- The ARC - California Edition -

Food for Preventive Thought

State Strategic Plan To Prevent Disabilities
The Department of Health Services has released a publication entitled "From Vision to Action: A Strategic Plan to Prevent Disabilities in California - 1997-2001". This document makes recommendations for a five year period and addresses primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention.

It includes recommendations regarding specific areas of injury-related disabilities (traumatic nervous system injuries), developmental disabilities (alcohol-related birth defects, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida), and secondary conditions.

To obtain a copy of this document, call or write Stacy Alamo, MPH, Coordinator, Office of Disability Prevention at (916) 332-1648, or write her at the Department of Health Services, 714/744 "P" Street, PO Box 942732, Sacramento, CA., 94234-7320.

1997 Childhood Injury Control Conference
Mark your calendar and plan to attend the eleventh annual California conference on childhood injury issues.

This conference on injury prevention will be held October 6-8, 1997 at the Marriott Mission Valley Hotel in San Diego and will cover recent progress and future directions in injury epidemiology, public policy issues and the implementation of injury prevention strategies.

For further information, contact the California Center for Childhood Injury Prevention at (619) 594-3691, or write them at 6505 Alvarado Road, Suite 208, San Diego, CA., 92120.

1997 Arc - US Annual Convention
While you have your calendar out, mark November 6 through 9, 1997 for the dates to attend the national Arc convention. this year it will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah. There are a number of "prevention issues" that will be discussed during this session and should be of interest to the readers of this newsletter. Thursday is the exhibit day when you can pick-up new Arc prevention materials and talk with members of the national Health Promotion and Disability Prevention Committee.

Friday will be a big day for prevention advocates with a workshop on FAS and Secondary Conditions at 10:30am, followed immediately by the Research and Prevention Luncheon. At 4pm, The Arc of New Mexico will present their "A Pregnant Pause", award winning puplic awareness campaign which encourages establishments serving alcoholic beverages to offer alcohol-free alternatives to pregnant women. This session will be followed by a "Happy Hour" where participants will be invited to mix their own non-alcoholic drink samples.

Saturday morning at 10:45am, HPDP committee co-chairs Maxine O'Kelley and Deborah Cohen will conduct the Human Genome Project's educational workshop, where you will learn everything you ever wanted to know about the human genome.