Community Health
The Department of Pediatrics has a longstanding commitment to improving the health and well-being of the Northern Manhattan community. We use a holistic approach to identify existing community assets and understand community-identified needs. Based on these findings, and in partnership with NewYork Presbyterian’s Division of Community and Population Health, we provide a large portfolio of community programs that:
- are embedded within a community-academic partnership framework
- understand health from a socio-ecological perspective
- use principles of co-design for program development and implementation
- and are evidence-based or build the evidence when needed and provide services with cultural humility.
The Community Pediatrics Program, led by Dodi Meyer, MD, Vice Chair for Community Health, uses population health principles to prioritize community health through innovative programming in the domains of training, service, and research.
Training
Through the Pediatric Residency Community Pediatrics Training Program we deliver community health training to all pediatric trainees as a part of a three-year curriculum embedded in the ambulatory pediatrics rotation. The curriculum includes self-directed learning initiatives, didactic lectures, service learning, and experiential workshops. Residents can also broaden their experiences with an additional community pediatrics elective.
The Community Pediatrics Advocacy Program (CPAP) is a pediatric trainee special interest group supported by pediatric faculty that focuses on providing exposure to legislative advocacy principles. Residents choose timely initiatives impacting child health and learn how to mobilize their influence as physicians to advocate at a local, city, state, and national level.
Service
In partnership with NewYork Presbyterian Hospital and driven by the hospital’s triennial Community Health Needs Assessments, department members develop and participate in public health initiatives within the following domains:
- Behavioral and mental health
- Youth development
- Maternal-child health
- Sexual and reproductive health
- Chronic disease prevention
- Social determinants of health and health navigation.
Among the programs focused on mental and behavioral health programs are Turn 2 Us, a school-based mental health promotion and prevention program serving public elementary schools, and The Uptown Youth Hub, a center that builds community amongst adolescents, while supporting them with educational, career, and mental health services. The Hub’s goals is to prevent future justice involvement.
Programs that focus on maternal-child health include the Early Childhood Collaborative, a Northern Manhattan, cross-sector collaborative aimed at improving life trajectories for young children and their families. Families surveyed in the Northern Manhattan community identified equitable access to early intervention services as the highest need, so this is the key area of focus for this collaborative.
The Maternal-Child Integrated Mental Health Partnership is a collaborative of administrative and service staff that work to improve the quality of care for mother-infant dyads, while streamlining delivery of this care through obstetrics, pediatrics, and mental health. To meet this goal the collaborative facilitates the Postpartum Doula Program, OB and Early Childhood Community Health Worker Programs, HealthySteps, Obstetric Centering, and Mom and Baby Bus.
To identify food insecurity and social determinants of health, all NewYork-Presbyterian Ambulatory Care Network article 28 primary care practices in Washington Heights conduct universal screening for social determinants of health. The divisions of gastroenterology, oncology, and pulmonology also screen for these in clinic. (Our pulmonology team focus SDOH screening and navigation on children with cystic fibrosis.)
Food Farmacia, which enrolls on pregnant women and children 0-5, addresses food insecurity and access to healthy food via a home food delivery model. Households receive 40 pounds of food twice a month for six months, and assistance in enrolling in programs such as SNAP and WIC.
Learn more about all of these initiatives through the NYP Division of Community & Population Health annual report.
Research
The Columbia Community Research Advisory Board, founded in the spring of 2022, aims to improve the health of our local communities by empowering participants to engage as partners in our research processes. The advisory board’s goal is to integrate the community voice, facilitate community engagement, and promote community linkages for research in the Department of Pediatrics.
Our board meets regularly throughout the year to provide feedback to researchers on various aspects of their studies such as subject recruitment, research design, or a study instrument. Currently, our board consists of ten community members who live and work in communities that Columbia and New York Presbyterian serve, and whose work focuses on the following domains: housing insecurity, food insecurity, perinatal health, mental health, faith-based organizations, home health, education, environmental justice, local business, and school nursing.