Physician Directory
Pediatrics Awarded CATCH Grant
By: Lorrie DeFrank
Published: Monday, October 19, 2009
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) selected a low-income neighborhood in Jacksonville’s Urban Core to study issues related to access to health care and social services through a grant awarded to the University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville.
Dr. Ayesha Mirza applied for the $9,950 Community Access to Child Health (CATCH) grant to identify needs in Roosevelt Gardens, a housing complex with high rates of unemployment, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and infant mortality. Most of its approximately 500 residents are unmarried women under age 24 with children up to age 5. CATCH, a national program of the AAP, supports pediatricians and the communities they serve. The Historic Springfield Community Initiative is among 40 grants totaling $353,500 awarded in 2009.
Mirza, an assistant professor in the department of pediatrics, division of pediatric infectious diseases, and associate program director of the pediatric residency program, said she applied for the grant to involve pediatric residents in a community project. The planning grant is part of the pediatric residency program’s Roosevelt Gardens Community Advocacy Initiative that identifies barriers to access to care. Through surveys, focus groups and other contacts, residents involve community members in determining their medical, social, economic, educational, child care, community resource and transportation voids. In addition to Mirza and program coordinator Joy Burgess, RN, MSN, team members include Dr. Renu Goyal, Dr. Britni Hill, Dr. Christina Lopez and Dr. Sonali Mukherjee, second year pediatric residents at UFCOM-Jacksonville. Dr. Jeff Goldhagen, a professor and chief of the division of community pediatrics, serves as consultant. Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition is the project’s main community partner.
Jacksonville’s grant was featured in a video presentation at a reception hosted by Wyeth, which funds the CATCH grants, at AAP’s National Conference and Exhibition in Washington, DC, October 17, 2009. The video may be viewed at http://www.aap.org/catch/.
