Dukes County, MA - Health Council Minutes 02/21/2013

Health Council Minutes 02/21/2013

DUKES COUNTY HEALTH COUNCIL

Minutes for Thursday February 21, 2013

Call to order: Chair Dave Caron called the meeting to order at 7:30AM.

Our next meeting will be March 28, 7:30AM in the Public Safety Building in West Tisbury. Members attending: Barbara Bernstein, Julia Burgess, Dave Caron, Trudy Carter, Jay Ferriter, Judie Flanders, Angie Grant, Nancy Langman, Karen Meeks, , JoAnn Murphy, Nancy Phillips, Gayle Poggi, Susan Sanford, Joyce Stiles-Tucker, Connie Teixeira, Bob Tonti, Martina Thornton, James Weiss, Dedie Wieler; Guests: Betsy Corsiglia, Carol Kenney, Kevin Carey, Patricia Harris, Maura Valley, Patricia McCornack, Gerry Averill, Leon Braithwaite, Coleen McAndrews, Theresa Manning, Jamie Vanderhoop, Peg Regan, Jordon Wallace, Marina Lent, Cindy Mitchell, Terre Young

Members absent: Tom Bennett, Eleanor Beth, Donna Davey, Valerio Destefani, Cindy Doyle, Chris Knowles, Sarah Kuh, Michael Loberg, Paddy Moore, Joseph Roberts, Beth Toomey, Brenda Wallis

Minutes: A motion was made to accept the minutes of the January meeting. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.

Treasurer's Report: Julia Burgess reported that the Council still has its FY13 appropriation of $500 available. Susan Sanford said she thought from our last meeting that money would be allocated to promote the council’s work. Jay clarified last meeting’s decision to say that since there are no special activities or group to oversee said activities we could not allocated any money. Today we decided that we look at the various projects of the council and come back for a decision with a focus on a specific project or projects for funds.

Nominating Committee Report: Jay Ferriter presented the slate of new members and members returning for an additional term of two years. A motion was made and seconded to accept the slate for membership and the vote unanimous. The new members are: Betsy Corsiglia, Diane Jetmund, Carol Kenney, Marina Lent, Geri Averill, Jacque Cage, Devin Carey and Charles Hodge. Returning members are: Ellie Beth, Michael Loberg, Chris Knowles, Tom Bennett, Dedie Wieler, Bob Tonti, Julia Burgess, Sue Sanford and Nancy Langman. Members not returning are: Judy Flanders, Karen Meeks, Cynthia Mitchell, Gayle Poggi, Valerio DeStefani, and Sharon Claus-Zanger. Dave asked the departing members to stand and offered a salute and thanks for all their hard work and devotion to the work of the council. He then welcomed new members and introductions were made around the table.

Proposal for Follow up on Rural Scholars Fall Risk Report: Susan Sanford brings this discussion to our group because of identified suggestions by the Rural Health Scholars project of 2008. Susan offered a fall risk assessment at the hospital’s health fair where Nancy Langman connected and offered that Susan’s program might carry out the RHS project’s recommendations. Sue contacted agencies on island to understand that a seemingly stagnant project is happening and a need to follow through exists. She thinks that the next step is to discover/create how to collaborate and communicate what to do with outreach and assessments. Susan hopes to teach providers how to do a 10 to 15 minute assessment and asks, “how do we do this and who do we report to?” Many parts of the project’s recommendations were followed through with, but communicating these results and new programs seems remiss. Dave asked if the council should create a standing agenda item that updates on a quarterly basis from each project or committee. Diane Jetmund offered to lead the effort for information and communication. Conversation continued on both the communication piece and the fall prevention piece and members of the Elder Affairs committee and council agreed to meet and take on the follow through of the fall prevention project. These members are: Sue Sanford, Bob Tonti, Nancy Langman, Julia Burgess, Diane Jetmund and Joanne Murphy. We agreed to have the committee meet and come back to the council with recommendations and projects for our Treasurer’s funds.

The last piece of this discussion concerned the posting of committee minutes to the county web site. Dave promised to add this to our next agenda.

Up Date on the Rural Health Clinic: Cindy Mitchell Cindy started by asking if anyone at the table was a council member in 1998. As no one raised their hands, she realized that there has been a complete turnover of council members since the inception of the Rural Health Clinic. Cindy offered a very detailed and informative overview of the clinic’s history as well as current operations and goals. Rather than recreate my notes, I attach Cindy’s notes prepared for her update.

Medical Marijuana: Chair, Dave Carron opened this part of the meeting with his awareness that this topic has roused thoughts throughout the island and on the council. Some think this is not the right place for the conversations and Dave thinks that we have the best and the brightest of the island right here in this room and that this is a perfect opportunity for us to rise above and become a collaboration of experts on the island. We are not endorsing anyone; we are looking for information and their ideas. Dave introduced Jordan Wallace, a community member who is applying for license to dispense from DPH. Jordan explained that he has a team organized ready to form a non-profit on island where community members would come with a doctor’s note/prescription and be able to purchase medical marijuana. Following are statements from various attendees. Pardon me if I did not understand or write exactly what you said.

Nancy L. The more main street embraces this and makes it work the more we can create appropriate uses
Julia B. Information wise this discussion will be a good thing; so many laws are not formed yet.
Dedie W. cautions this group to be careful not to express advice. Partners is not touching MM and everyone is waiting to see how this plays out.
Dave C. we are the facilitators of information, there is no other forum on the island like ours.
Marina L. the role for the council is information. We are not in the position of policy advocacy. It will be very valuable to hear conversation from difference perspectives, schools, providers, etc.
Nancy L. there is a crossover for the need for pain management. What is happening is that people want to manage their own pain.
Nancy P. As a provider speaking, there is tremendous pressure for pain relief. We are looking for something that is legal. Assessing pain is very difficult. Do we want a pain center on the island?
Jordan W. people will recruit our help with their pain issues. He is looking to create a business to help these folks.
Theresa M. DPH is still writing regulations before issuing licenses. As the law was voted, the county can have up to five MM dispensaries in our community. Those applying will have to go through the state process to be licensed. The Youth Task Force cares about how this plays out for the kids in our community. The TF will try and retain protection, maintain a character of safety and give education to the community. The law has a hardship program. If the community says no to a dispensary, one can grow their own, with a license from the state and share with up to 5 other people. The YTF’s goal is to educate the towns who are looking at public consumption bylaws, and some are looking at placing moratoriums. This is against federal law. There will be no insurance reimbursement, cash only, and businesses will carry risk and liability. She invited us to look online to see what dispensaries look like ~ not very clinical or medical
Marina L. There are different features, production, processing and dispensing. The third one belongs in a clinical setting.
Jordan W. We will treat this with the utmost degree of seriousness, much like a doctor’s office. We will have counselors, explaining the use and any difficult problems.
Joann M. We really have to pay attention to this. California’s picture is not so pretty.
On 3-14 there will be an all island selectmen’s meeting to discuss this particular issue regionally.
Susan S. asked several questions of Justin regarding the design of his non-profit corporation and how as a 19year old will he hold a license. He offered that Kristen Gannon will step forward to hold the license.
Patsy McCormack asked how he would verify legal prescriptions and if Jordan had a currently licensed physician on his staff. Yes, to the physician, and DPH will create the conditions for verification.
Kevin C. asked if pharmacies can retain a license for MM, the answer is no because they are regulated by the federal government and MM is illegal federally.
Julia B. started a conversation about non profits, that one must benefit the community and there is accountability to the the public.
Martina T. asked and invited thoughts; what is the new law? What will this do to our community? What risk and benefit do we see? How can we shape it to indeed benefit us? How many dispensaries do we need? Could the Health Council create a public non-profit?
Dave C. asked where we go next. Where can we serve our community best?
Susan S. brought us back to the council’s mission and vision statement:

“The Dukes County Health Council is a coalition of community members, public officials, health practitioners,

and health care organizations working together to promote community-wide health and wellness by the

creation of a cooperative, integrated network of health care for Martha's Vineyard.” Adopted March 27 2003

Susan S. Could the Health Council’s role be sharing the MM issue with the community, the departments of health and the towns? We need regulations.
Kevin C. Do we form a committee? We need to think about gathering information, creating a subcommittee, and we should always have this on our agenda.
Dedie W. Our role is to report to the county commissioners. We are not experts; we do not want to be in the role of advising. The concern is that towns are making decisions. We need to be thoughtful leaders in collecting information to deliver to the commissioners. What comes next we can work on and know later.
Susan also announced that she will be submitting application for this license. She plans to continue with her clinic.
Bob T. This is not a presentation, we will not decide licenses. We want people to make informed decisions. We need to be thoughtful leaders on specific issues.

Dave Caron asked for a motion to adjourn, given, seconded, unanimously voted, and the meeting adjourned at 9:18am.

Respectfully submitted:

Terre D. Young for Eleanor Beth, Secretary