Present: Joseph Borges, Pat Fanning, Steve Medeiros, Michael Coughlin, Jeralyn Fernandes, David Weed Judith CoyKendall, Bob Horne, Katy Dutille, and Dr. Stewart Kirkaldy

A meeting of Partners for a Healthier Community was held on Friday, November 12, 2004 at the Southcoast Hospital – Charlton Site. Chairperson David Weed called the meeting to order at 8:30 AM.

Minutes

The minutes of the October 8, 2004 Steering Committee were circulated in advance.

VOTED to approve the Minutes of the October 8, 2004 meeting of Partners for a Healthier Community as circulated.

Financial Report

VOTED to approve the Financial Report

All work groups should submit budgets for this fiscal year at the next meeting for approval. DPH has informed us that we will be receiving $9,000 per year from Southeastern Mass MRI each year for the next five years. This money does not need to be spent on any specific endeavor. We will need to touch base with them periodically letting them know what we are working on in general.

REPORT OF WORK GROUPS

Access to Health Care

The group has completed review of the video and it is almost ready for distribution.

Healthy Lifestyle

The current focus is nutrition. The group is collaborating with the Mayor’s Nutrition Council. Working on the breakfast program and offering breakfast in the classroom. This faces much resistance from principles and teachers. The group would like to evaluate test scores, behavior and attendance when the in class program is implemented. There are also certain incentives for schools who participate. Also looking at walking programs in school. Some students actually sit quietly during recess and get no exercise. The group is working on getting three or four nursing students to assist in a study on myocardial infarction admittance pre and post smoking law.

Healthy Youth

The group did not meet last month. Many members are actively involved in the heroine prevention grant.

Health City Initiative

There is a leadership training for action plan participants that will concentrate on team building, evaluating activities and collecting baseline data. We expect 50 participants but they are looking for more.

Heroine Prevention Grant

Seminars continue weekly. The Herald News has been running a story every Wednesday highlighting the training from the night before. This has been making front page. The series will wrap up on 11/23 at SSTAR. Professionals, participants, the Mayor and Chief of Police will all be in attendance. There will also be announcements on local cable TV in regards to the grant.

Legislative Breakfast

The breakfast went very well. Everyone enjoyed our speaker, Judge Perez. It did seem that attendance was very low compared to previous years. There were some problems with getting RSVP’s, and we will revisit this process before next year. We will need to aggressively promote the breakfast in advance. It is always a challenge to think of award recipients throughout the year and not at the last minute.

Announcements

SSTAR and Health First have received status as a 330 federally qualified health center. This will mean increased services and collaboration for both facilities. They will be eligible for many more grants also.

Thanks to all for their participation in the Bernie Siegel fundraiser. It was very successful and well attended.

Adjourn

The meeting adjourned at 10:00. Our next meeting is Friday, December 10, 2004.

Links to Minutes of Previous Meetings:

minutes10-8-04

minutes 9-10-04

minutes 8-13-04

minutes 5-14-04

minutes 4-9-04

minutes 3-12-04.html

minutes 2-13-04.html