NNews-July-2023

23 July 2023 New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, 25 Years The New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute (NJHCQI) is amember organization with themission to improve health care safety, quality and affordability for everyone. “Our impact comes from our ability to bring people in New Jersey health care together to work collectively for the greater good. Often, these are people who do not regularly engage with each other. We enable these organizations to make broader connections, benefiting their own organizations and enabling them to work toward strengthening our overall health care system and advancing the Quality Institute’s mission,” said Linda Schwimmer, JD, who joined NJHCQI as Vice President in 2013 and became President and CEO in 2015. “We began 25 years ago as the policy arm of the New Jersey Health Care Payers Association, a group of payers dissatisfied with the cost, lack of transparency, and quality of the health care they were purchasing. Today, cost, quality and transparency remain core to our mission even as we have broadened our work,” Schwimmer said. “We’ve expanded our focus to include community health and today, more than 400 New Jersey cities and towns are involved in our Mayors Wellness Campaign to promote health and wellness.” This campaign, for instance, is helping communities address mental health and includes provision of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training to municipal leaders, teachers and employers. NJHCQI also focuses on improving birth outcomes and equity throughout the state and are providing MHFA training to people engaged in perinatal care, such as community health workers and doulas. “We recognize that health equity is essential to health care quality, and we are working on critical initiatives, including several aimed at reducing disparities in maternal and child health. Our policy work includes important and successful efforts in Medicaid reform. We’ve expanded our work in many ways while also remaining committed to our original goals,” Schwimmer said. Supportive Housing Association of New Jersey, 25 Years The Supportive Housing Association of New Jersey (SHA) is primarily a nonprofit member association of organizations that build affordable housing and those that provide services. Strengthening these partnerships allows us to focus on “people’s wants and desires to live in the community, regardless of the kinds of disabilities they have. Our impact through our state partners helps us to fill gaps in the system. We are building understanding of people with disabilities, and what they want and need, and creating opportunities for them,” said Diane Riley, who has served as Executive Director for six years. “It is great to see collaboration in the industry and seeing people wanting to live as independently as possible. People are discussing social determinants of health, of which housing is foundational, not like years ago.” Over the years, SHA has created many resources. A recent example is the Affordable Housing Data Project . SHA is partnering with the Fair Share Housing Center to build and maintain this online database of municipal funding information. The goal is to “bridge the gap between resources available for housing development and the organizations who are working to create that housing,” as described on the SHA website. SHA is also working to provide municipalities with resources through the Integrated Community Project , which strives to “increase the capacity of people with disabilities to become completely engaged in their communities.” Kate Kelly, Integrated Community Project Manager, SHA, received a Social Innovations Award for Legislative Impact from Social Innovations Journal earlier this year for this work.