October 2002 | Goal is a Healthier New Brunswick - Grant will Fund Study of Health Care
ALEXANDER LANE
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
2 October 2002
The Star-Ledger Newark, NJ
MIDDLESEX
029
English
(c) 2002. The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved.
New Brunswick is well stocked with major medical institutions, including two hospitals, a medical school, the renowned Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the corporate headquarters of Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Yet cancer death rates and infant mortality rates are higher in the city than in the state as a whole. Residents suffer disproportionately from HIV, lead poisoning and low birth weights, according to health studies.
Yesterday, in a presentation at the Lord Stirling Community School, representatives of several of the city's most prominent health care institutions touted the latest effort to help correct the imbalance - an initiative called Healthier New Brunswick 2010.
Funded by a $200,000 grant from Johnson & Johnson, Healthier New Brunswick 2010 is an attempt to coordinate the medical institutions' efforts to serve New Brunswick residents.
"As we improve the bricks and mortar of our community, we must assure there is a strong foundation of health for the residents of our community," said Denise Rodgers, the associate dean for community health at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and director of Healthier New Brunswick 2010.
Specifically, the money will fund an in-depth study of city residents' health care by the Rutgers University Center for State Health Policy. It also will help pay for a staff member at the New Brunswick Tomorrow social-services agency who will manage programs that are part of the initiative.
Healthier New Brunswick 2010 began quietly last April. Rodgers said she held off publicly announcing it because she wanted to be able to point to real, working programs when she made the announcement. In the months since then, several programs have been started under the auspices of Healthier New Brunswick 2010, including nutrition, domestic violence and leadpoisoning education programs.
Nonetheless, city mayoral candidate James Neal questioned the timing, suggesting it was preelection public relations for the benefit of Mayor James Cahill, who is supported by Johnson & Johnson.
"How is this new?" Neal said. "It's just something that they're dusting off for election time. But how long is it going to last?"
A Johnson & Johnson spokesman said it was a "multiyear" grant covering three years, but officials stressed that it could be extended. New Brunswick Tomorrow President Jeffrey Vega said the grant was important seed money that could spark matching grants and the like.
Joel Cantor, director of the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University, said his study, called a community health assessment, also would help attract more grants by providing statistics that proved the need for them.
Previous studies already suggest there is a health care gap in the city, Cantor said. Citing several different studies and surveys, Cantor's organization said the city's cancer mortality rate seems to be between 4 percent and 20 percent higher than New Jersey as a whole; there are 321 adults and 18 children living with HIV/AIDS in the city; there were 891 cases of lead poisoning in 1998; and from 1995 to 1997, the infant mortality rate in the city was 11.3 percent, compared to 6. 7 percent in the state as a whole.
At yesterday's kickoff, Cahill said that despite the constant visible reminders of the city's flourishing medical institutions - including the announcement Monday that the Cancer Institute was designated one of 39 comprehensive cancer centers in the nation - the city's health care problem was a stubborn one.
"I've seen all that it is that you do," Cahill said, gazing out at the auditorium of doctors, nurses, health care administrators, community leaders and others. "Yet somehow, some way there are people falling through the cracks."
Alexander Lane covers New Brunswick. He can be reached at ala ne@starledger.com or (732) 634-1236 .
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