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NPs Create One Love to Overcome Health Disparities in Oakland, CA

In Oakland, the city’s poorest suffer from increased rates of hypertension, asthma and severe chronic diseases.  The founders of One Love are working to change that. 

Created by Mahedere Solomon, a family nurse practitioner, fellow family nurse practitioner Michele Bunker-Alberts and Jumoke Hinton-Hodge, who serves on the Oakland school board, the organization plans to improve the health of the community by first assessing the situation through research and then implementing plans based on that research.

First step? Determine how to reduce blood pressure rates in the community. Solomon recently won the won the 2009-10 Pfizer Community Innovations award for her proposed pilot project "Lovin' Livin' Longer!," which will be a 12-week study to try to reduce blood pressure for 10 hypertensive West Oakland community members. "You treat hypertension by changing your lifestyle, and we want to see how we can achieve that change," Solomon said. The project will give her a chance to find out why some problems are greater in West Oakland, she added. Solomon said some of award money also will go toward helping One Love Center for Health achieve nonprofit status.  Read the full article which appears in the Oakland Tribune.