Press Releases

  2004 Jan 21 Release.
  For Immediate Release.
  Contact: Rich Belanger 212-675-2658
  Bonnie Arkus 609-771-9600

WITH NEW GRANT IN HAND, WOMEN'S HEART FOUNDATION SETS SIGHTS FOR NATIONAL HEART MONTH IN FEBRUARY
$200,000 in funding helps launch initiative to Take New Jersey Women to Heart

Trenton, New Jersey, January 20, 2004 - On February 1, when several national health organizations begin to promote National Heart Month, the Trenton-based Women's Heart Foundation will join them with the launch "Take New Jersey Women to Heart", a new educational initiative to promote earlier intervention in women's heart disease.

"It's time for women to be aware that there is a killer out there stalking us," says Bonnie Arkus, Executive Director. "It's called heart disease and it kills more of us each year than any other disease because we simply do not recognize its symptoms," she said.

Operating with a $200,000 grant from the New Jersey Office of Women's Health and Department of Health and Senior Services, the new program and call-to-action is being supported by several healthcare systems including Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton; Capital Health System; South Jersey Healthcare; Underwood Memorial Hospital; Hackensack University Medical Center; Princeton Healthcare System; Meridian Healthcare System; Deborah Heart & Lung Center; Somerset Medical Center and InteCardia Lifecare Imaging.

National Heart Month is supported by such organizations as the American Heart Association and the National Institute of Health for the purpose of educating women about heart disease.

Using a combination of public and professional education, the Foundation hopes to introduce new care interventions for which it will act as an intermediary with its growing list of health partners.

One such program is Teen Esteem, a study on teen obesity at Trenton High School that is scheduled for September of this year. Another program, set to begin February 7, is a series of professional nursing conferences at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital that will present cardiac care models that better fit the special needs of women.

The grant for Take New Jersey Women to Heart is being used to fund a number of public service activities, including:

community outreach programs, the first of which is being scheduled at the Women's Resource Center at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick each Wednesday during the month of February;
a free brochure called Women Aware that features three New Jersey women who recognized milder signs of heart disease and responded by taking life-saving action. It can be ordered from the Foundation's web site at www.womensheart.org, and by calling for a copy at 609-771-9600;
staffing for two outreach nurses who will service community programs around the state.

Other support comes from the Daly, Carlson and Jankowski families of New Jersey who are State Sponsors; Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey as Platinum Sponsors; Welch's as Gold sponsors; Johnson & Johnson as Silver sponsors; and L'Oreal USA, Handy & Harmon Foundation, and Illinois Tool Works Foundation as Bronze sponsors.

The Women's Heart Foundation is a public-supported charity dedicated to improving survival and quality of life for women with heart disease. It's offices are located at 34 Scotch Road, Ewing, New Jersey. For more information, visit www.womensheart.org

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