National Health Outreach and Engagement Conference 2024

Johnson, J.
n the past decades, there has been a shift in clinical practices of substance abuse disorders.
Public health currently views substance abuse disorder as a preventable and treatable chronic
condition that negatively affects an individual's physical and mental health and their
interpersonal and social relationships. Although there is a large and ever-increasing strong body
of evidence demonstrating the physical, mental, and social benefits of exercise among healthy
and numerous populations, there is a lack of formal guidelines that assess quality of life among
patients experiencing substance abuse disorder.

This gap in knowledge has provided Extension an opportunity to integrate a weekly group
exercise program with residents enrolled in a rural, outpatient substance abuse program as a
way to improve the quality of life (QoL) and effectiveness of an individual's direct experience
with exercise within a comprehensive treatment plan. This Extension program goes towards
implementing Cooperative Extension's National Framework for Health Equity and Well-being
as a way to answer the call to " work to eliminate healthy inequities experienced by people who
live in rural areas." This unique and innovative program also explores the influence of the
physical activity leader, and how they can maximize their effectiveness to facilitate strong
physical activity leadership at ground level and act as powerful agents of behavior change