Projects
Community Health Assessment
A community health assessment (CHA) is a systematic data collection to identify health status indicators and health needs for a given population. The goal of the Essex County Community Health Assessment 2022 was to understand and identify health indicators and identified issues among residents in the county.
Essex County Health Assessment 2022 Final Report
The goal of the Essex County Community Health Assessment 2023 is to develop strategies to address the community’s health needs, related to social determinants of health. As the Office of Public Health Management, we will use this primary data to drive our future public health initiatives and access to services through our mobile clinic. The Community Health Assessment Toolkit is a framework used to develop, implement, and evaluate CHA findings.
Accreditation
The Office of Public Health Management has begun its National Accreditation process with the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). This is a key strategy for strengthening the public health infrastructure of Essex County to build local public health capacity.
Through the Accreditation process, the office will expand health care and clinical services, identify gaps to address health needs within the county, and proactively prepare for future public health emergencies.
RWJBarnabas Health
The goal of the Essex County Mobile Clinic is to expand transportable health outreach through the partnership with Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health by offering clinical services to reduce barriers promote health equity for community members. The mobile clinic offers health education, assessments, and vaccines that protect against communicable diseases as well as follow-up services to the Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health network. Our Community Health Assessment continues to inform us of the initiatives that are most important to the communities that we serve; enabling us to deliver tailored resources to our constituents.
MRC Recruitment
To build a resilient, informed and ready MRC group, the Office of Public Health Management is actively recruiting volunteers to join our MRC Unit. We welcome all individuals from both medical and non-medical backgrounds. You must be at least 18 years of age or older. Please follow the link on how to sign up and register for our MRC Unit.
Sign up link: https://njlmn.njlincs.net/jsp/mrc-index.jsp
Emergency Preparedness
Since the COVID-19 pandemic the state of NJ and the County of Essex have been working to ensure we are prepared in case another public health crisis strikes. The funding we have received from the CDC and the state are helping achieve that initiative. Creating an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is extensive and must follow specific guidelines to be as thorough as possible. We’re reviewing documentation from the past and updating it. We are gathering documentation for medical material management/distribution, medical surge, emergency operations coordination, epidemiological investigation, community preparedness, pharmaceutical and nonpharmaceutical interventions and much more. Through examining these documents, we can identify relevant stakeholders who can assist us in updating them. Once we are confident the documents are comprehensive, in their category, we will combine and create the EOP to be used county wide. The COVID-19 pandemic showed how important it is to come together and help our fellow residents in any way possible. Creating this plan will help control any future incidents that may occur.
Healthy Essex Coalition
The Essex County Healthy Coalition was established in 2022. The goal is to cultivate relationships within Essex County and establish next steps towards a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), a three-to-five-year plan to create health improvement initiatives.
Community Partners for the Coalition:
- Essex County Offices (Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs and Department of Family Assistance and Benefits)
- Health Coalition (Essex Passaic Wellness Coalition)
- Hospital Systems (RWJBarnabas Health and Hackensack Meridian Health)
- LGBTQ+ Advocacy Groups (OUT Agency, Garden State Equity, and African American Office of Gay Concerns)
- Community Response Organization (New Jersey City Readiness Initiative)
- Municipal Health Department Representatives (Bloomfield, Irvington, Newark, and Maplewood)
- Maternal and Child Health Non-Profit (Perinatal Health Equity Initiative)
- Mental Health Organization (Mental Health Association of New Jersey)
- Women’s Support Center (Bridges4Life)
- Grant Funder (Health Care Foundation)
If you want to join the coalition, complete the form below: