An ounce of prevention: Operationalizing the NPS healthy eating and active living recommendations to align with social work core values

The Affordable Care Act authorized the development of the U.S. National Prevention Strategy (NPS) intended to “improve the health and quality of life for individuals, families, and communities by moving the nation from a focus on sickness and disease to one based on prevention and wellness”. Two of the seven identified top national priorities include healthy eating and active living. The federal-level acknowledgement of healthy eating and active living as top priorities, identifying prevention and wellness as a national focus, and recognizing the existence of significant social, economic and environmental barriers to prevention and wellness, are tremendous positive steps toward reducing issues of overweight and obesity and align well with models of strength-based social work practice. Given that differential access to healthful, nutritious foods and safe places for physical activity are issues of social justice, social workers are called to respond with collaborative approaches to create accessible and affordable food environments where the default option is the healthy, preferred choice.

The NPS recommendations for healthy eating and active living are evidence based and include social and environmental factors, however, their comprehensive nature may be difficult to operationalize, particularly in light of continued economic and structural barriers.  By organizing issues surrounding healthy eating and active living around social work’s 5 core values of service, social justice, dignity and worth, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence, this presentation will provide practice, policy, and research recommendations to more clearly articulate social work’s role in these two priority areas of the NPS.