Caregivers play an important role in maintaining the heart health of their loved ones. Create a video that shares a caregiver’s story and gives tips for how to prevent or control high blood pressure.

Winners announced (view all dates)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in partnership with Million Hearts™ presents the Million Hearts™ Caregiver Video Challenge. A caregiver is a family member, friend, or someone who provides care to a parent, child, friend, or other loved one. Caregivers play an important role in maintaining and improving the heart health of loved ones.

We invite people who play a role in helping to prevent or control high blood pressure or maintain the heart health of a loved one to share their stories of caregiving by creating original, compelling videos that are less than 2 minutes long. The videos should include a description of how the caregiver contributes to another person’s heart health and provide helpful tips related to high blood pressure prevention or control. Examples of tips are:

• how to help the family member take blood pressure medications as directed,
• how to accurately measure and routinely monitor blood pressure to improve control, or
• how to encourage lifestyle changes that benefit blood pressure control, such as
• increase physical activity or
• reduce sodium in the diet.  

To help you create your videos, visit http://millionhearts.hhs.gov/about_hd.html for more information on how to prevent and control heart disease.

The goal of the Challenge is to create inspiring videos that provide other caregivers helpful tips on heart healthy practices, particularly on the prevention and control of high blood pressure. 

The Challenge also wants to recognize individuals who work hard to provide care for their family members or friends and give them a chance to share their stories.

Background on Million Hearts™

Million Hearts™ is a national initiative to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes in the United States over the next 5 years. The initiative was launched by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in September 2011, and it is led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Together, we aim to prevent heart attacks and strokes and help Americans live longer, healthier, more productive lives.

The Issue

Heart attack and stroke (sometimes called a brain attack) are the first and fourth leading causes of death in the United States. Together they cause nearly 1 of every 3 deaths in the country.  Americans suffer more than 2 million heart attacks and strokes each year, and every day, 2,200 people die from one of these conditions and other cardiovascular diseases. The good news is that many of the major risk factors—high blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking, and obesity—can be prevented and controlled, and Million Hearts™ can help.

 The Goal

Prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017:

• Encourage Americans to make healthy choices such as to quit smoking and reduce the amount of salt and trans fat we eat. By making the right choices from the start, fewer people will need medical treatment, such as medicines for blood pressure or cholesterol, to prevent heart attacks and strokes in the future.
• Improve care for people who do need treatment by focusing on the ABCS – taking action in these four areas can help to prevent a heart attack or stroke:
• Aspirin for people who need it,
• Blood pressure control,
• Cholesterol management, and
• quitting Smoking.

• Create a free account on millionhearts.challenge.gov or log in with an existing ChallengePost account.
• On millionhearts.challenge.gov, click “Accept this challenge” to register in this contest. This step will ensure that you will receive important challenge updates.
• After you sign up on millionhearts.challenge.gov a confirmation email will be sent to the email address you provided. Use the confirmation email to verify your email address. As a registered Contestant, you will then be able to enter the Challenge by submitting an application that conforms to the requirements set forth herein (a “Submission”).
• Create a video that is no more than 2 minutes (120 seconds) long. The video must focus on the first topic area listed below (as #1.), must include at least one listed thereafter (listed as #2.-4.), and must direct viewers to http://millionhearts.hhs.gov for more information:

1. Explain the role a caregiver plays in contributing to a loved one’s heart health.

2. Give tips on how a caregiver can help to ensure that a loved one takes blood pressure medication(s) as prescribed.

3. Explain how to measure and monitor blood pressure and why this is important.

4. Share how a caregiver can encourage lifestyle changes that benefit blood pressure control, such as increase physical activity or reduce sodium in the diet.

• Submit the entry during the submission period, which begins on July 16, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. EST, and ends on August 31 at 5:00 p.m. EST by filling out the submission form on millionhearts.challenge.gov. All submissions must  include:

–        The title of the video,

–        A link to the video on Youtube.com or Vimeo.com,

–        A transcript of the words spoken in the video.

All of these items must be included for a Submission to be considered complete and eligible for prizes.