Teachers' Role in Health Care Reform Headlines Healthy Classrooms Symposium

Madison, Wisconsin - With the United States having enacted the most comprehensive health care reform in decades, teachers will have a more vital role in encouraging their students to adopt healthier lifestyles and create healthier communities.

Martha Gaines, University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor and founder and director of the Center for Patient Partnerships, will address that issue as the keynote speaker during the Fourth Annual Healthy Classrooms Symposium 5pm Wednesday at the Health Sciences Learning Center, adjacent to UW Hospital and Clinics.

"Teachers play a decisive role in forming citizens who will both use and help shape a more just, effective and economical health care system," says Gaines.

"At the Healthy Classrooms Symposium, the Center for Patient Partnerships will join with Wisconsin educators to explore strategies teachers can adopt to prepare students for the active roles they will play in shaping the future of health care in the U.S."

Gaines will address educators, parents, health care workers, students and community leaders at the symposium, which will include lectures on a number of other topics including:

• Diabetes and Exercise: My Triumphant Story
• Bullying and Victimization: What Adults Can Do
• Healthy Spaces, Healthy Children
• Wisconsin's Obesity Prevention Movement: Get Involved
• Talking the Talk: How to Address Sexual Health in Middle Schools
• Working with Parents: How to Sustain a Positive Relationship
• Physical Education: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Healthy Classrooms Foundation, a non-profit group operated by students at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

The group offers grants for school programs that encourage students to adopt healthier choices through proper diet and exercise, and abandonment of smoking, alcohol consumption, drug and other behaviors that negatively impact health. Grants are funded by local businesses and private donors.