Jewish Community Health Initiative

January 2017 Update...

JCHi is currently involved in multiple activities. We continue to work in partnership with community organizations like Jewish Family Services Association (JFSA) and Yesh Tikvah. Recent work with JFSA has been in the area of spouse abuse and the partnership between JFSA and Shalom Taskforce of New York. JCHi's director has been involved in training sessions of community stakeholders and in monitoring success of the program. JCHi also continues to support the JFSA program on healthy vs unhealth relationships for teenagers, Know Abuse.

Dr. Singer has also been advising Yesh Tikvah which provides financial support for mental health services for members of the Cleveland area jewish community

JCHi has been adapting a program for mothers to foster healthier eating in the home and hopes to have it ready for pilot testing in 2017.

JCHi is also working on a brochure that identifies mental health resources (online and Cleveland local).

JCHi conducted health surveys at the 5 local non-boarding Jewish day schools in Cleveland (3 Orthodox, 1 Conservative, 1 Community). Data is currently being analyzed and reports are in preparation for the participating schools. There will be public reports, but results will not be shown by school. The survey addressed dietary habits, physical activity, sleep, mood and safety habits.

Results from the surveys will inform the nascent health and wellness coalition (each school participating), providing a starting point for the coalition to begin their task. This coalition is crucial to getting grant support.

The data from the survey will also be used to support grant proposals on behalf of the schools, with input and direction coming from the health and wellness coalition.

JCHi is under contract with Jewish Family Services Association of Cleveland to provide program evaluations of various services they provide. This is for 2010-2011.

JCHi has been working with the Know Abuse (formerly Expect Respect) program, an innovative program for teaching middle and high school students about what constitutes abuse in a relationship (not just physical abuse) and what to do if they, or a friend of theirs is in an abusive relationship.

The Know Abuse program is a project of the Jewish Family Services Association of Cleveland, and is now teaming up with other organizations to offer a more complete package of education to prevent teen violence, with partners such as the Domestic Violence Center and the Rape Crisis Center. JCHi is working with this consortium in developing proposals for funding this new venture.

During the past year, JCHi has been involved with many other activities. JCHi ran a workshop for the Cuyahoga County Board of Health on working with the Orthodox Jewish community. This past Chanukah JCHi started a social marketing campaign to focus more attention on eating healthier.Posters that ran with the theme "More Oil? Good for the Menorah, Bad for your Heart" were posted in various public locations, and were made available here - where people were able to download and print and post in their community.

In March, JCHi ran a mumps awareness program and alerted the CDC to the risk of the NY/NJ outbreak in Orthodox Jewish communities spreading to other Jewish communities with the heavy travel around Passover. The CDC responded with a health alert that was sent out to all public health departments. MMR shots were made available free locally, informational pieces were created and distributed to parents and posted publicly. JCHi made contact with Chicago health officials and a nurse went to various Jewish day schools giving shots to those who needed it.

In early September mumps reached Cleveland. JCHi worked with the affected school, community pediatricians and local health departments. JCHi helped gather information for the outbreak investigation, kept local Orthodox pediatricians updated, kept the local community informed and updated and maintained this website. Guidance was also provided in the form of public memos.

JCHi then worked with local doctors, patients families and local and state health departments to obtain convalescent blood tests sent to the CDC, where all 6 cases were confirmed to be mumps.

While the outbreak continues, JCHi continues to keep the community up to date in an effort to minimize spread of the virus.

For its efforts, JCHi director, Mendel Singer, was greeted at a class he was teaching by the county Health Commissioner and other representatives of the Cuyahoga County Board of Health where they presented him with a copy of a resolution that was passed in his honor recognizing the work he has done on behalf of the Jewish community.

JCHi will continue working on the above projects, all of which are ongoing, but will be looking to greatly expand activities.

This means writing a lot of grant proposals to support initiatives for programs to fight obesity in the schools and in the community utilizing existing community resources and networks, and running programs to teach people to better manage their chronic disease.

JCHi will also be doing "opportunistic" health screenings, i.e. coming to events and gatherings and providing screening for high blood pressure and diabetes. Anyone interested in making a tax-free contribution of $500 for the equipment? If so, contact our director, Mendel Singer (216-368-1951). This can be done in any community, and JCHi wishes to create a guide on how to do this in any community.

Volunteers? JCHi is looking to create a network of volunteers who would like to help make things happen in their community.

Collaborating? JCHi is not interested in duplicating the effort of others. If there are ways you or your organization can work together with JCHi, we want to hear about it! JCHi is uniquely positioned to work together with community organizations, as we are dedicated to the Jewish community, but have the prestige and expertise of one of the nation's leading medical schools and research institutions.