by Paul Bass
Bond is asking everyone in town that question as she plots the 2.0 version of how local government keeps the city healthy.
Bond didn’t have time to do that when she took over as New Haven’s health director in 2020. Months into her tenure, Covid-19 shut down the city — and thrust her department into the forefront of keeping the community connected and alive. She did get started on other ideas she had for upping the city’s public health game, but she had to operate in crisis mode. For years.
Finally, in 2023, “I felt like we started shifting,” Bond said. Now her department is moving forward with renewed efforts in conjunction with community agencies to keep substance abusers alive, make vaccines available, protect kids from lead paint and illegal smoke-shop concentrated-THC peddlers.
Bond spoke about those plans in a health department check-up interview on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
“Responding to a pandemic did not give me the opportunity to reconnect with my community, where you meet with individuals, you build or reestablish relationships,” Bond, who grew up in New Haven, recalled Thursday. “People had to trust me immediately. It was a true challenge, but it also brought us together. New Haven was a model… we had one of the highest vaccination rates and response efforts across the country. Now I’m looking forward,” Bond said, to building on a longer-term vision for public health in New Haven.
The department is in the final weeks of conducting an online survey of New Haveners as part of a “Community Health Assessment.” The quick survey asks people about their health needs, trust in the health system, and trusted sources of information. Click here to take the survey. The department has hired a firm to conduct focus groups to supplement the effort. Bond plans to use the results as part of crafting a five-year plan for the department’s next steps.
Meanwhile, she has reconstituted a lead paint task force to stay on top of the department’s efforts to monitor complaints about health risks in homes and help property owners obtain money to help pay for remediation. When the city hired Bond, tackling lead paint was the controversy of the hour and focus of public attention until Covid-19 changed the channel. The department did put in place a dashboard to monitor the status of lead paint cases and hire more inspectors. It has also worked on educating the public about lifelong health risks to children under 6 from lead paint.
“Over 80 percent of our housing stock in the city of New Haven was built before 1978, so it’s an issue that is not going to go away, but it is preventable,” Bond said.
This month the health department also joined 20 area counterparts in launching an “EndStigma” campaign to tackle substance abuse: It aims to help the estimated four out of five people unable to obtain help to get treatment and to enlist the community in helping prevent fatal overdoses, including through Narcan distribution and training.
An estimated 48 people have died from drug overdoses in New Haven this year. Cases have dropped locally and nationally but remain a big concern. Bond’s office partners with harm-reduction organizations monitoring spikes in overdoses.
In response to public outcry over the proliferation of illegal-cannabis-dealing smoke shops, Bond’s department has worked with other agencies to inspect and take action against scofflaw storefronts.
And as for Covid 19 — not to mention the flu, shingles, Mpox, RSV — the health department is making vaccinations available, especially to people who otherwise can’t afford them, at its newish headquarters at Chapel and Hamilton streets.
Click on the above video to watch the full interview with New Haven Health Director Maritza Bond on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”