From Band-Aids to Building Blocks: Greater Bergen Community Action Tackles the Roots of Health
UNITY HEALTH PARTNERSHIP
A Pathway to Health Access and Equity
The Unity Health Partnership will be a model of accessible, quality, and comprehensive care for the low-income, underserved and the uninsured to receive the kind of care everyone deserves.
Overview
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that even in a healthcare-rich environment like Bergen County, there are structural barriers to quality care for many in our community. As importantly, the Pandemic revealed the inter-relatedness of overall health in preventing serious illness. As we emerge from the global pandemic, Greater Bergen Community Action is building a consortium of health providers to address the Social Determinants of Health in southern Bergen County, one of the most challenged areas of our community.
The Unity Health Partnership will be a model of accessible, quality, and comprehensive care for the low-income, underserved, and underinsured to receive the kind of care everyone deserves.
The Healthy People 2030 Framework identifies the following factors as essential in a person’s overall health:
• Economic Stability: Help people earn steady incomes that allow them to meet their health needs.
• Education Access and Quality: Increase educational opportunities and help children and adolescents do well in school.
• Health Care Access and Quality: Increase access to comprehensive, high quality health care services.
• Neighborhood and Built Environment: Create neighborhoods and environments that promote health and safety.
• Social and Community Context: Increase social and community support.
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At the Unity Health Partnership there will be no wrong door. Everyone entering through any partner will be able to access the comprehensive services of the other members. Each individual will be able to access what they need to improve the quality of their lives, just by stepping onto the campus.
Unity Health Partnership
Greater Bergen Community Action, Inc. is a progressive not-for-profit organization working throughout New Jersey to build more sustainable families, community institutions, and neighborhoods. It does this through strategic investments in community and household finance, education, healthcare, housing, workforce development, energy, and neighborhood revitalization.
Community Food Bank of New Jersey has been delivering food, help, and hope across the state for 45 years. In the Health & Wellness Center complex, the Community Food Bank of New Jersey will operate a “supermarket” model Client-Choice pantry allowing those in need to shop and choose the food they want for their families.
The Garfield Health Department promotes a safe and healthy community through collaborative partnerships committed to improving the health and wellness of all residents. The Department’s evolving and comprehensive public health services integrated at the Health & Wellness Center would enable the Department to reach its full potential in the new, state-of-the-art health and wellness complex.
CBH Care has provided community-based mental and behavioral health services in Northern New Jersey since 1969. At the center, CBH Care will provide a full spectrum of behavioral health services, family support services, and mental health services to individuals, families, and the community with respect and dignity.
Greater Bergen Community Action is prepared to construct a Health & Wellness Center at 529 Midland Avenue in Garfield, NJ, a designated Medically Underserved Area (MUA) that would benefit from a center that will:
• provide primary, urgent, preventative, and chronic care to the
uninsured low-income residents of Bergen County
• close the gap in persistent food insecurity
• provide comprehensive public health programming
• fill the needs of mental health services among the residents of
Southern Bergen County
• provide pharmacy services
• offer other wraparound services to help the region’s residents
attain better overall health outcomes
The Center
ACCESSIBILITY
The campus will be easily accessible to local residents as well as to the region via public transportation with both a train station and bus stop being a short walkable distance away.
The City of Garfield has pledged to build a walkway from the train station and across the park, directly to the campus
The health and wellness center will be accessible from both Midland
Avenue and New Schley Street with plentiful parking throughout the
campus.
Schematics
The health & wellness center will have ample space to hold:
· Client Choice Pantry
· Demonstration Kitchen
· In-house Pharmacy
· Examination Rooms
· Community Spaces
· Group Counseling
· Consultation Rooms
· Medical Labs
· Conference Rooms
· Waiting areas
· and more!