New York Organ Donor Network Launches "Donate Life Long Island"
Elected Officials and Others Announce Unprecedented Public Awareness Program to Address Critical Organ and Tissue Donation Crisis in Long Island - April 29, 2004
Hauppauge, LI -- The New York Organ Donor Network, along with Assemblyman Jim Conte, and other elected officials, health care providers and community leaders, announced today "Donate Life Long Island," an eight-month pilot public awareness campaign to increase organ and tissue donation on Long Island. In addition to its regular grass-roots public education programs, the initiative marks the first time the New York Organ Donor Network is investing in a paid advertising campaign.
Elaine Berg, President and CEO of the Donor Network, addressed a group of donor families, transplant recipients, health care, community and religious leaders, and focused on the critical need to increase public awareness about organ and tissue donation and the impact this unprecedented campaign will have on the lives of Long Island residents and other New Yorkers. "Through this program we will reach thousands of Long Island residents and educate them about the importance of organ donation. With more awareness and understanding, there is a greater willingness to donate. Hopefully, many more Long Islanders will sign their driver's licenses, enroll in the state donor registry, and tell their families about their decision to save lives."
Long Island residents are among the more than 84,000 Americans and 8,000 New Yorkers waiting for organ transplants. They are listed at transplant centers in the New York metro area and elsewhere. At University Hospital of SUNY alone, the only transplant center on Long Island, 362 people were waiting for kidneys at the end of April 2004. Of the 108 hospitals in the New York metro, 26 of them are on Long Island.
The average consent rate for organ donation in the United States is 52 percent. However, in Nassau County in 2003, the consent rate for donation was 35 percent, two percentage points higher than the previous year but well below the national average. In Suffolk County, the 2003 consent rate of 44 percent was 14 percentage points lower than in 2002.
Assemblyman Jim Conte, who has received two kidney transplants, said, "I have experienced the miracle of organ donation and understand firsthand that donating tissues and organs is truly donating life. I stand here with my colleagues to pledge our commitment to this initiative and stress the importance of this campaign in Nassau and Suffolk."
Other speakers at the press conference included Patricia Jones, Program Director for Hospital Services at the New York State Department of Health, who was representing Governor George Pataki; Kevin Dahill, President and CEO of the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council; and JoAnn Fiorentino, the Senior Vice President, Marketing Communications of the United Way of Long Island.
At the press conference, out of home, print and radio advertisements were unveiled as well as the components of an aggressive grass-roots program and the Workplace Partnership for Life. The grass-roots community outreach program will extend to government agencies and officials, religious leaders and houses of worship, civic and community groups, a wide range of multi-cultural and ethnic organizations, high schools, medical schools, and universities, sports and entertainment arenas, hospitals, transplant and donation partners and the legal community.
The Workplace Partnership for Life campaign, a national Gift of Life initiative spearheaded by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, will continue to reach out to companies on Long Island. As part of this campaign, the New York Organ Donor Network is working with more than 35 corporations and organizations (such as the newly signed-up United Way of Long Island) to raise awareness in the workplace about donation and enroll in the New York State Organ and Tissue Donor Registry. So far, more than 35 businesses, organizations and associations have joined the Donor Network's Workplace Partnership for Life campaign.
Founded in 1978, the New York Organ Donor Network is responsible for the recovery of organs and tissues for transplantation, and public and professional education efforts for the Greater New York metropolitan area. The Donor Network works closely with all nine transplant centers and 108 hospitals in the Greater New York metropolitan area. The Donor Network serves a culturally and ethnically diverse population of 13 million people in New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island); Long Island; Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester Counties; and Pike County, PA. All hospitals in the United States must, by law, notify their local organ procurement organization of all in-hospital deaths in a timely manner. For additional information or to sign the New York State Organ and Tissue Donor Registry, visit http://www.donatelifeny.org or call 1-800-GIFT-4-NY.
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