Editor’s note: This story has been updated since original publication to clarify that the Baton Rouge Health District is one of several partners that will share in grant money from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Officials with Baton Rouge Health District have tabled, for now, plans to develop a Diabetes and Obesity Center, and will focus instead on expanding mental health services in the area.
The Diabetes and Obesity Center, which was to focus on research, prevention and treatment of diabetes and obesity, would have been the cornerstone of the nascent district.
Health District Executive Director Suzy Sonnier attributes the decision primarily to the August flood, which occurred while the district’s board of directors was in the process of evaluating proposals to craft a business and implementation plan for the center. More than half a dozen firms had submitted proposals in July.
“We decided not to contract with a vendor because of everything that occurred with the timing of the flood,” she says. “Our focus has been on flood-related activities and trying to get additional resources for behavioral health and primary and preventive care to focus on flood-related relief.”
Sonnier declines to say whether money was an issue in funding the plan. The health district didn’t have any funds set aside to pay for the plan, which was expected to cost somewhere in the six figures, nor did it have any money to actually develop the center. The business plan was to have identified potential funding sources.
Sonnier says the board has no plans to revisit the Diabetes and Obesity Center for now, but will “continue to look at ways we can work collaboratively around diabetes and obesity.”
In the meantime, the district’s board is focusing on improving access to behavioral health care throughout the parish and particularly in areas impacted by the August flood. The Baton Rouge Area Foundation, which created the district, recently received a $800,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which will go in part to the district and be used to improve access to mental health care and primary care providers.
In late 2015, BRAF unveiled plans to create a unified health district in the Essen-Bluebonnet area, where two major hospitals, dozens of clinics and providers, and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center are located. The idea was first outlined in the city’s FutureBR land-use plan, and was largely seen as an economic development concept that would benefit the entire Capital Region.
A plan last year to officially create the Baton Rouge Health District as a zoning district fizzled, however, amid opposition from some members of the Metro Council. Though creation of the health district was simply a land-use designation applied to an existing medical corridor, opponents argued it was frivolous to create a health district in south Baton Rouge given the lack of health care options in north Baton Rouge.
—Stephanie Riegel
