For Immediate Release: January 6, 2005

Common Health

WERU-FM Launches Public Health Program

Although much can be said about the role of personal responsibility in our health, including decisions we make about diet and exercise, the role that government can play in helping to create healthy conditions for all people is critically important. As the relief and rebuilding efforts in Southeast Asia after the tsunami disaster point out, there are a whole variety of factors relating to the roles governments play in helping to keep people healthy. These roles combine under an umbrella known as public health.

Over the next year, Community Radio WERU-FM will host a program called Common Health. The program will bring together people with experience and expertise; from policy makers to regular citizens, to inform and engage you as listeners in a dialogue about what public health should be in Maine.

Common Health will examine the definition of public health and how it is practiced in Maine. In partnership with the Hancock County Planning Commission and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, WERU will look at topics as diverse as pollution, emergency services, civil defense, immunizations, workplace health, health promotion and food safety. The program will explore how public health services are provided and where the gaps are.

The monthly Common Health radio forums on WERU will be complimented by an interactive web site (www.weru.org/health/health.htm, currently under construction), and by short news features produced at WERU addressing public health topics. This mixed-media approach is supported by a grant from Sound Partners for Community Health (www.soundpartners.org) a project of the Benton Foundation with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The new community radio series premiers this Wednesday morning, January 19th from 10:00 to 11:00. The program will feature members of the Common Health project team, Dr. Lani Graham of the Maine Bureau of Health, and live calls from listeners sharing their experiences, insights and questions. Common Health is particularly interested in hearing from listeners regarding the public health issues that are most important to them. Community Radio WERU can be heard at 89.9 FM in much of Eastern Maine, at 102.9 FM in Bangor and streaming live on the web at www.weru.org.

For additional information, contact:

Community Partner
James H. Fisher, AICP
Hancock County Planning Commission
395 State Street; Ellsworth, ME 04605
(207) 667-7131 (207) 667-2099 (fax)
jfisher@hcpcme.org / www.hcpcme.org

Community Radio
Matt Murphy, General Manager
WERU FM
P.O. Box 170, East Orland, ME 04431
(207) 469-6600, Fax: (207) 469-8961
matt@weru.org / www.weru.org