After Evanston’s Finance and Budget Committee punted a costly expansion of a proposed Pathways to Wellness program seeking to address hypertension among underserved Evanston populations last month, the advisory panel asked to weigh in is now recommending against significant additional funds.
On Wednesday, the Finance and Budget Committee is set to reconvene after last month’s discussion about the program and its funding request, which would fund a research project led by Rush University Medical Center and Neticia Blunt-Waldron of Evanston’s Whole Woman Fitness, to evaluate the effort to address uncontrolled hypertension.
The program stems from the city’s 2022 EPLAN findings, showing a significant variation in life expectancy across Evanston neighborhoods with particularly low lifespans in western portions of the 5th Ward.
Those findings have led to a years-long process to develop the proposed three-year Pathway to Wellness program, which would include three phases: a blood pressure screening to identify residents with undiagnosed hypertension, a 12-week lifestyle program for residents with uncontrolled high blood pressure and a referral program for community-based medicine for participants who need additional care.
The program would operate as a “hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial” conducted in two of Evanston’s highest need census tracts. After the pilot is complete, Rush would lead a team to provide the results to the city so it can develop a sustainable long-term model.
To pay for it, Ald. Bobby Burns (5th) is requesting that the city approve allocating $871,674, bringing the total three-year program to about $1.2 million. About $56,000 has already been spent from the originally $400,000 allocation, meaning about $344,000 remains available.
Weighing in, the Evanston Health Advisory Council is recommending the city hit the brakes, instead suggesting the remaining $344,000 be used “to launch the program using an evaluation model instead of the research methodology/study for the next two years.”
EHAC’s recommendation is to shift the program from a research-driven one to a staff-driven evaluation that aims for program improvement and policy guidance,” Health and Human Services Director Ike Ogbo wrote in a memo to the finance panel ahead of Wednesday’s meeting.
“This will enable staff to focus more on boots on the ground activities, ensuring the program feels like a community service rather than a clinical study,” Ogbo wrote.
EHAC is recommending the Pathways to Wellness team work with the city’s health department to “revise the program and budget.”
“At this point, EHAC is not requesting additional funding for the project, but has suggested making a modest funding request to the City Council towards the end of the second year to continue the program,” Ogbo wrote.
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