Welcome to our new Live Well Allegheny Community: Brackenridge!

To become a Live Well Community, the city, borough or township must agree to work with Allegheny County to promote the Live Well mission. This includes promoting activities in the community that encourage eating well, not smoking and being physically active.

Brackenridge Borough has pledged to be a Live Well Community by committing to:

• Plan, promote and implement a Live Well Allegheny event that encourages active living
• Develop, maintain, and improve outdoor trails and park facilities accessible to all abilities
• Encourage multi-modal transportation by providing facilities that encourage walking and bike riding
• Promote and support community farmers’ markets
• Provide health information at monthly, seasonal or special events

We welcome the borough to our growing list of Allegheny County Live Well Communities!

Addressing Tobacco Use in Allegheny County and Southwestern Pennsylvania

The Great American Smoke Out is an annual national tobacco awareness holiday sponsored by the American Cancer Society. It is designed to encourage thousands of smokers to begin “Day 1” of their quitting journey on the third Thursday of November. Throughout Allegheny County and Southwestern Pennsylvania, Adagio Health is there to help smokers quit and live longer, healthier lives.

Tobacco Free Adagio Health is working throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania to reduce smoking rates, educate on the harmful impacts of tobacco and nicotine, and provide assistance in developing policies to eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke in spaces where people live, work and play. Tobacco, and smoke-free workplace, multi-unit housing, and parks and playground policy initiatives are key strategies to influence community norms around smoking and tobacco use.

Certified tobacco treatment specialists are available to provide in-person, virtual, individual or group cessation counseling and access to free Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), including patches, gum, and lozenges.

Tobacco Free Adagio Health engages with schools to promote programming and interventions to educate and support youth in efforts to stop smoking, or to never start. Tobacco Resistance Units are student-centered groups designed to promote tobacco-free lifestyles, teach youth about advocacy and leadership, and help them to engage with their peers to educate them on the risks of tobacco use and nicotine dependence.

For more information on tobacco-free policy work, tobacco cessation and counseling programs, or how to start a TRU group at your school, email: tfah@adagiohealth.org.

For more information, please visit adagiohealth.org or call 1-800-215-7494.

To promote the Great American Smoke Out, held on November 17. We have put together some resources to help you learn more about the benefits of quitting smoking.

New Supplement to Best Practices User Guide: Tobacco Where You Live Mapping Techniques

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health has published a new supplement to the Best Practices User Guides, Tobacco Where You Live: Mapping Techniques.

Maps show where people live, work, and play. In tobacco control, maps can show patterns in commercial tobacco use and access to tobacco products, where interventions have been implemented, or how patters have changed over time.

The Tobacco Where You Live: Mapping Techniques supplement can help you:

• Prepare to begin a mapping project
• Create an effective tobacco control map
• Learn how state programs have used maps to support tobacco prevention and control goals
• Identify resources and tools to get started

The online version of the guide is available on CDC’s Smoking and Tobacco Use website.

Young Lungs at Play Policy Update

Young Lungs at Play is a program that offers municipalities tools to create outdoor tobacco-free policies, which now include vaping and e-cigarette free language, at parks, athletic fields, playgrounds, and trails to protect children and the environment. View current participants here.

To learn more about updating your tobacco free policy or adopting a new tobacco free policy in your community contact Tobacco Free Adagio Health at tfah@adagiohealth.org or call 800-215-7494.

American Lung Association Resources

• How to Help People Quit is a free one-hour online course designed to enhance the understanding of the Lung Association’s core beliefs about tobacco cessation, as well as behavior changes, interventions and treatments needed to help people quit.
• Vape-Free School Initiative is for educators committed to helping students navigate the youth vaping epidemic. Participation demonstrates that your school is a leader in supporting students affected by e-cigarettes. Completion of either INDEPTH (Intervention for Nicotine Dependence: Education, Prevention, Tobacco and Health) and/or N-O-T (Not on Tobacco) facilitator training courses will satisfy the requirement to be recognized by the American Lung Association as a member of the Vape-Free Schools Initiative.

American Diabetes Month

November is American Diabetes Month. Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects how your body turns food into energy. There are three main types of diabetes: type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes. Approximately 10 percent of adults over 18 in Allegheny County have a diagnosis of diabetes. (2021 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System)

Visit the CDC Diabetes and Prediabetes page for more information.

The Great American Smoke-Out – Smoking Cessation Month

The PA Free Quitline (1-800-QUIT-NOW) is a telephone-based tobacco cessation counseling service offering up to 5 free coaching calls along with free nicotine replacement therapy to those who are medically qualified. This service includes text messaging as well.

CALL 1-800-QUIT-NOW

2022 Live Well Allegheny Speaker Series

November Event: Food Safety Program

Join us for the November Live Well Learning Collaborative Virtual Speaker Series on Tuesday, November 15, from 10-11 a.m.

This presentation will help you prepare for the holiday season as well as an opportunity to learn more about food safety in general.

Questions for the speaker can be sent to Victoria.baker@alleghenycounty.us.

Sign up here!