Editorial: Message should not be lost with partnership
Thursday, March 8, 2007 1:40 PM CST
Mississippians should understand that the loss of the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi should not necessarily mean that the partnership's work is dead.
As of April 30, the partnership will cease to exist and the work it has been doing since 1998 will stop.
"In my opinion, the losers are the children," according to Mary Campany, a director for the Partnership for a Healthy DeSoto & Tate Counties, which is based in Hernando. "This program has worked since 1998. I cannot even comprehend it not being available."
When it came to sending out a message about the dangers of tobacco use, the partnership was the final word in Mississippi. Its program included R.A.T (Reject All Tobacco), S.W.A.T. (Students Working Against Tobacco), ALLIES and Frontline (youth advocacy teams) and W.A.T.C.H. (Working Against Tobacco by Choosing Health).
These programs, readily welcomed by the schools, worked and Mississippi showed that its children were getting the message. Beyond that, statistics on health care and the cost of treating tobacco-related diseases were other weapons used in the partnership's fight.
That is the one thing that will be missed the most, according to Sandra Shelson, executive director of the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi.
"The funding cuts have seriously compromised the comprehensive nature of our programs. Preventing tobacco use isn't a one-shot deal. It takes multiple program components working together to create success. All of these program cuts could lead to higher prevalence rates among our children, which means more disease, more death and more costs to taxpayers and employers throughout our state."
The partnership lost its million-dollar funding -- money given to the people of Mississippi in a settlement with the tobacco industry -- after Gov. Haley Barbour won a long court battle that forced the $20.6 million into the state's hands.
Although legislation has been written to create a state agency to perform the same function as the partnership, we hold little hope that any such group will be as successful as the partnership, even if legislation is passed. For one thing,a new group will have to start over, doing the same thing that the partnership has done since 1998. That will take time. How much ground will be lost in the interim?
Mississippi government took a step backward when it blew up a program that other states copied. Now it's up to local communities, businesses and schools to keep the message alive.
"Mississippi was No. 1 in tobacco education in the country. Other states would model their programs after ours," according to Campany.
"More than losing my job," she said, "I am upset that our children will lose the education of tobacco and tobacco products and we will all lose because insurance rates will continue to climb."
Let's keep the fires, not the cigarettes, burning.
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