Heart disease and stroke combined are the leading causes of death in Washington State, and both share hypertension and high cholesterol as major risk factors. This site is dedicated to helping health professionals and community-based partners reduce the impact of cardiovascular diseases in our communities. The Washington State Department of Health’s Heart Disease, Stroke, and Diabetes Prevention Program maintains this site in collaboration with partners in the Cardiovascular and Diabetes Network Leadership Team.
What's New
Increase Activity with Self-Directed Walk With Ease
Whether the goal is to manage or prevent chronic health conditions–like heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes–or simply increase your overall sense of wellbeing and fitness, the Walk With Ease program is a tool that can support you physical activity and movement.
Walk With Ease can help reduce pain and improve function, mood, and quality of life for adults with chronic conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. The Arthritis Association's Walk With Ease program provides resources for community leaders and members in establishing a program. Washington State Department of Health supports efforts with resource pages in both English and Spanish.
Team-Based Care White Paper from the CDNLT
Team Effort: Supporting Diabetes Care with a Team-Based Approach is a white paper developed between 2020 – 2022 by the Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes Network Leadership Team (CDNLT), CDNLT members collaborated to interview seven professionals and one patient in an effort to share that information about the various roles in the health care system and how they are all a part of the diabetes management team. Interdisciplinary teamwork is an important model for delivering appropriate and effective health care to individuals with diabetes and other chronic conditions, such as hypertension. For more Team-Based Care resources, visit the Team-Based Care section of this site.
Support for Lower Blood Pressure
New campaigns have sprung up to help promote National Stroke Awareness Month and High Blood Pressure Education Month (May). Take a look at our Awareness Campaigns page, and choose videos, images, and messages to share with the people you serve.
Health Coaching Resources Added
In our left side navigation, you'll see a page devoted to health coaching resources for cardiovascular health. New resources have been posted, including the "Big 4" Health Coaching tools, can be useful to everyone who supports people in healthcare and community settings, and are available in multiple languages. Do you have additional resources you would like to see added? Let us know.
What would you like to do here?
This site contains information, resources, links, and actions to take to improve the health of our communities and reduce the impact of cardiovascular disease in our state.
- Use Team-Based Care to improve your patients’ cardiovascular health (without adding to the burden of your primary care providers)
- Use health data to improve high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol in your population
- Partner with Community Health Workers to improve your population’s health
- Partner with Pharmacists to improve your population’s health
- Link with community resources to improve your population’s health