the reefs are found really throughout the southeast portion of the mainland and all the way down along the Florida Keys more than 300 mile chain of reefs they are biologically very complex and interesting and aesthetically the very beautiful the corals the sponges the sea fans and the other living components that form the surface of the reef itself create homes for all manner of fish and invertebrates like lobster and crabs and what have you so you get this incredible how structure of which there are the reforming organisms and within that structure and on top of it and surrounding at this incredible diversity of life and it is that life that draws fishermen and divers to the reef if the reef is not healthy and thriving and the corals aren't living and growing the structure that all of these other marine life pieces live in then to leave the reef becomes less attractive less complex and the habitat that it provides its value for habitat is diminished and every thought in helping us in some way with our medication Oh absolutely you know the reefs are valuable to us and all sorts of waves we're just really beginning to understand just how much protection they provide to us in the face of storms and that can be hurricanes it can be tropical storms but also even Northeasterners that we should be facing here in the months ahead as winter comes on the reefs the healthier they are the more massive They are the better a job that they can do at breaking waves and those waves if they are not broken they crash onto our shores they rode our beaches they can under the worst circumstances even run up into our infrastructure our streets our homes our businesses and so on so the Nature Conservancy along with others the u.s. Geological Survey and. Killer has been doing a lot of research lately on just how much the reefs of Florida and other parts of the United States protect our shoreline and what the value of that protection is and then trying again to raise awareness about how important these reefs are from so many different perspectives so that people will take better care of them and respect our reef you mentioned earlier on some different things you would want people to do the divers and the fishermen and to tell me what the state of the reefs are right now that sort of triggered this to focus on it well people have been scientifically monitoring the condition of the coral reefs for several decades now in the Florida Keys and on the southeast Florida mainland and unfortunately we see an ongoing trend of increasingly degraded condition of the coral reefs and the real hallmark of that is simply less coral there are fewer large live corals when the corals die they leave behind their coral skeletons which are essentially rocks and and those rocks still provide certain amounts of habitat they still provide some wave breaking but over time they erode they they break down and go away and they stop providing those services those important things most important services to people as important habitats for marine life they basically get smaller they get simpler they get less complex and they become diminished in their and their value from biological and and economic perspectives so we are experiencing right now since 2014 the worst outbreak of a coral disease that has ever been documented here in Florida or anywhere that I'm aware of it's been extremely variable and that is it's spreading quickly it is very likely to kill any coral that it becomes a stablished on and it just far has spread. Throughout all of the reefs of the the mainland and about 2 thirds of the reefs of the Florida Keys thus far it hasn't made its way all the way to Key West or all the way out to the Dry Tortugas which have some of the most remote and pristine reefs but where it has touched down that's if left behind a trail of destruction that's affecting more than 20 species of corals and when it affects them it tends to kill them which is extremely concerning. So you do you know what this is and how to fight it well the scientists the Nature Conservancy scientists although we are playing a relatively small role in that because coral disease is not our specialty but scientists from public agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration the Florida Department of Environmental Protection various universities and and other conservation groups such as Mote Marine Laboratory are trying to answer that question it's still unclear precisely what the. Organism is what the pathogen is that's causing the coral disease although all indications are that it's probably bacterial and it seems to be spread through the water column itself we we can't say necessarily that it's linked to water pollution but I do think that applying the precautionary principle and because of all of the other good reasons to clean up our water quality that is something that we should do and it if it will not have a negative consequence on the coral disease it can only help so we need to continue those efforts to you know restore the Everglades ecosystem and get the water back where and in the ball umes that it should flow from the Everglades into the ocean the estuaries and the ocean we need to clean up our stormwater and improve our waste water systems there's obviously ongoing effort on all of those fronts but they simply can't happen fast enough in order to help improve the water quality which may perhaps have an influence on this coral disease but unquestionably has an influence on the clarity of the water on the quality of the diving the quality of the fishing and the habitat that all of these marine organisms including the corals live in so when it comes to those marine animals that are using it as a habitat you are seeing an effect on them as well you know there are still very healthy. Populations of most of the reef fish and invertebrates like spicy lobster a lot of the species that people visit the reef in order to eat or look at or photograph or in some cases capture for for dinner or commercial fishermen capture them for their livelihoods we still have solid populations of those species but over time if the reefs continue to decline the habitat continues to degrade every indication from science done in other parts of the world is that those populations of important species fish and fish lobster and others will will follow suit so we need to we need to stop the degradation of these reefs we need to not only deal with the sources of degradation but also actively work to restore the coral reefs and there's a whole lot of effort going toward refrigeration all throughout Florida and increasingly throughout the world because some of because Florida has been one of the places that started to experience declines in reef condition earlier compared to places like Australia's Great Barrier Reef or parts of what's called the Coral Triangle in Indonesia and that area we started actively working on refrigeration earlier and now we're in a position of being able to share lessons learned and help our our colleagues in those other parts of the world avoid making some of the mistakes or following some of the dead ends that we followed in the early years and instead we're at this point now of being able to you know actively grow coral in underwater nurseries and in land based nurseries and then take them from the nurseries plant them on the reef and we're seeing very good response from those restoration efforts so if I were to ask you for an example of one of the things that you're doing and one of the lessons learned it would be that how to go ahead and grow those Yeah that's on the that's on the restoration side we really see that there. 2 sides of the equation 2 sides of the coin yes we need to be able to actively restore corals as well as other components of the ecosystem sea grasses mangroves and so on but really the respect our reef campaign focuses largely on minimizing the direct impacts of fishing and diving on the reef so that less restoration is necessary so yes we need to restore but we also need to reduce the things that are causing the decline of the reef now fishing and diving as I would say a comparatively small part of that decline but it is an important part and it's important that we and those of us who use these reefs who dive and fish on them have a direct ability to affect them. Some of the other threats the water quality that I described the warming ocean temperatures and increasing ocean acidification those are either or regional scale challenges which we're going to take literally billions of dollars and decades to solve in the case of water quality or global scale challenges which will be extremely challenging So if we can get people to recognize that they have impacts that they can be part of the solution by reducing those impacts by respecting the reef those reefs will be better able to withstand those other larger more daunting challenges Well let me have you go ahead then and speak directly to the respect our reef campaign what would you have divers know well really divers and Fishers anglers have similar impacts in many waves there are a couple of differences but in general this respect our reef campaign is asking people to think about 7 relatively simple things one is being very careful about where people put their anchors when they take a boat out to the reef if there's not a morning buoy to tie onto which is a sort of permanent anchor. The anchor. The chain the anchor line itself can be very destructive for corals and other organisms that live on the bottom so by carefully placing the anchors by keeping them away from the sensitive corals and other organisms that is one huge important step that both divers and Fishers anglers can can take another if and that's when it's most prominent for divers touching the coral so generally unless you're spear fishing you're not going to be in direct contact physical contact with the coral but divers you know often want to get close to the coral they want to peer under the ledges they want to look at the coral itself they want to look for the organisms that are living on or in or around the coral and they run the risk of. Unfortunately some will intentionally touch the coral that's increasingly rare people recognize that corals are very fragile very small animals and by touching them new century crush them you can also. Transmit disease by touching them so not touching the coral either intentionally or accidentally and that can include accidental kicks with your dive fins or dragging your scuba diving gauges which dangle from from your chest as you drive along or rather dive along keeping those things from contacting the coral is critical again this is a dive centric recommendation that is being careful about which sunscreens you use there's recent science that suggests that there are specific components of specific sunscreens which are toxic to corals they can lead to outright mortality of the corals death of the corals they can also. Lead to coral bleaching which is us a stress response that leads the corals to become weakened so these particular components of some sunscreens which you can read about in the active. And gradients portion of the label. Need to be avoided when diving you can use the alternatives that do not have the coral degrading it's components you can wear sun protective clothing instead of sunscreen but in particular these are. Components that are called Act an ox ate. Well I don't have them in front of me right now and they're complicated but I'll dig them up and get it for you generally this was relevant to everybody but certainly fishers as they go about doing their fishing and if they're using hook and line they need to be really careful about keeping not only their fishing line that is discarded breaks in the process of fishing but also all manner of Marine litter from from entering the ocean and it's not just fishermen any any dive or any boat or people are constantly losing plastic bags and water bottles and fishing gear and other things over the side of boats and that stuff ends up staying in the marine environment and causing harm for literally decades if not centuries if in the case of plastics so we need to keep the Marine litter on the boat to keep it from entering the environment in the 1st place because the Fishers the divers are the people that are out there more than anybody else more than any of us scientists and conservationists they have an opportunity to report what they see if they see coral bleaching or coral disease or if they see marine pollution incidents or anything else that should be brought to the attention of the natural resource managers the public agencies that are in charge of these very valuable natural resources they can report them there are online reporting systems in the Florida Keys the reporting system has led organized by Moat Marine Laboratory and it's called sea ocean nothing capital c. Dash ocean you can go online you can explain where you were what you saw and. The folks at most marine lab in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary will keep track of that information they'll check it out if warranted and then there's a similar program on the mainland from Miami on up to Martin County called sea fan s e a f a n And you can find out more about these programs online at the at the website that I mentioned to you later so continuing down the list of 7 items that we hope all anglers and and divers will take on board and pledge to do through this respect our reefs program the final 2 are really sharing this information it's it's one thing to love the reef to use it frequently to take good care of it but if others are are not following in your footsteps not following your example we're going to continue to see the decline of these reefs so spreading the word through social media spreading the word one on one when you see people with a beating destructive behavior whatever it may be just saying hey that's not Ok this is why please please don't do it and then And then finally we have an online pledge that recaps all of these things that I've been talking about you can get to it by entering hash tag respect or reef into your browser on on the Internet search engines that will take you to the Nature Conservancy is Web site where all of this information is summarized links to the various reporting opportunities the full names of those sunscreen chemicals and lots of other information are available Yeah I'm looking at that information right now and it's making the point also of the economic impact of what we're doing here but you're talking about $70000.00 jobs and $6000000000.00 in New York on Obs $66000000000.00 a year so these aren't just beautiful they aren't just interesting these are super valuable resources they are for us here in the Florida Keys where I live and all along the coast of southeast Florida they are a cornerstone of the economy. They are critical for eco tourism of all kinds whether it's diving or fishing they're critical to people the Fishers and divers that come from all around the world to play here to to experience these resources they don't just fish and dive they buy fuel they buy hotel rooms they buy meals out at restaurants and there's this incredible multiplier effect of their spending and you know you can you just driving up and down the keys you see every other business has something to do with the reef or the ocean whether it's a dive shop a fishing business commercial fishing charter fishing boats Marine industries of every kind it's a big deal for us so we've made the case now Chris for the economic impact for the the safety impact and that it's a habitat for so much marine life you mentioned it's not just fascinating it's not just beautiful but tell us some of that with us tell us what's really amazing about these corals race well from my own perspective having grown up in the Keys and Key West and having experienced them over time seen unfortunately they're slow decline I I'm particularly fascinated about the opportunity that we have right now to stop that decline if we don't stop it now I'm afraid we're going to miss our chance and I'm afraid we're going to lose out on you know my my son and others children and grandchildren from being able to experience America's only coral reef that you can drive to from the 48 lower 48 states and hop in the water and experience as a snorkel or a scuba diver or a fisherman if that's your if that's your activity the the reefs and they are natural resources that grow on them or live on them are really ingrained in our culture here they're as we've said part of the part of the economy but also part of the this our way of life they are even even the rock. Even the land that we live on was coral reef at one time many many thousands of years ago so they are their everything to us and we need to take care of them now so that they can continue to take care of us tell us about some of the efforts now to protect Ben and I have to ask what kind of a time crunch Are you under and saving the reeds Well we certainly didn't just start working to conserve the coral reefs of Florida or other parts of the world they've been recognized as extremely. Important biologically and economically now for quite some time there are all all variety of different efforts talked a bit about refresh duration prior to the onset of real heavy duty effort and refresh duration which started a little over 10 or 15 years ago efforts were focused largely on establishing marine parks of various kinds here in the Florida Keys we've got the National Marine Sanctuary Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary we have on either end of the sanctuary the Dry Tortugas national park way west of Key West and just at the very northern end of the keys right where the keys comes into contact with Miami we have Biscayne National Park these have been protected natural marine parks for many decades now recently the Florida legislature established a sort of a preliminary designation of protected area that runs from Miami all the way to the northern end of the reef tract off Martin County near the St Lucie inlet that's called the Southeast Florida coral reef conservation area and these various sorts of your regulatory regimes for coral reefs are designed to in every case they're designed to protect the natural resources they're designed to protect the things that make these places so special and while also allowing people to continue to enjoy them allowing people to continue to make their livings on them the goal is. As balance the goal is not to exclude people from these natural resources but to ensure that the natural resources will continue to thrive for you know decades and centuries to come so that there are reefs for you know our children and grandchildren to see or for or to make their living on affects how they how they choose to make their living so we have regulatory protections we've got many efforts focused on minimizing these direct impacts in addition to the respect our reef program and pledge there are there are physical. Changes that have been made over the years so in order to minimize anchor damage on the most popular coral reefs a number of places in the sanctuary and elsewhere in the national parks even off the Florida mainland have established moring goofs which are an alternative to anchoring they allow you to pull up to the reef and tie onto a what amounts to a permanent anchor that doesn't have to be picked up and put down and risk crushing corals or other marine life in the process there are you know incredible education efforts going on both from the public agencies from conservation organizations like the Nature Conservancy but also many many other nonprofit conservation organization ranging up and down the ecosystem each with its own either geographic you know area of interest or it's you know special niche of one kind or another the counties the just countless efforts designed to get people to understand the values of these reefs to minimize the threats to them and increasingly to work on active restoration once again tell everyone how to tap into the information about the respect our reef campaign and take that pledge Well thank you very much it's as simple as going to your web browser and typing in hash tag respect our reef all one word that will take you to the Nature Conservancy vhs website where you can. With you all of this information you can click a button that will lead you to the pledge page and that's not a pledge in the sense of your pledging money it's a pledge in the sense of agreeing that you agree that these are the steps that fissures and divers need to take individually and collectively to reduce their impacts on the reef so that we can continue to enjoy these reefs along into the future so again hashtags respect our reefs All right well thank you for joining us today Chris Burke he is the South Florida program manager for the Nature Conservancy I'm Beth peril one thing we can all agree on staying informed isn't just a right it's a responsibility it's nice to listen to me and for us unbiased allow us. To foist their opinions so it is the open mike inside the News 96.5 We're listening this is where Orlando voice is heard it is 96.5 even if you only have a full time responsibility what you want using it to be sure it can get into the Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee a member of the u.s. Committee on Homeland Security says the United States needs to spend money not on a border wall but on improving facilities and services to arriving migrants after the death of 2 Margaret children while in u.s. 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Whether you buy Tuffy Tire and Auto Service Tom Terry patchy fog and or low clouds developing tonight mild temperatures in the upper sixty's and will rebound with morning clouds biggest Maton in Sun beautiful Sunday a high 84 from Channel 9 and chief meteorologist Tom Terry. Thanks so much security triple team traffic I for the turnpike and beach line are all accident free at this time and you're traveling the streets this morning we have a dense fog advisory in full effect to the team traffic I'm Eric Michaels news in a 6.5. This is Newsnight the 6.5. And that peril Linda Franklin is my guest she is executive director of healthy start point and we are going to be talking about Linda a couple of different things but I don't boil down to the. Of care we have in our community for infants and children so why don't you begin actually from that perspective of what is healthy start well Healthy Start is a statewide program dealing with maternal child health all pregnant women are screened at their 1st o.b. Appointment whether it's at the health department or a private doctor or a birthing center and they're screened again when they give birth wherever they give birth the birthing center or a hospital to see if they're at risk for either infant mortality low birth weight or poor birth outcome and then they're referred for free services it's mainly a home visiting program and we address all kinds of needs and do lots of referrals to other resources in the community to make sure that they're well taken care of our main goal is to reduce infant mortality and also reduce racial disparities and birth outcomes last year we served about 7000 women and about 12000 infants now recently you had your annual meeting there for Healthy Start Coalition and after Sandy will meeting you did a couple of things I know that you reported on what's what's happening and also you made some awards to partners that are making a difference let's start with the 1st part of it what happened over the past year what are the numbers that have come out of that well our prematurity rate has gone up slightly and that's something that we monitor closely as does the March of Dimes our state this year did get a state from the March of Dimes for prematurity which is better than the d. That we've had for the past several years so that's an improvement but in Orange County our prematurity rates went up slightly we are doing better on infant mortality but it's still something that we need to keep an eye on because as as you've probably seen in a lot of the news too maternal mortality is up which is something that we're very concerned about the awards are mainly for people who are doing the screening because we don't know that you're at risk if the doctors or the birthing centers or the health departments don't do the screening so we give awards for people that are due. Doing their due diligence it's demanded by statute that they do the screenings but there's no consequences if they don't so we continually have to go out and train their staff because of turnover and things like that to make sure that they're screening each and every person because this is a program that's not socio economic based it's for everyone anyone can be at risk of a poor birth outcome so we're very diligent about making sure that the screenings done and so we give our wards each and every year for the ones that are doing the best job but whether it's sometimes it's a public entity like the health department sometimes it's a private doctor we usually reward some of each the main part of our annual meeting not only is to elect new officers which we did but also to have a speaker in this year we brought in Ray Larson from United Way to talk about the Alice report Alice stands for asset income limited constrained employee what it's really a report about is the under employment rate and the number of people that are working one or 2 or 3 jobs sometimes and still barely making it they're they're not at federal poverty level but with any kind of incident that might occur to them like a car breaking down or something they would be into trouble and so obviously that's a lot of the people that we serve and so we are looking with every organization we can to try and help we can help and keep those people from falling off the cliff is basically what it is now the data that remarks and shared with you said Orange County is trying to get the right direction in terms of you know the rate of poverty lowering by 2 percent. And then also the Alice households were down but it's still a tremendous number in Orange County and you said that it already 3 percent of all households in Orange County alone and when a pregnancy comes down the line there's added expenses and that's you know absolute privilege to have that car breaking down well and if they're not ensure. That's exactly what happens if they're on Medicaid they may have a break but if something happens with their Medicaid for instance they make a little more than they were the year before if they get a raise for instance a lot of people now are having to choose whether to take the raise or not because they'll lose all these benefits if they do it puts them in a different category so if they would lose their Medicaid they'd be uninsured and that would be one of the things that could push them over the cliff so it's something that we're very concerned about because we want to make sure that everybody gets into prenatal care as early as possible that's what's shown to make the most difference and that they stay in prenatal care with the continuity of care you know being the same provider so it's something that we monitor all the time not to mention the other things that could be affecting their lives at the time you know if they lose their job that stress that can certainly affect their pregnancy as well and just to make sure I'm connecting the dots in the right way the idea of those screenings that you were talking about a moment ago is the idea of going for your checkups while you're pregnant part of that connection if you're not there you can't get the screening right absolutely and so that's part of the public awareness that we do out in the community is to make sure that if you think you're pregnant you go to the doctor as soon as possible even if you have to go to the health department they will see you on a sliding fee scale or free to make sure that you do get into prenatal care as early as possible and a lot of people think you know I feel fine I don't need to go yet that kind of thing I'm not the 1st person that's ever had a baby but you know it's really important for them to get in because they can mitigate whatever might be wrong if you have high blood pressure for instance you probably wouldn't even know it but they can do something about it that would help you when the baby. So it's the public awareness piece as well as the piece of making sure the doctors and the providers are actually doing the screening that they're mandated to do by statute or there's some other things in that report from rain Larson that you would want to mention that the most astounding thing to people that were in the audience that heard it was how many people really are basically living on the edge we have low wages as we know because of our tourist population here our low income jobs and the number of people that are working 23 jobs that are above the federal poverty level that aren't eligible for any government services but are so close if something should happen was astounding to a lot of people and I think it was a wake up call for a lot of us about what is a living wage here in Orange County and what problems occur because of that because we have very limited low income housing so a lot of them are you know one rent away from like that Cliff I talked about before or maybe they have trouble paying their utility bill for instance and those are higher on the priorities than for instance the doctor's co-pay. So we have to make sure that these families really are have have the wrap around services that they need because ultimately we'll all end up paying for it if they don't how does that kind of information influence what you do with Healthy Start Well it does because part of our responsibility is to educate the community about the importance of those early years and how it's a question of paying so much more later on in deep in costs if we don't pay our early on and so just the awareness of knowing how many families could be at risk for these type of things encourages people to get involved whether it's them informing their friends and their networks about the importance of the early years especially getting prenatal care and in the 1st year to prevent infant mortality and poor birth outcomes but also to the return on investment that investing in programs that are home visiting programs such as healthiest. Saves money so much money for taxpayers later on let's talk about the numbers you mentioned early on the prematurity rate was up if I correct it's up just a tiny bit an Orange County Yes Ok I know I ask you this kind of thing every time we chat but why I mean what do we know about the why the cause is actually actually there's always a myriad of reasons but what we're finding is that we're having more women who are older giving birth and we're having more in vitro fertilization cases which sometimes can lead to prematurity and it's it's interesting sometimes we're seeing more multiples so that can certainly lead to prematurity and so those are some factors that that really effect what the radios and how do you advise women when you have that kind of information well we certainly talk about what are the optimum childbearing years but also just how they can mitigate their risk because 50 percent of pregnancies are on planned we have had several cases recently that women were in their early to mid forty's where they've gotten pregnant and it was not a planned pregnancy but they certainly ended up having healthy happy babies because they knew enough to get into prenatal care early and see a high risk doctor and make sure that they were taken care of that their blood pressure issues were addressed for instance our diabetes or whatever their health care issue might be that they were unaware of before so that it didn't affect the pregnancy so it's it's really all about awareness and sometimes self empowerment of making sure women know enough you know how they can help themselves and their baby now back to that idea of people thinking well babies are born every day it's got to be easy I'm guessing you know it's just a guess that that would be to a large extent younger it is but especially women who've had babies before if you've had several babies that were born healthy and everything was just fine you have a tendency to kind of think oh it's just the not. One I can do it again you know I did it before and everything will be fine but you know your health can certainly change over the years and so it's important to make sure that you've had a checkup optimally before you got pregnant to mitigate any of those risks but certainly as soon as you find out you're pregnant so that they can get you on prenatal vitamins and then whatever other medications or things that need to be done to help you have the healthiest pregnancy possible and when it comes to the idea of educating Ok so you go out and educate How do you do formal presentations Oh gosh there's a myriad of ways that we do we do formal presentations to community groups like Colonus and Rotary and things like that we go to church groups we go to apartment complexes and give talks and everything for instance in their club house we do things in the paper we've done things on the side of a bus for we are part of the Christmas parade the m.l.k. Parade things like that to get the word out a lot of us are are leaving cards wherever we go and then we have an outreach person that goes into all the doctor's offices and we talk to pediatricians certainly our board helps us with the awareness building but we write editorials for the paper we talk on the radio with wonderful people like you and whatever we can do to get the word out we do find that a lot of pregnant women have been unhealthy start before so they know when they come into a pregnancy already to ask for their screening and to get services those kinds of things and word of mouth probably is the best way that we get people to enter the program too and so will women go through the Healthy Start program for the 2nd or 3rd baby years is just the 1st time every pregnancy Ok we do have a program under Healthy Start called Nurse Family Partnership that is only for 1st time moms it's 1st time low income moms and targeted zip codes and they're seen for their home visits strictly by nurses and it's a much more intensive program for most high risk women now what I need to ask is What is it like from the other side because for people receiving this instruction or receiving. That was on one program you just mentioned what are their questions what's their perception of the situation and what their needs are alas a lot of times they don't even know what their needs are until they get into the program and there is a start to be educated on what actually being a parent totally into a health might think most of us have probably gotten gotten into parenthood that way where we were totally aware of what the whole picture might look like and so we have these educators that are coming into the home then talking about parenting they're talking about health they're talking about early literacy they're talking about anything that might have to do with the long term health of the baby and certainly the mom's health what she can do to keep herself healthy and prepare for another pregnancy because most people will have another one to make sure that the next one's healthy too so we want her to be healthy and well rounded as well as being a well rounded and nurturing parent of course we cover all the safety issues as well but most of them end up with a relationship with their we call them care coordinators their home visitors because they are coming into their home so they develop this personal relationship whether it's really like talking to a friend and so we find out a lot of issues that they may not have told somebody else just because we're building that trust with them and also they're they're learning to be self and powered to ask the questions and not be embarrassed and that kind of thing which breaks through a lot of barriers as far as information and referrals go and so we find that that most of them we have a very high satisfaction rate with the program I will lead to surveys and it's always in the high 99th percentile of satisfaction with the program just because of having that nurturing support we have so many people that move here that don't have families here and when you think about not having that kind of support when you know you're under the stress of being a new parent or pregnant I mean all kinds of support is helpful. I'm sure that journey varies per person what do you hear from these women in terms of where they're delivering Are they at home with a midwife are they going to hospitals What's their situation well obviously the vast majority are going to the hospitals but you know that's kind of thought the American standard way we have a lot of people now that are looking for a more natural way so I think you'll see the number of births and birthing centers and home bursts are increasing as is the access to that kind of care and so it's really up to the individual what they want to do we find a lot of people particularly for instance from the islands and everything who are used to midwives or other countries use midwives far more than we do here in the United States are far more comfortable with that idea from the very beginning but we certainly tell them what all their options are and what the benefits are way you see very very very high success with midwives and birthing coaches and things like that so we back actually encouraging a lot of the o.b. Offices to use dualism and midwives in their practice to help because that a real personal relationship that develops which you usually don't have with your doctor. Let's talk about the men are they a part of this process are they you know doing the lead up well we certainly encourage that a lot of we find a lot of women particularly if they're not married to their father of the baby don't want them is involved and we have to educate them about the importance of the dad being involved we see lower infant mortality rates higher breastfeeding initiation rates all kinds of things if the father is involved so we actually have a program called Daddy boot camp that we've started that's a 3 hour course basically for men men only a women aren't even allowed where they go and learn to really how to be supportive of the mother as well as to be a good dad so it's critically important that fathers be involved in it it's kind of a new age of fatherhood now I think more people are recognizing the importance of the guys they're not just shoved off to the side like they might have been you know back in the Leave It to Beaver years. And they're actually involved on a on a very intimate basis with what's going on during the pregnancy and they go to the doctor's appointments and things like that we encourage that and certainly are there for the birth and and you know are are better prepared than they've ever been before so we're very encouraged about the fatherhood piece so none of what you do is just casting a net and hoping you catch something that you're basing all of this on the data so absolutely and I'm thinking that in terms of the dads involvement you know the results so talk a little bit about the research well there's all kinds of research that's been coming out since the early ninety's in particular on the brain research 1st and foremost that shows the importance of the early years and also all the things that can be done to make sure that those years are so critical that you know the 85 percent of the brain is developed by the age of 3 and so we need to make sure that parents are doing the very best they can to encourage that so that fatherhood piece is a particularly important part of that because more as we know more about the brain research we know more about how the brain reacts differently to moms and dads. And how that cross section of both of them being involved brings a better balance to the child's life and so we're continually monitoring data we're monitoring data even by zip codes on where our poor birth outcomes are so that we can target those that codes for interventions and go in and increase awareness in those neighborhoods of what they can do about it so all the data is particularly important to us as well as the research that's coming out virtually daily in fact for you personally having been in this biz so long what stands out to you lately what's been the most an intriguing thing well it's you know there's so much that just comes out every day that's so fascinating but I think that more and more is the awareness of the of the business community and the return on investment for investing in the 1st few years the economist James Heckman He's a national economist has done research that shows that the importance of spending money really and investing in the 1st 3 years of life is a much bigger payoff than investing for instance in college scholarships as far as the long term stability of that child in the family and success across the board including success in school you know lack of being in the juvenile justice system and with the new Ace's study that's an adverse childhood experience as we certainly know that even has to do with your long term health so if you have had traumatic incidences during your early childhood years and it can even late to things like cancer and heart disease and things like that later on when you're an adult and I don't think until fairly recently people have been connecting the dots that far you know you think in childhood if something happens well they'll get over it and things will be fine but there are long term effects that happen should there be a traumatic childhood so making parents aware of really their critical role I think is becoming more and more accepted as being truthful and certainly we can prove it now well let's use this then as an opportunity to segue back to healthy start and. To circle back to your annual meeting on December 7th you said you elected the new board of directors we did and a new set of officers Gail Garvan is our new board chair she's a former employee of the health department and public health educator herself I'm retired now and we have Jimmy same row who works for c s I they do child care for well child. Healthcare basically for children with disabilities and things in the community he's the vice chair we have Nancy Hagen as our secretary and and Dr Evers Robinson is the treasurer he's a former chaplain at Orlando health we have a very board of directors we try and get perspectives across the board as far as consumers as well as people for instance that are obstetricians people that work in the hospitals in labor and delivery and things like that as well as people that are out in the sector as far as o.b. Offices and things like that and then just the general public that consider themselves maternal child health advocates So if you're interested in that kind of topic we're we're certainly open to having you on the board or involved in our committees one again last year in Orange County 1700 babies were born prematurely 1500 babies were born with low birth weight 121 babies did not live to celebrate their 1st birthday according to your data Linda So what's the game plan for the next year to bring those numbers down well sir certainly to get as many people screened as possible so that we can get them in to help if it is possible that certainly are always our number one goal because if we don't know that they're at risk or if it even out there for instance needing our help them for us to find them to help them so it's increasing wariness about the program as well as increasing the importance of them getting the screening just 1st and foremost and then after that it's them committing to the program and the help that we can offer them for free so that is an ongoing thing year after year that we are continually working on and will certainly continue to work the other thing that becomes a focus for us is the racial disparities that I mentioned earlier black babies are 2 and a half to 3 times as likely to die in their 1st year as white babies and that takes into consideration education of the mother and socio economics so it's particularly important for us to go out and let those African-American women know that they're at higher risk and that they certainly need to be aware of that and and sensitive to their signs and symptoms and things and I think what the bra. The most attention to that this year has been the Serena Williams birth giving birth and almost dying in childbirth knowing that she had a blood clot said she'd had one before recognizing the symptoms but while she was in the hospital people just said oh it's just because you had a baby and sort of sloughed it off until she insisted that they have the test and that's one of the things that we're seeing as far as the reason that maternal mortality is increasing in the United States is that a lot of times the focus is on the baby instead of the signs and symptoms that the mother might be having because they're just attributing it to oh you just gave birth so you don't feel good of course you know that kind of thing rather than particularly looking at those you know that particular symptoms for that particular lady so we're doing a lot more and in letting people know what can be done about that and what signs and symptoms to look for themselves so that they can empower themselves you want to take a moment and go over some of those well a lot of the signs and symptoms for instance can be cramping in their legs that can be a sign of a blood clot For instance you know certainly during pregnancy Nicea most people just think is a normal byproduct of being pregnant but there are different levels of nausea that certainly need to be you need to consult the doctor about it to see if yours is part of the normal range or certainly not all kinds of cramping or or bleeding or anything like that certainly is a red flag that you should check with your doctor about the a lot of people just to say I'm of oh it's you know just part of going through this and it's it's not necessarily the case we want to make sure that they you know are monitoring themselves for camp just how they feel in general because most people are aware of what normal feels to them and if it doesn't feel normal you need to ask about it and if they're not paying any attention to you you need to make yourself heard and so that's certainly part of what we're doing to try and like I say am more and more is about empowering the person to take personal responsibility for their health and advocate for themselves because what happens is a lot of people just look at doctors as an authority figure and if. They say oh it's probably nothing you assume it's probably nothing when it might not be for you if it's something unusual you need to definitely follow up on it and follow up right away don't do that oh well I'm seeing the doctor next Wednesday anyway you feel that way today you call today absolutely it's it's important you're important and it's important for you and especially if you're pregnant for the well being of your baby to do that so we know we want people to be an advocate for themselves you know the the medical system is very complicated in the United States in particular and sometimes difficult to navigate and that's another place where we can come in and help because what we do is a lot of times if you need help you'll call for instance to call to one wanna know give you numbers to call referrals to get help for yourself but sometimes those numbers have been changed sometimes you know they they're out of whatever you need ours is a warm what we call a warm referral will actually walk you through the process and tell you who you need to call in and follow up and say did you call them or you know did they call you back or no well I know somebody over there let me do it for you that kind of thing so it's really about wrapping your arms around the family and helping them as much as you possibly can always good talking to you Linda I want to mention that online people can go to Healthy Start Ornge dot org And if people are outside of Orange County they also have a healthy start correct absolutely there are $32.00 coalitions that cover the entire state of Florida Florida is the only state United States that has a comprehensive maternal child health program like this and so if they go to Florida healthy start they can Google anything like that healthy start Florida any of that it will come up with their local coalition and how they can get in touch with their their local program Linda Sutherland is executive director of the Healthy Start Coalition of Orange County and that's peril. Retrospectives a public service program at this station if you would like to tell us about your nonprofit organization your community that or issue of concern to the community please contact. Producer Beth Carroll at 407-2955 the 8 day extension for 718 via the Internet and back dot p r r e l l at cox dot com. The federal government has partially shut down the issues don't stop because of the Holiday Inn in Trump demands $5000000000.00 for a border wall $200000.00 federal workers will face furloughs President Trump has drawn a temper tantrum everybody wants to see our border protect This is where Orlando turns 1st for breaking news news 96.5 w. D.b.o. This message is for all of you sitting in the passenger seat and apologies if it gets a little uncomfortable but how does it feel to be at the mercy of someone who thinks a random text is more important than your life someone who takes their eyes off the road while speeding along in a 3 ton hunk of steel. 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