The Health Communication Research Center at the Missouri School of Journalism continued its funding roll, adding two projects at the end of 2011 – one dealing with diabetes and the other with nutrition. These two projects bring the HCRC to a total of 12 grant or contract funded projects in 2012.
“We’ve been very fortunate to be a part of so many fantastic projects aimed at improving the public health,” said Jon Stemmle, director of the HCRC. “We are focusing our efforts into creating real change, be it policy or behavior, at the community level. Instead of an ivory tower approach where you dictate what will be done, we are working to engage communities about what they need and want and work with them to make those changes.”
In partnership with Washington University in St. Louis, the HCRC was part of a five-year, $3 million grant to establish a new center to develop better ways to prevent and treat type 2 diabetes in high-risk patients, including American Indians and Alaska Natives. Awarded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Washington University was one of seven institutions awarded funding to establish this type of diabetes research center.
The research center will serve as a resource for investigators at Saint Louis University, the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the National Congress of American Indians. HCRC Senior Investigator, Glen T. Cameron, will lead the effort for the journalism school, focusing on ways to involve faculty and doctoral students in the funded research of the new center.
The HCRC will work on another project in partnership with MU Human and Environmental Sciences (HES) Extension to attempt to increase the types of healthy foods offered in state parks and public recreation sites in Missouri. This one year, $75,000 grant funded by the Missouri Foundation for Health, will also include the Missouri Council for Activity and Nutrition (MoCAN), the Department of Natural Resources Division of State Parks (DNR), and the Missouri Park and Recreation Association (MPRA) to help create this policy change.
“Missouri state parks received more than 15 million visitors to their facilities in 2009,” said Stemmle. “We’re hoping through this project with our partners we can help improve the healthy food choices available to visitors and take another step toward making Missourians healthier.”
These two new projects join others that the HCRC began in late 2011, including one dealing with statewide tobacco control with Tobacco Free Missouri and another with HES Extension and the Healthy Lifestyle Initiative dealing with improving the health of select rural communities around the state through a Photovoice campaign called Photovoice Missouri. Photovoice Missouri combines photography with grassroots social action, working with middle and high school students and teachers.