Photo: James Rojas/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The City of Boston launches a new initiative with the goal of helping residents live longer and better.
On Wednesday, the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) announced the “Live Long and Well Initiative,” building a coalition of city leaders, state officials and health experts to help address life expectancy gaps. BPHC’s Dr. Bisola Ojikutu said the current life expectancy in Boston is 82 years old, but the number changes when broken down by race.
“These are persistent. This has been going for decades and they were exacerbated by COVID-19,” said Dr. Ojikutu.
Under this new initiative, she hopes it will cut down some of the most common causes of premature death in underserved communities.
“These are our neighbors who live in our communities, who are dying earlier than they should from heart disease, from diabetes, from drug overdoses and from preventable cancers,” said Dr. Ojikutu.
The announcement also included $10 million in funding from a partnership with Atrius Health Equity Foundation.
“Here in Boston, we have some challenges,” said Dr. Ojikutu. “I think we’re doing some wonderful work. We have a lot of resources, but we need to work together and we need to collaborate and we need to form stronger partnerships and we need to bring new funding to the table.”
WBZ NewsRadio's James Rojas (@JamesRojasMMJ) reports.
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