DAYTON — The American Heart Association (AHA) has announced a new two-year sponsorship agreement with Mercy Health, in the effort to help enhance lives throughout the state of Ohio. By choosing to collaborate with the American Heart Association, Mercy Health has made a commitment to work throughout the state to maximize health impact by delivering simple to understand advice, tools and information, all grounded in behavioral science, to its patients, their families, and local residents.
Healthy for Good™ is the American Heart Association’s movement, designed to inspire lasting changes in health and life, taken one step at a time. Mercy Health will be working with the AHA to improve health in the communities it serves, including Cincinnati, Lima, Lorain, Springfield, Toledo, Youngstown, and Paducah, Kentucky, where approximately 42 percent of the population is impacted by hypertension. The two organizations will focus on the prevention of and education about high blood pressure and how this “silent killer” affects long term cardiovascular health.
About 103 million Americans have high blood pressure, yet only about half of those have it under control. Through Check. Change. Control.® (CCC) the AHA’s evidence-based high blood pressure management program, Mercy Health will encourage patients to take ownership of their health and well-being. The program incorporates self-monitoring and online tracking to improve outcomes in not only hypertension management, but also physical activity and weight reduction.
“The Association is excited about the opportunities our new agreement with Mercy Health represent for the state of Ohio, as well as Paducah, Kentucky,” said Darby Turner, chairman of the Great Rivers Affiliate board of directors for the American Heart Association. “Check. Change. Control. has already helped more than 50,000 people nationwide to lower their blood pressure significantly (10mmHg), and we are grateful to Mercy for standing beside us as a force for longer, healthier lives.”
In addition to helping to manage the CCC program, Mercy Health will be involved in local events, such as Heart Walks, Go Red for Women events and Heart Balls as a top-level sponsor.
“Our Ministry is proud to partner with the AHA and their relentless work to reduce the prevalence of heart disease,” said Dr. Michael U. Todd, MD, Mercy Health, VP Business Development. “We have seen firsthand the impact this disease has had on the health and well-being of the communities we both serve. Our collaborative partnership strives to raise greater awareness of the devastation cardiovascular disease can have on individuals and their families, but through programs like CCC we can now more actively pursue education, prevention, and treatment activities that serve to help our shared communities live longer with more productive and happier lives.”
For more information about Check. Change. Control., and high blood pressure, log on to www.heart.org/checkchangecontrol.
