Programs and Communities
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- All Subjects: Substance-Related Disorders
- All Subjects: Newark, New Jersey
Women in recovery from substance use disorders (SUD) face significant barriers to achieving reproductive well-being (RWB) and disproportionately experience unintended pregnancy. Unintended pregnancy can have serious consequences in this population. Equity-informed approaches promote the integration of reproductive health care (RHC) with recovery programs to improve both access to and quality of RHC. Arizona’s largest SUD recovery program, Crossroads, Inc. recently opened an on-site, integrated primary clinic offering RHC. A one-month pilot demonstration of One Key Question (OKQ), a pregnancy desire screening tool, was implemented with fidelity at Crossroads to identify clients with RHC needs and offer care.
IRB exempt status was obtained through Arizona State University. All female-bodied clients aged 18-49 were screened following routine admission assessments. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement Triple Aim model based on Self-Determination Theory and Motivational Interviewing was used to prioritize client autonomy. The client experience of care was measured using an adapted Interpersonal Quality of Family Planning scale. The magnitude of needs and desires were summarized with descriptive statistics. Sixty-three clients were screened with OKQ. Needs were identified in 97% of clients. Of those clients, 98% accepted referrals. Ninety percent of items measuring the client experience of care were rated as “excellent.” OKQ provided an efficient structure for person-centered screening and referral conversations to integrate RHC in a large SUD recovery program with excellent care experiences reported by clients.
The New Jersey Childhood Obesity Study was designed to provide vital information for planning, implementing, and evaluating interventions aimed at preventing childhood obesity in five New Jersey municipalities: Camden, Newark, New Brunswick, Trenton, and Vineland. These five communities are being supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids program to plan and implement policy and environmental change strategies to prevent childhood obesity. Effective interventions for addressing childhood obesity require community-specific information on
who is most at risk and on contributing factors that can be addressed through tailored interventions that meet the needs of the community. Based on comprehensive research, a series of reports are being prepared for each community to assist in planning effective interventions.
The main components of the study were:
• A household telephone survey of 1700 families with 3–18 year old children,
• De-identified heights and weights measured at public schools,
• Assessment of the food and physical activity environments using objective data.
This report presents the results from the household survey. Reports based on school body mass index (BMI) data and food and physical activity environment data are available at www.cshp.rutgers.edu/childhoodobesity.htm.
The maps in this chartbook describe the food environment in ewark in terms of access to supermarkets, smaller grocery stores, convenience stores, and limited service restaurants. Research shows that when residents have access to healthy food outlets, they tend to eat healthy.
• Food environment maps were created using geo-coded commercially available data of food outlets (InfoUSA, 2008 and Trade Dimensions, 2008) in Newark and in a 1 mile buffer area around Newark.
•Using the commercial data and additional investigation, food outlets were classified into different categories based on their likelihood of carrying healthy choices: supermarkets carry most healthy choices; smaller grocery stores carry fewer healthy choices; convenience stores and limited service restaurants are likely to carry mostly unhealthy choices.
• Access to different types of food outlets was computed at the census block group level based on concentration of stores / restaurants per unit area and is reported as food outlet densities.
• Food outlet density maps are compared with Census 2000 data to visualize accessibility of healthy foods in neighborhoods with different characteristics.
Data Sources: Info USA food outlet 2008 data
Trade Dimensions food outlet 2008 data
Census 2000 data
New Jersey Department of Education 2008-2009 data
The maps in this chartbook describe the food environment in Trenton in terms of access to supermarkets, smaller grocery stores, convenience stores, and limited service restaurants. Research shows that when residents have access to healthy food outlets, they tend to eat healthy.
•Food environment maps were created using geo-coded commercially available data of food outlets (InfoUSA, 2008 and Trade Dimensions, 2008) in Trenton and in a 1 mile buffer area around Trenton.
•Using the commercial data and additional investigation, food outlets were classified into different categories based on their likelihood of carrying healthy choices: supermarkets carry most healthy choices; smaller grocery stores carry fewer healthy choices; convenience stores and limited service restaurants are likely to carry mostly unhealthy choices.
• Access to different types of food outlets was computed at the census block group level based on concentration of stores / restaurants per unit area and is reported as food outlet densities.
•Food outlet density maps are compared with Census 2000 data to visualize accessibility of healthy foods in neighborhoods with different characteristics.
Data Sources: Info USA food outlet 2008 data
Trade Dimensions food outlet 2008 data
Census 2000 data
New Jersey Department of Education 2008-2009 data
Stress is the direct source of some health issues and the precursors to many illnesses. The effects of stress are felt by the majority of the population and is usually undertreated or overlooked as a norm of life rather than a potential source of illness. Though everyone has different thresholds of stress, chronic or constant stress is debilitating for some and can manifest itself in limitless ways. For adults with substance use disorders (SUDs), research supports that mindfulness based interventions (MBIs) could be beneficial for stress management. The techniques incorporated in mindfulness based practices can decrease the baseline stress of its practitioners by increasing their awareness and mindfulness within daily life and during stressful situations.
This increase in awareness and mindfulness has shown numerous benefits that may be crucial in increasing the likelihood of sobriety for those with SUDs. Some of these benefits may include, improved stress management, improved mitigation of craving symptoms, reduced incidences of relapse, and a better quality of life. A 4-week self-help mindfulness pilot program was conducted twice within two separate residential substance recovery settings. The participant’s satisfaction and the internalization of mindfulness concepts were measured within the pre and post implementation of a self-help mindfulness class. In the pilot program, participants rated high satisfaction of the mindfulness class and showed increased levels of mindfulness through the use of the client satisfaction questionnaire (CSQ-8) and the five facets of mindfulness questionnaire (FFMQ-39).