Grants fund initiatives to improve health services in New Jersey

Health Care Financing Review, Summer, 1993

Five New Jersey-based organizations were awarded $1.1 million to provide health services for high-risk populations within the State as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's New Jersey Health Services Development Program.

"Regardless of efforts to reform the national health care system, it will still be necessary to improve health care and related social services for needy, under served citizens," said Foundation President Steven A. Schroeder, M.D. "This program targets worthy projects in New Jersey that we hope will serve as a source of inspiration for similar efforts throughout the country."

Homeless people living in Passaic County will be able to access a multitude of health care services from a mobile health care unit being funded by a 2-year, $245,972 grant to the United Way of Passaic Valley. The mobile unit will be staffed by an interdisciplinary team of medical professionals in collaboration with five Passaic hospitals and other State and local organizations. it will operate at 13 sites where the homeless are known to congregate, and is intended to identify and treat chronic disorders and acute illness such as tuberculosis, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and sexually transmitted diseases. Staff will attempt to link patients as needed with mental health and supportive services, and housing and entitlement programs.

Improved AIDS awareness and wider access to community resources for inmates of correctional facilities and juvenile detention centers in Mercer and Middlesex Counties is the objective of a 3-year $229,056 grant to the New Jersey Association on Correction. The Corrections AIDS Project will provide educational outreach, training, and referrals for adult and juvenile inmates and correctional staff. in addition, interested inmates will have the opportunity to receive training to become peer educators.

Employers in the Camden area and their employees who care for elderly dependents will be the focus of a 3-year, $244,391 grant to Our Lady of Lourdes Associates Foundation. The grant will enable Our Lady of Lourdes to market what is called a service credit banking program to large Camden-based employers. By providing respite services to employees, employers will seek to reduce absenteeism and employee stress, as well as retain skilled workers who might otherwise have to leave their jobs to concentrate on caregiving responsibilities. The service credit banking concept operates with volunteers who provide non-medical supportive services to caregivers and their dependents in return for credits that can be exchanged for services at a later date.

Another project funded in southern New Jersey will teach children of substance abusers coping skills and how to protect themselves from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. A $247,546, 2-year grant to Services to Overcome Drug Abuse Among Teenagers, Inc., will aid in establishing support groups at community walk-in clinics, and is expected to serve a minimum of 300 children. Parents and caregivers of these children, who are often caught in intergenerational cycles of addiction, will be provided education and parenting skills training to help prevent substance abuse in their children.

Activities aimed at reducing substance abuse, sexual relations, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-risky behaviors of adolescent females living in Newark will be supported by a $177,220 3-year grant to the Freedom Foundation of New Jersey. Approximately 120 sixth-grade girls in two Newark schools will have the opportunity to take part in weekly meetings, field trips, community volunteering, and seminars with minority female leaders. In addition, each girl will choose an adult female role model with whom she will meet each week to serve as her mentor. This project is based on the Teen Challenge and Best Friends models and is being implemented in conjunction with the Newark Board of Education and Rutgers University.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has been awarding grants under the New Jersey Health Services Development Program since 1988 and to date has awarded 29 grants totaling $8.7 million. Proposals for the next round of grants are currently under consideration, and those grant awards will be announced by November 1993.

For more information, contact Marc Kaplan at (609)243-5937.