HEAD START®

Laying a Foundation in Health & Wellness

Training Guides for the Head Start Learning Community

Table of Contents | Preface | Introduction | Module 1 | Module 2 | Module 3
| Continuing Professional Development | Resources

RESOURCES

Resources | Books & Journals | Health & Wellness Newsletters | Head Start Publications |Miscellaneous |

Books & Journals:

Benson, Herbert, and E.M. Stuart, et al. THE WELLNESS BOOK: The Comprehensive Guide to Maintaining Health and Treating Stress-Related Illness. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

This comprehensive guide provides basic information on how to combine personal behaviors and scientific health care to enhance health and wellness. Written in a self-help format that explains how to identify needed behavior changes and ways to make those changes. Topics include the mind/body connection, exercise, nutrition, stress management, and relapse prevention.

Boston Women’s Health Care Collective. The NEW Our Bodies, Ourselves—A Book By and For Women. New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1992.

This complete source book on women’s health care emphasizes what women can do for themselves and for one another. For example, topics include Body Image, Health & Healing, Environmental & Occupational Health, and Developing an International Awareness. The authors offer useful tools and ideas to enable women to take greater charge of their own health care. They discuss nonmedical perspectives and remedies as well as medical ones.

Editors of the Wellness Letter, U.C. Berkeley. The Wellness Encyclopedia. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991.

This thorough reference source of positive, practical health guidelines is clear and up-to-date. The Wellness Encyclopedia is divided into five major parts that correspond to key areas of wellness: Longevity, Nutrition, Exercise, Self-care, and Environment & Safety. Much information is offered on how to work with family, friends and members of the community to solve health-related problems. Tips and interesting facts on how to change old habits for new healthier ones. Process for change presented in manageable steps.

Jo Imlay and Jerry Howard, "Listening for a Change," New Age Journal, (Nov.–Dec. 1993).

This article describes the background and tenets of The Listening Project, a grassroots organization based in the southern U.S. that is devoted to community organizing and social change. Headed by a southerner and Buddhist disciple, the organization stresses empathy and listening in an effort to dispel long-held southern attitudes of racism and social injustice. The skills which are developed by The Listening Project staff are valuable for anyone whose work requires patient listening and understanding of a variety of beliefs. Such skill is certainly relevant when Head Start families present different—and sometimes disturbing—beliefs and practices about health.

J. Melvin Witmer and Thomas J. Sweeney, "A Holistic Model for Wellness and Prevention Over the Life Span," Journal of Counseling and Development, vol. 71 (Nov.–Dec. 1992).

This well-documented essay presents an innovative approach to the U.S. model for human development and health services. Pointing out that 53% of deaths in the U.S. are caused by negligent and self-destructive life style behaviors, the authors propose a preventative model of wellness to illustrate how the characteristics of a healthy person—spirituality, self-regulation, work, friendship, and love—are interconnected with overall well-being. The ultimate goal for any person, the authors concur, is not merely adequate but optimum health.

Health & Wellness Newsletters

Several informative newsletters cover a wide variety of health and wellness topics. Following is a list of a few newsletters and their subscription information. Also check with your local universities, health departments and federal agencies for other publications.

University of California at Berkeley Wellness Letter. Published monthly—subscription $24 per year. Health Letter Associates, P.O. Box 420148, Palm Coast, Florida 32142 (phone 904/445-6414).

Harvard University Health Letter. Published monthly—subscription $24 per year. Harvard Health Letter, P.O. Box 420300, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0300 (phone 800/829-9045).

Tufts University Diet & Nutrition Letter. Published monthly— subscription $20 per year. Tufts University Diet & Nutrition Letter, P.O. Box 57857, Boulder, CO 80322-7857 (phone 800/274-7581, in Colorado, 303/447-9330).

Hope Health Letter. Published monthly—subscription $19.80 per year. The Hope Heart Institute, 528 18th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122 (phone 616/343-0770).

Pediatric Report’s Child Health Newsletter. Eleven issues plus a yearly index, $35 per year. Pediatric Report’s Child Health Newsletter, Box 155, 71 Hope Street, Providence, RI 02906-2062.

Head Start Publications

Miscellaneous