I feel blessed to be placed at Harris County, Houston, Texas. The demographic is similar to my home country- Malaysia. From weather, multi-racial citizens, town planning structures, facilities till health services, so much similarity. It make me feel like I am home again. This is a good opportunity to select Houston as my case study location.  I am glad to be here to explore from them and share experiences with them. It is a grateful arrangement from YSEALI to allow me attached to the Public Health and Environmental Services. This opportunity help me to upgrade my professionalism and closely related to my career which focus in community health services.

Last week, Muna and I attended Houston School Health Leadership Meeting. Those members from 21 districts school decision makers included Houston Independent School District, school health organizations, wellness consultant, school nutritionist and school food focus. To have new breathe and more fun to this meeting, the secretariat Kelly Rees Hirsch decided to have a Hawaii theme.

This meeting is one of the school health engagement strategy. Before started this platform, Kelly did advocate agencies and use individual approach to promote school health. This practice similar to the Japanese practice, called “Nemawashi”. Rochelle Kopp (2012) defined it as a process of quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or project, by talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback. It is considered an important element in any major change, before any formal steps are taken, and successful nemawashi enables changes to be carried out with the consent of all sides. This practice help us to get the right and committed person attend the meeting. The decisions are much easier to get support or endorse by those members.

After a day, I managed to attend another meeting with wonderful experience - Mental Health America of Greater Houston, Harris County School Behavioral Health Initiative. Another theme of the meeting- Green Color. This initiative meeting applied peer approach. They invited those experienced mental health issues either themselves or family member, to share their experience and suggest ideas to do something in community especially at school setting. This is a new experience to advocate members rather than usual classroom style or typical meeting stereotype. Through this experience, I learnt 3 things:

• Power of peer or high functioning face sharing experience is easier to break common social stigma.
• Effective of hearing and validation of real conditions (diagnose) are important to identify the right root cause of the problem.
• The technical (academician), management (county/ city council) and community (organizations/ parents) should work in a team. It create mutual understanding and better approach accept by all.

 One Sharing Can Give An Idea, One Passionate Nutritionist Can Make A Different To The Community Health!

Sandra Aamodt published an article in International New York Times on May 6th, 2016 with title “Why You Can’t Lose Weight on a Diet”.This article wrote about people is an inherent weakness in diet. The hungry of dieter easier to feel depress and end up overeating after reached at set point and  tend to gain more weight later in life. Studies show that long-term dieters are more likely to eat for emotional reasons or simply because food is available. When dieters who have long ignored their hunger finally exhaust their willpower, they tend to overeat for all these reasons, leading to weight gain. If diet doesn’t work on your weight, may try her recommendations- mindful eating. You need to pay attention to your signals of hunger and fullness, without judgment, to relearn how to eat only as much as the brain’s weight-regulation system commands. Those interested can access article through http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/why-you-cant-lose-weight-on-a-diet.html?_r=1.