The goal of creating a community health center here in the Heart of Northside is becoming a reality, and I wanted to share with you some of the great progress that you have all helped us achieve in 2024.
I bought this wonderful building, the old North Presbyterian Church, with the mission of embedding health within this neighborhood. As a cardiologist at the VA, I have seen many instances of severe heart disease that could have been prevented. I knew that eating better and exercising could have – and would have – prevented my people from getting so sick, and to help them get well. But I also learned that there are many obstacles to eating well and getting exercise that require strong community involvement. We’ve been working to figure out what these obstacles to health are, and finding ways to over come them in community.
This year, we received many answers to the surveys about your personal obstacles to healthy eating. We posted QR codes to the survey all around the Heart of Northside, and via email. First, I want to thank all of you who answered them. Your answers have formed the next steps in our process of creating ways around these obstacles.
We learned that many of you didn’t know how to make healthy meals from food you could get here in the neighborhood without having to drive to a larger chain grocery. In response, we are completing our first community recipe book. Xavier University Occupational Therapy students created healthy and simple recipes of meals you can make with food that can be purchased right here in our local grocery stores. All of the recipes can be made with tools that are affordable and available: a knife, spoon, a burner, and/or an air fryer.
We are creating the final electronic version now and will be translating it into Spanish. A local chef is working on small tweaks to the recipes to add some spice and make sure they are safe, and a local photographer took photos to show you how the meals will look. We will make the book available for free for residents in this area, and we will be selling paper copies of this book (as cheaply as possible) within the stores that have contributed to the work: Darou Salam, Lierer’s Market, Morsel & Nosh, and the Northside Express.
High blood pressure is one of the biggest risk factors for heart disease and stroke, yet we do a terrible job identifying and treating this in the US. To address this, we created a Blood Pressure Station in the Northside Farmer’s Market to learn how we are doing in our neighborhood, and what people need to identify and treat high blood pressure.
We learned an incredible amount from the Northside Farmers’ Market this summer and are taking what I hope is a short break to develop next steps. We have to build a team to assist with the work at three locations: the Farmers Market, and our Recreation Centers at Millvale and McKie. I got permission to create the stations from the Directors of the City Recreation Centers in collaboration with our City Health Department Epidemiologist, Dr. Stephanie Courtney.
If there are any people with health training that has time to volunteer, I would welcome your help in building this program out into the community. It’s been incredibly rewarding helping people learn about their blood pressure and take control of their lives.
I am working with Medical Students and Public Health students to publish what we learned. This will allow us to get funding for community-academic partnerships to identify and treat high blood pressure with more emphasis on lifestyle changes, and partnerships with pharmacists to intervene when medications are needed.
Evidence shows that we should see big reductions in heart attacks and strokes by preventing and treating high blood pressure through lifestyle changes and early management through community efforts. I am looking forward to doing this important work with you, my neighbors in Northside.
Here’s to a healthy and delicious 2025!
