February 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 55

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s park and recreation professionals increasingly come
to regard themselves as part of a system of health
providers in their communities, one of the challenges
they face is the difficulty in making the connection to
their counterparts in public health. Why such collaboration remains difficult is puzzling - a general lack of knowledge of corresponding scopes
of duties on behalf of both professions is one obvious cause. But, park and
recreation agencies and public health entities in several locales are developing
positive relationships and serving as examples of how such cooperation measurably benefits the health of the public.
According to the National Association of County and City Health
Officials (NACCHO), there are approximately 2,800 local health departments across the country, which
generally have five categories of
responsibility for public health: (1)
Conducting community assessments
to understand specific health issues
and barriers to healthy activities in
the population it serves; (2) Investigating health problems and health
threats; (3) Preventing, reducing and
containing adverse health effects
from communicable diseases, disease
outbreaks from unsafe food and water, chronic diseases, environmental
hazards and risky health behaviors; (4) Conducting emergency
preparedness activities; and
(5) Implementing health promotion programs.
If you were to compare the
categories of responsibility that
park and recreation agencies have
in their communities, such as providing parks and public open spaces for
residents; protecting air and water
quality through a system of protected
lands, including stream valleys and
floodplains; providing a comprehensive program of recreation services
for residents; and serving the needs
for recreation, physical activity and
	

conservation for persons of all abilities and all ages, you would certainly
agree there is major alignment with
these areas of responsibility between
public health and parks and recreation. However, working together for
the health of the community remains
challenging.
Growing Awareness of Essential
Role in Health and Wellness
Dee Merriam, a community health
planner for the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) with
a background in parks and recreation,
wrote a recent article in the Journal of
Environmental Health (www.cdc.gov/
nceh/ehs/docs/jeh/2016/jan-febparks.pdf) about how public health
professionals can better work together
with park and recreation professionals. She says, " Everyone agrees parks
and recreation provides a health benefit. " Yet, she recognizes that, " A lot
of public health agencies don't see the
value of what parks and recreation
can bring to a community. "
Recognition of the critical role
health plays in the mission of parks
and recreation has been slow to develop. Ten years ago, if you asked park
and recreation professionals if they
were part of a system of health providers, you would have been met with

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Parks & Recreation

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February 2016 - Parks & Recreation

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