The-Leader_2004-07-22

              Hght Bias on Long Island ..page 11, .
www.freeportbaldwinleader.com
69th Year, No. 29 Freeport, N.Y. 11520
The Community Newspaper
Thursday, July 22, 2004
CONGRATULATIONS to the Freeport Little League's 12-year-old Willlamsport team, who won the Wiiliamsport District 30 cham­pionship by defeating Rockville Centre 13-2 on July 13. See page 16 for more of Freeport's diamond stars.
Community voices health concerns
by Laura Schofer
"You are the experts. You know your community, the local problems and we need to hear your personal stories in order to help set public health priorities," said Dr. David Ackerman, Commissioner for the Nassau County Department of Health.
Dr. Ackerman had come to Freeport to find out what the community believed were health care priorities. "Improving the health of a conmiunity requires the commitment and collaboration of resi­dents, local organizations, medical providers and govermnent. We are com­mitted to facilitating that process," he said.
According to statistics and records pro­vided by the Nassau County Department of Health, the Town of Hempstead has a population of 755,924 (as of 2000). This is a density of 6,299 people per square mile which is a 50 percent higher density than the rest of Nassau County.
The Town of Hempstead has the high­est concentration of non-whites and more people identified themselves as either Black or Hispanic than in Nassau County as a whole. The median income of resi­dents is about 4 percent lower than the rest of Nassau County and the Community Needs Index indicates that Town of Hempstead residents are slightly
poorer in overall health and in need of more services.
Although the three leading causes of death - heart disease, lung cancer and obstructive lung disease - are the same for both the Town of Hempstead and Nassau County, residents in the Town of Hempstead have a 20 percent higher mor­tality rate from AIDS. Twice as many people in the Town of Hempstead have AIDS than in the county overall. Pediatric asthma is another problem for local residents. The rate of hospital admissions for asthma was 20 percent higher in the Town of Hempstead than in Nassau County and 60 percent higher than in all of New York State.
"There is no doubt that there has been a remarkable change in race and ethnicity in the town," remarked Dr. Ackerman. "In the last 10 years the Latino population has grown tremendously."
Eloy Indigoyen agreed and added that "you need to do a better job reaching out to the Spanish community and letting us know. Each [racial and ethnic] coirmiuni-ty has different concerns. Our communi­ty needs translators," he said.
"We are trying," replied Dr. Ackerman.
"I'm a nurse," said one woman "and I've noticed a deterioration of access for children for immunizations. There are
very long delays and some people lack access to health insurance. They need to know about Child Health Care Plus [a health insurance program for children in New York State].We need more open hours so people can register for it."
"We had discussions with the [Nassau University] Medical Center about imme­diate access for immunizations. Our abil­ity to monitor performance is limited but we have heard this complaint before," said Dr. Ackerman.
"AIDS epidemic is twice the rest of the county," said another resident. "What are we doing to combat this, especially in the minority populations?"
"We are 21-22 years into the AIDS epi­demic. 40,000 people each year are infected. The proportions of the epidemic is changing. More African Americans are
being diagnosed with AIDS. We try to talk to school-age children; we have many education programs, but we might need to focus on those already infected, especially young men who are beyond school age and are partaking in risky behavior," said Dr. Ackerman.
"The schools don't want to talk about sex, sexuality and HIV prevention," said another woman. "We must talk about it. We are in a climate of 'abstinence only' and money is being cut for AIDS educa­tion, testing, network services for people with HIV."
'The community needs to be ready to receive the information," said another resident. "We need to involve the church­es, need to step up to the plate. Each of us needs to be a committee of one. It begins with us."
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