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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2004
(973)
225-3638
PATERSON – The Passaic County Department of Health’s Passaic County
Public Health Partnership (PCPHP) hosted the “Eliminating Health
Disparities: Moving from Statistics to Solutions” conference on April
30th, 2004, for its membership. The conference was developed as an
idea-sharing opportunity for a broad range of organizations in Passaic
County that share a common interest in improving the health of the
community. The conference idea was developed in coordination with a
larger national program sponsored by the American Public Health
Association.
Deborah Rucki-Drake, Health Officer/Director for the Passaic County
Department of Health, made opening remarks. Freeholder Lois Cuccinello,
Chair of the Health and Social Services Committee, then gave a generous
overview of public health’s contributions and role in improving the
health and environment of Passaic County. Freeholder Cuccinello briefly
touched upon the continued importance for Passaic County agencies and
partners to openly communicate with each other to achieve common goals.
She also stressed the importance of ensuring that response agencies have
the proper tools and resources.
Karen Fox, PCDH Bioterrorism Health Educator, spoke next on the
importance of understanding how health improvement was a shared
responsibility, and how the Passaic County Public Health Partnership
could be instrumental in defining critical areas of importance for
collaboration. A video, “The Faces of Public Health”, from the American
Public Health Association was then presented as an educational overview
to the audience to show different people and jobs within the public
health environment.
The Keynote Speaker of the conference was the Rev. Fletcher Harper. Rev.
Harper spoke of the unique opportunity for the partnership to create a
“culture of health” in Passaic County. To illustrate his idea, Rev.
Harper told several stories. One story involved a fictitious community
called “Healthville” which was an older urban community that had changed
over the years from a vacation getaway to an industrialized town.
Eventually, industry declined, and poverty overtook the community. Near
the site of an old coal/gas plant, cancer and birth defects started to
increase over the years. Ultimately, the coal/gas site was discovered to
be an old polluted industrial project that was not properly cleaned up,
and the remaining pollution was having a physical effect on the
community. In the meantime, schools, senior homes, public housing and
local businesses were built around the old contaminated site without the
public’s knowledge of the danger. Rev. Harper used the story to pose to
the audience that a culture of health didn’t exist in this community,
and wasn’t always easy for one agency to create or restore due to the
environmental, health and economic forces that had to be dealt with
responsibly. However, it was possible and even necessary to restore a
culture of health for communities like Healthville to thrive. It was
Rev. Harper’s hope that the PCPHP would envision what a healthy
community would be for Passaic County, and to work together to achieve
that goal.
Rev. Harper is an Episcopal priest and president of Partners for
Environmental Quality (PEQ), an interfaith environmental coalition based
in New Jersey. An award-winning spiritual writer, Harper preaches,
teaches and speaks weekly at houses of worship from a wide range of
denominations in New Jersey and beyond about the moral and spiritual
basis for environmental stewardship and justice. He offers classes and
forums for adults, teenagers and children and has spoken in churches,
synagogues and mosques.
Steven Peters, Practice Standards Partnership Coordinator for the
Passaic County Department of Health, gave an overview of an upcoming
Passaic County Smallpox Tabletop Exercise, which will be held in May to
review a simulated countywide response to a large-scale public health
emergency. The exercise, an example of collaborative planning effort,
requires that multiple county agencies work together in good faith for
the safety and well being of our community. Deborah Rucki-Drake gave
closing remarks by thanking the audience for attending.
The Passaic County Partnership was created by the Passaic County
Department of Health to bring a number of like-minded organizations
together to address the major health issues in our county. After
identifying the priority community health needs, the partnership will
work collaboratively towards the creation of a countywide health
improvement plan to address those needs. The partnership is comprised of
local and county health departments, other response agencies, local and
county government, hospitals, faith-based organizations, non-profit
agencies, volunteer agencies, businesses and schools.
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