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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Zalika Shani, MPH, CHES, Janet Nieves, MA, and Ramona Damon, AS. Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative, 2500 McClellan Ave, Pennsauken, NJ 08109, 856-963-1013, zshani@snjpc.org
The Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Outreach Program works to ensure the health of families in Camden. Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies staff assist families with navigating health and social services.
Camden is struggling to recover from decades of economic decline. High unemployment, deterioration of its housing stock and increased instability of neighborhoods impact the health of families. Pregnant women, infants and young children are the most vulnerable in terms of the impact of unsafe housing on health. Poor housing can pose serious health risks like lead poisoning.
Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies staff often encounter lack of safe, affordable housing as a barrier to care. Clients who need to access services miss appointments or don’t get into care due to being overwhelmed with tenant/landlord issues, or are focused on searching for stable housing. This impacts continuity of care, as families are lost to follow-up by healthcare providers. Low-income families often lack knowledge about housing resources, tenant rights and housing hazards. They need to be empowered around these issues.
Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies staff are utilizing various strategies to advocate around housing issues. These strategies include collaborative development of a housing and healthy families education series and resource guide, and sponsorship of a city housing forum. This forum brought together housing representatives with health and social services providers to address housing issues. The result is an ongoing collaboration of key stakeholders who will develop a strategic plan to take to legislators and other decision makers. This presentation will discuss advocacy strategies.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.