DUKES COUNTY HEALTH COUNCIL
Minutes
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Call to order
Oceana Rames, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:37AM.
Attendees included: Eleanor Beth, Julia Burgess, Jacque Cage, Stephen Danzig, Cindy Doyle, Judie Flanders, Robert Hensley, Sarah Kuh, Rex Jarrell, Patsy McCornack, Karen Meeks, Paddy Moore, Jo Ann Murphy, Gayle Poggi, Oceana Rames, Connie Teixeria, Susan Wasserman, James Weiss, Dedie Wieler, Terre Young
Excused: Tom Bennett, Dave Carron, Cindy Mitchell,
Guests: Nancy Phillips, Warren Gosson, Martina Thornton
The minutes of the September 23rd meeting were approved later in the meeting as a quorum was reached, with a unanimous vote.
Treasurer: Julia Burgess reports that nothing has changed; $500 is once again allocated for our projects this year. Julia invites committees to present their budget needs to her by December 2010.
Committee chairs were asked to give a brief overview of their committees’ work:
Youth Task Force: Cindy Doyle reports that the YTF has focused on youth substance prevention on the island. Addiction has been identified as the highest problem. The YTF was started in 2004 and meets the 2nd Thursday of each month at 3pm at the high school. All interested community members and health council members are invited to join.
Vineyard Health Care Access Program; Sarah Kuh, VHCAP is an initiative of the health council and was started eleven years ago. From its inception from the health council an advisory board was put in place and the board continues to meet three times a year giving the program oversight and guidance. Their focus is on the state’s insurance coverage for access to health care for people who can’t afford it. The program also provides for seniors, the Brazilian community, health disparity issues, a walking program, vineyard smiles, in the schools and at elderly housing.
Elder Affairs Committee: Jacque Cage, Elder Affairs’ primary function is to bring seniors and services together. They celebrate their most recent project which has been the Family Caregiver Journals. These are just published and revised with updates and are geared toward caregivers. The work has been a collaboration with the health council and the MV Library Association and offers a definition of services. This committee has an ongoing campaign for accident prevention for older adults and has also produced a pocket guide of providers of services for the community. Their goal is to review services, explore various ways to bring additional ways to expand services, to bring services together and to effectively communicate options of services to the community. The EAC meets the third Thursday of each month at
8 am in the hospital. They welcome new members.
Nominating Committee: Oceana Rames reports that this committee has created a list of members with organizations for nominated members and is searching for new members. Positions for membership are by application with a February first deadline. The newspapers and county website carry information about membership and applications. Applicants are voted on by the entire council in March and new members are in place with us by April’s Council meeting. Chris Knowles, this committee’s chair will send out to the newspapers and this membership, ‘where – when – and how’ applicants may apply.
Rural Scholars: Patsy McCornack, UMass Memorial is reinstating their program to send their medical students into rural communities and share in a project relative to the community’s needs. In the past a graduate nurse and med students have come to us as freshmen and this year sophomore students will come in October of 2011. This committee needs a project for them by this Spring ans all projects are published for students the know and choose from. The hospital has funds for housing. Everyone, please be thinking of a project for them. The committee’s work is to set up that project/program for them; scheduling appointments and project work. This work happens intensely in late summer, early fall.
Oral Health Committee: Sarah Kuh, This working group has gone through different configurations. The hospital started a dental center which operated for a few years, closed and thankfully has been opened again. Vineyard Smiles has staffed oral health and public health groups. VHVAP has no funds to continue staffing this program. Public oral health is very active with tri county oral health focusing on preschool support. The status of this committee will be talked about at the council’s next meeting.
Coordinating Committee: Oceana Rames. The members of this committee are elected by the entire council and basically facilitate the council’s meetings. They meet once or twice a month to create the agenda for the next meeting and discuss anything that comes to the council as issues or concerns. The bylaws allow for this committee to have eight members. If you are interested, please join us.
Mental Health/Substance Abuse: Dedie Wieler This committee is the combination of two groups as membership on both committees was shared by the same people and not an actual committee of the health council It is an outgrowth of the health council which got things moving and growing. The group has been working closely with Community Services to look at structure and effectiveness. It is a well structured group with several community members and currently working with no chair and Paddy Moore working as facilitator.
Lets Move MV: Nancy Philips This is a new program on island and a new committee of the health council.
This program is modeled after Michelle Obama’s fight against obesity. It is really important for the community to get involved and create a culture of good health. Oceana and Nancy appealed to the County and they agreed to be a fiscal agent and LMMV is now eligible to apply for grant funding. Nancy went to the general surgeon’s website, surgeongeneral.gov, and found excellent documents for this committee to develop strategies to prevent obesity for our community. The group/effort needs buy in from schools, wellness committees and nurses. She is working on demonstrated apple technology to support losing weight and becoming more physically fit. Nancy is looking for community members and health council members to join her in her effort.
Please remember: The Dukes County Health Council carries an obligation for its members to work on a committee. Please contact a chair and join our work!
MVH Community Health Initiatives: Dedie Wieler Grant Applications are due November first. A five member review team has been chosen and they are: Dedie Wieler a representative of the hospital; Dr. Jerry Yukevitch, representing the medical community; Terry Appenzellar, former DCHC Treasurer; community members Sue, Hruby and Sue Silk; and Rob O’Connor from South East Healthy Communities and DPH. Rob will not vote, but act as moderator to facilitate the process.
Other business: Cindy Doyle gave us information from her visit to Americore in Boston. She explored the likelihood of having our own Americore program here and understands that that opportunity might not be so strong. It was suggested that we connect with Barnstable County as we are like focused in programs and community needs and we could benefit from an alliance. We would need to find housing for these volunteers for one year. Barnstable has benefitted for the last ten years for over 400 thousand volunteer hours worth a total of $9 million. It was suggested that we recruit from islanders. Workers are trained by Americore and paid a stipend. If any members have ideas for housing, projects, volunteers, please check with Cindy.
Rob Hensley expressed concerns he has heard in the community regarding the staging of the flu shots happening in several places and not one site such as the high school. The concern is having so many people on the road at one time. He understands that this is prep for an island wide pandemic and yet the previous one stop at the high school a few years ago was so efficient and workable.
Martina Thornton, Executive Assistant to the County manager visited us and explained a new county program for people with no prescription coverage or anyone with prescription coverage. The Dukes County, MA Free Discount Prescription card offers up to 65% discount on prescription costs and is accepted by all island pharmacies at no cost to the county or the user. Martina has cards at the county office and one can go to www.coast2coastrx.com to print a card and information. The card also carries 50% or more on Lab and
Imaging tests; go to www.coast2coast.prepaidlab.com & www.coast2coast.prepaidimaging.com or call 1-800-903-3921. The county reveives 50cents royalties from every prescription. It was suggested that the county offer these monies to VHCAP. The county is looking at a County Dental program. She described it as a new program ‘in
the wings’ and she will return to us with more information.
At our June meeting, Maura Wier from Cape Cod Health, Suicide Prevention talked of offering a training on island. Should we sponsor this training? We should certainly attend. Yes to both. We will look at the training with a broader outreach to include more community members.
Oceana adjourned the meeting at 9:20 am.
The next Dukes County Health Council meeting will be held on Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 7:30 in the Public Safety Building in West Tisbury.
Respectfully submitted, Terre D. Young
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