RWJ Foundation

There are many people around the world that could probably give one example of a Johnson & Johnson product. The corporation has provided healthcare products from baby lotions and skin creams to Visine® and toothpaste for more than 120 years. The tidbit many consumers may not be aware of is that Robert Wood Johnson created a foundation in 1936 simply called The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The primary focus of the foundation comes as no surprise since Robert devoted his life to public service building a corporation along with his brothers that to this day provides some of the finest medicines and healthcare products on the market.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2009) says that, "His interest in hospitals led him to conclude that hospital administrators needed specialized training. So he joined with Malcolm Thomas MacEachern, M.D., then president of the American College of Surgeons, in a movement that led to the founding at Northwestern University of one of the first schools of hospital administration."

This paper will discuss the foundation began by Robert Johnson and the involvement of the foundation in bringing adequate healthcare to as many individual American's as possible for over 70 years.

Robert Johnson approached healthcare with a singular thought in mind, improve the health and healthcare of all Americans. The goal is clear in the vision of providing consumers with the products that hygienically, medically, and therapeutically lead to healthier lives. Johnson & Johnson having accomplished this goal for over 120 years created the desire within the founding brother Robert to do even more. The foundation had simple beginnings in 1936 but the mission and goals have never been simple. RWJF is committed to working within the public community through private funding efforts with the fundamental premise that, "Our greatest asset isn't our endowment; it's the way we help create leverage for change." RWJF (2009).

Healthcare is now fairly recognized as the priority of the RWJF, so what are some of the programs and their impact within the community accomplishing? The criterions concerning eligibility requirements for funding of projects is found in the program areas section of the RWJF's official website. One of these requirements is that a program needs to Build Human Capital. This is to say that, "We invest in preparing health professionals for leadership; enhancing the skills and careers of frontline health workers; training scholars to conduct health policy research; and encouraging youth to pursue health careers." Another criterion titled Vulnerable Populations states; "By recognizing the critical relationships between our health and where and how we live, work, learn and play, our programs create sensible solutions that allow people to transcend the social barriers that stand in the way to better health." The list speaks volumes when analyzing the social significance and endeavors addressed by RWJF.

Quality and equality is another earmark in the endeavors of the foundation to better individual lives in health and happiness with personal products of a different kind. Like Johnson & Johnson the foundation of RWJF strives to reflect its mission through delivery of service. One program in the foundations current research projects is titled A Matter of Degree (AMOD) which examines an initiative to reduce binge drinking among college students. The program description explains some of the key elements necessary within the program saying that participating sites "...are using a coalition-based approach that brings campuses and communities together to change the conditions that promote heavy alcohol consumption prevalent in many campus-community environments. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health are examining program effects over time by assessing coalition structure and functioning, features of the college environment, program implementation and behavioral outcomes." RWJF (2009).

RWJF also examines the issue of health and healthcare within the United States by addressing health reform. According to the RWJF (2009), "In 2008, the United States spent more than $2 trillion on health care-nearly 17 percent of our entire economy. Meanwhile, at least 15 percent of Americans-46 million people-are uninsured." The RWJF goes on to say, "For more than 35 years, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has been committed to improving the health and health care of all Americans. Today, as the opportunity for federal health reform seems more promising than at any time in recent history, RWJF aims to be a resource for credible, neutral, timely research and information that can help inform the national health reform debate among policy-makers and other stakeholders."

Many efforts are described by RWJF itself as community efforts designed to improve the communities of the United States. This would be the only shortcoming in statements made by the company being dubbed a fallacy of a different kind. The foundation obviously strides on a global level to help, prevent, supply, and improve the lives of people in general and around the world. The impact has to far more vast that I or anyone could possibly transcend to paper clearly, concisely, in full not in part. The outreach of help and support on virtually all levels of public service is evident within the website information concerning the foundation of Robert Johnson.

The foundation describes meaningful reform as: Covering the uninsured and providing improved healthcare quality. RWJF describes a good investment as an investment made with public health and prevention in mind. The foundation describes U.S. healthcare as: "Compared to health care in other countries, the care in the United States is high-cost and low quality." This is a partial clue to what was meant by change within the foundations mission statement.
REFERENCES

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2009), Health and Healthcare Improvement

Retrieved May 17, 2009, from http://www.rwjf.org/

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2009), Research Projects; Grant ID 51879

Retrieved May 17, 2009, from http://www.rwjf.org/pr/resprojects.jsp

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2009), Our Founder

Retrieved May 17,2009, from http://www.rwjf.org/about/founder.jsp

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2009), Health Reform

Retrieved May 17, 2009, from http://www.rwjf.org/healthreform/topic.jsp?topicid=1651