Washington Township presents community health assessment, flags infant mortality, mental‑health and cardiac concerns in Newark

Washington Township Health Care District presented its latest community health needs assessment to the Newark City Council, telling the city that Newark shows worrisome trends on infant mortality, diabetes, heart disease and severe mental‑illness emergency visits and asking for local partnerships to address the gaps.

The hospital’s chief of community support services, Angus Cochran, told the council the district covers more than 340,000 people across a Tri‑City area and that data and community focus groups produced 10 priority needs. “We are federally mandated to do this every three years,” Cochran said, and the district accelerated its most recent cycle to align with a regional consortium.

The assessment identified economic security, behavioral health, access and delivery of care, inequity and discrimination, cognitive decline, diabetes and obesity, heart and stroke, cancer, infant and maternal health, and unintended injuries as the district’s top concerns. Cochran said Newark specifically shows 14 indicators of concern grouped around maternal/infant outcomes, cardiac/diabetes conditions and emergency visits for severe mental illness.

Cochran summarized local data and community findings: the district population has dropped to just over 340,000 after a recent decline; only about 46 percent of Tri‑City residents speak only English at home; Newark’s median home sale price is roughly $1.2 million;…