Health Department launches program to help special needs adults

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Enriching the lives of others is a goal many have.

One program seeks to do that for those with special needs.

Health Matters is the result of a collaboration between the Hamilton County Health Department and Orange Grove.

The program, tailored for adults with special needs, seeks to teach life skills such as cooking, healthy eating, and exercising.

Friday, the first cohort of six students received their diplomas, and were ecstatic to do so.

One student, Tyrese said, “I learned about vegetables, fruit, and, oh yeah what do you call it? Yeah, protein.”

Another student, Linda said, “I learned that walking is very good.”

The 12-week program took a year of preparation time to design an appropriate curriculum to best suit the students.

Lead instructor Haleigh Dunning said, “We’re the only health department, and one of the few people in the state of Tennessee to have done this program. It’s not necessarily a new program, but it has taken a lot of time to get evidence-based materials, I think it takes 10 to 12 years.”

Dunning also said the growth of her students has impressed her.

She added, “It’s been really amazing to see that retention of information of stuff that we talked about 12 weeks ago, and with this population that’s a really, really big deal.”

The Health Department hopes to expand this program to other parts of Hamilton County.

Dunning said, “We’re going to be working with the Tiger Access program at Chatt State, working with their individuals with disabilities and other students there, hopefully they’ll be our second cohort and we’ll see where this takes us from there.”

For the students, this is a day they’ll never forget.

We wish congratulations to all of the graduates here at News 12.