A meeting of Partners for a Healthier Community was held on Friday, September 10, 2004 at Southcoast Hospital – Charlton Site Chairperson David Weed called the meeting to order at 8:30 AM.

Minutes

The minutes of the August 13, 2004 Steering Committee were circulated in advance.

VOTED to approve the Minutes of the August 13, 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. The financial report will now have a separate line item.

REPORT OF WORK GROUPS

Access to Health Care

The videos are ready to be copied and distributed. On Friday, September 17th, there will be trial run of the survey at the Salvation Army in Fall River from 11:00 – 1:00. We will be handing out Dunkin Donuts coupons, balloons, etc in appreciation for completion of the survey. We will repeat this on October 1st at the Salvation Army in Somerset. Both days are weather permitting. The survey will be available in Khmer, Spanish and Portuguese. A letter of permission will be distributed to all who do the survey. Pat Fanning will be meeting with Family Service Association MIS staff to make preparations to have the survey scanned when completed.

Healthy Lifestyles

The group has not met yet. The kindergarten packet is going home to parents in regards to second hand smoke, breakfast and school. Working on high school students doing an inventory of vending machines. The physical education project at the high school is coming along. The rooms are complete and the floors are going in. This state of the art fitness center should be completed in October 2004.

Healthy Youth

Different small groups of Healthy Youth have been active over the summer. The City’s heroin grant will be having their first meeting on September 22nd and the group is planning for that meeting. Working on a response to the grant with the Fall River School Department and many members of the Healthy Youth Task Force. Increasing membership by invitation to pre-school age youth services through the Early Intervention program and school programs.

Health City Initiative

Materials have been printed, and are awaiting the Mayor’s review. The LNG controversy is huge and his focus must be on that issue right now. There will be a brief news conference at Government Center on September 13th to announce the plan. The plan will change over time. There are currently 50 players and we could easily add another 50 over the next five years. The Healthy City Fall River Connection Newsletter is in the process and a rough draft was available for viewing. Now we are trying to get in contact with all 50 action plan participants and map out their goals and activities for the year. There is training for community members October, November, January, February and March. The first to be on the concept of evaluation and what the team will be asking for. The goal for year one is to get all 50 players working collectively and to get a sense of team. Throughout the first year we hope to pick up new players and grow the awareness throughout the city about the plan to increase the health of the city. Next week, seven members of Partner’s will be going to Shrewsbury for Healthy City training. Space is limited and availability dependent on transportation.


Legislative Breakfast

Awards theme is “unsung heroes”. Deadline for submissions is September 17th. Members were asked if they would like to be on the selection committee. The committee will meet on September 22nd at 8:30 at SSTAR. Judge Perez of Worcester will be speaking at the breakfast to advocate for family to address community needs. The fee of $15 to attend will be due by October 8th. Sad news that our speaker from last year has passed away from pancreatic cancer.

South Coast Funding

Met with Ellen Banach from South Coast Hospital. We are beginning to finalize a three year agreement on payment of $12,000 for at least three years. We will prepare a one page statement for South Coast outlining our objectives/goals.

LNG

Do we want to make a stand on the LNG proposal? Mike passed around the statement from the Fall River Board of Health. The Board looked at the LNG proposal as a public health perspective. Soil and sediment was a hug concern, along with the impact on public services and vehicle traffic. Can the city with its low income and low economic status host the LNG facility and the additional demands it would place on the city. Crisis management from a hospital perspective were also noted. Our statement would not need to oppose LNG just go as far as addressing our concern regarding the health and safety matters facing the city should an LNG facility receive clearance. The group has decided to issue a statement in support of and consistent with the Board of health statement on the LNG terminal.

Announcements

Smoking Ban: Mike and Judith have gone around the city monitoring businesses. Overall there were only a few complaints. This is good considering that the city has no regulations on this issue. Some communities that have gone smoke free have conducted studies on cardiac admissions to the ER. Would this be a good idea to pursue? There would be some concerns regarding privacy issues, and hospital systems do track this information already. The Rhode Island smoking ban will be in effect in March 2005. Partners for Clean Air is working on early intervention regarding smoke free homes. This targets children age 5 and under in households where smoking takes place. This will start in November 2004.

DPH: Visit www.state.ma.us/dph for information on hand washing. Brochures are available. There are also announcements of hepatitis from Western MA. Support is available in multiple languages. Call the hotline to request materials.

The FRPD and Family Service are hosting a free speaker a BCC who is an Illinois state trooper who was shot in the line of duty. He will be speaking in regards to the care/concern he has received during his recovery time. He speaks on the good and bad of this life changing event. This will be on October 14th for two hours in the morning. Visit www.frfsa.org for more information and to register online.

On September 21st there will be a press conference at Government Center on the 6th floor outlining the venture grants.

Thanks for Partners for donating to the Summer Festival series. This proved very successful. The group is hoping to use this format in the future. Maureen will bring information back to Partners as it is available. Judith’s group provided a C02 testing service, and it was amazing to see the number of people lining up to breathe into the machine.

The water/sewer project for Westport has been turned down, so Westport is still polluting the South Watuppa. The bacteria levels are about 8x the desired/recommended levels.


Adjourn

The meeting adjourned at 10:00. Our next meeting is Friday, October 8, 2004.
 

minutes 8-13-04

minutes 5-14-04

minutes 4-9-04

minutes 3-12-04.html

minutes 2-13-04.html