While this designation is far from official and as far as we know may be far behind any actual health week in this area, we wanted to invite our readers to contribute to next week’s Crown Heights Health Week series.  If you are involved with a social service, public health or community based organization that strives to improve health outcomes in the area we encourage you to submit op-eds, post events on our calendar, or pass along charts and other relevant data that can be posted immediately. 

Why next week? 

Well one reason is because we wanted to, and a second is that by happenstance all of our main contributors were simultaneously working on health related entries without any premeditated planning.  Looking over the enttries we have on tap, we realized that it makes sense for a number of reasons to make next week health week:

1. It’s the week before Thanksgiving, a week where many people find their stress levels starting to rise as they prepare for long-distance travel and trying to balance fulfilling work obligations and the series of family and personal obligations that converge during the holiday season.
2. Also, as the week before Thanksgiving, it’s the week where people are most likely to fall off healthy diet regimens and start gorging on carbs and desserts.  What starts out as a thanksgiving break from working out often lasts well past Christmas when having realized they’ve fallen off the wagon, people begin flooding gyms in an attempt to get ready for summer. 
3. Mental health issues such as seasonal depression, and higher levels of stress resulting from unemployment of financial burdens risk becoming exacerbated.  Too often we allow ourselves to become consumed with what we are not able to give, rather than being able to embrace what we have, and this has a propensity to incite self-destructive behavioral patterns.
4. Crown Heights is a paradox in that it has better health services than we think, while also offering far less attractive health services than we desire.  We at NP are interested in how can we as community members work to improve that divide.

So whether your a yogi or a public health wonky, we encourage you to share your thoughts and resources with your fellow Crown Heights residents through NP.

In your Hearts and Minds we trust…

NP Staff

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