Our Goal
To achieve our goal of a healthier New Jersey, The Nicholson Foundation supported the efforts of healthcare systems to change the way they care for patients in vulnerable populations by addressing environmental factors and social determinants of health.
What "Population Health" Means
“Population health” refers to social, economic, biological, and environmental factors that may interact with each other to influence the health of individuals and populations as a whole.
Physicians and Community Health Workers receive training to deliver an in-home asthma intervention from Nicholson grantee Health Resources in Action.
The Importance of Population Health initiatives
Despite ever-growing expenditures on healthcare services, studies increasingly have revealed stagnant or worsening measures of the overall health of the population.
At the same time, researchers, decision-makers, and community leaders increasingly have come to recognize that an individual’s health has less to do with what happens in the doctor’s office than with healthy or unhealthy behaviors and environments.
Efforts to address population health are especially important to vulnerable populations. These populations are disproportionately located in areas where environmental conditions like poor housing, pollution, and limited access to healthy food options increase the risks of health conditions like asthma, diabetes, and obesity. Studies show that these conditions can be improved by the right evidence-based population health projects.
What We Did
We supported projects that worked to improve health by incorporating social, economic, and environmental factors into project planning and implementation. We believed the strategic use of data and evidence-based practices could improve health outcomes, enhance patient engagement, and reduce costs.
Our work in this area included:
- Funding local health care organizations to implement an evidence-based in-home asthma intervention model that used community health workers to help New Jersey families identify and fix asthma triggers in their homes.
- Supporting a public media and community organizing campaign that promoted healthy behavioral and policy changes to lessen the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in New Jersey.
- Providing crucial support to build the Trenton Health Team, which provided care coordination, works to increase patients' engagement in their health, and brings together healthcare and community stakeholders in Trenton to improve health outcomes through coordinated action.