Foundation for Healthy Communities Newsletter, January 2016

The Foundation for Healthy Communities is pleased to announce new members to its Board of Trustees for 2016-2017. New members Warren West, CEO at Littleton Regional Healthcare and Elizabeth Merry, Trustee at LRGHealthcare in Laconia, were welcomed to the Board at the Foundation's January Board Meeting.

In addition, the membership also elected new officers for the Board of Trustees: Mary DeVeau, former CEO of Concord Regional Visiting Nurse Association was announced as the new Chair of the Board, replacing immediate past chair Scott McKinnon, FACHE, President & CEO at Memorial Hospital in North Conway; and George Blike, MD, Chief Quality & Value Officer at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, was announced as the new Vice Chair of the Board.

Foundation Strengthens POLST Activities through Workshop

Provider Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) is increasingly being recognized as a process to understand patient choices and deliver quality health care as patients move across the care continuum. More than 70 health professionals from hospitals, long-term care facilities and home care/hospice agencies attended a POLST Workshop on December 2nd in Concord at the Foundation for Healthy Communities. Participants heard from a distinguished panel of NH leaders that included: Margaret Franckhauseur, APRN, Central NH VNA in Laconia & Wolfeboro; Sarah McDuffie, MD and Jillian Mann, Edgewood Center in Portsmouth; Sanders Burstein, MD, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Nashua; Eileen Keefe, RN, Parkland Medical Center in Derry; and Mary Braun, MD, Dartmouth-Hitchcock-Manchester.

Several issues were identified in breakout group discussions and a dialogue among the panelists. Key issues included: the importance developing internal systems to support POLST so it is not dependent upon a staff person remembering to explain the POLST process; quality POLST conversations are the foundation to providing the right care; educating the public and all health care staff about POLST, not just professionals who facilitate POLST conversations; and a community implementation strategy recognizes that patients receive health care in multiple settings. The Foundation looks forward to continuing the conversation with community partners at the NH Healthcare Decision Coalition meeting being held on February 9th - for more information email Noreen Cremin at the Foundation.

NHHEP Hosts Diversity & Cultural

Competency Training

The NH Health & Equity Partnership held a 5 day Diversity & Cultural Competence Train the Traine r program this January. At the end of the program 6 new people became master trainers of the program and 23 participants were given the skills and tools to provide up to 4 hours of training at their workplace and in other community settings.

Working to improve the quality of education provided to the diversity of students in our public schools, as well as the quality of care provided in children's behavioral health systems of care, t his cohort was comprised of employees from our public schools and behavioral health care systems.

The NH Health & Equity Partnership will be hosting another 5 day Diversity & Cultural Competence Train the Trainer Program in April, specifically designed for health care organizations seeking to develop in-house capacity for new hire orientations, annual competencies, and other education opportunities for staff - if interested in learning more, contact Rebecca Sky at the Foundation for Healthy Communities.

New Hampshire Comprehensive Cancer Collaboration Awards Funds to Advance NH Cancer Control Plan

The New Hampshire Comprehensive Cancer Collaboration (NHCCC) is pleased to announce it has awarded $20,000 to fund the efforts of four organizations in support of advancing the 2015-2020 New Hampshire Comprehensive Cancer Control Pla n and its mission of reducing the burden of cancer, the leading cause of death in New Hampshire.

The Implementation Awards support evidence-based strategies or promising practices that are directly linked to the objectives identified in the 2015-2020 NH Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan , which are to foster communities and systems that support and reinforce healthy lifestyles; prevent and detect cancer at its earliest stages; and optimize the quality of life affected by cancer. The four organizations awarded funding are:

Manchester Community Health Center
Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice
NHCCC Equity Task Force
NH Hospice & Palliative Care Organization

"The work that's being done by these community-based organizations to increase screening rates among disparate populations and improve pain management for those living with cancer is in direct alignment with the goals of the NH Cancer Control Plan," stated Robert Gerlach, Chair of the New Hampshire Comprehensive Cancer Collaboration and Norris Cotton Cancer Center Associate Director for Administration. "It is through these collaborative efforts that focus on local communities, that we hope to achieve a reduction in the overall burden of cancer in New Hampshire."

For more information on the implementation grants, the NH Comprehensive Cancer Collaboration and its Cancer Control Plan, visit them online here.

Active Recreation in NH:

Healthy People Healthy Places Plan begins to make its mark

Beth Gustafson Wheeler, MS, Director of Community Health at the Foundation for Healthy Communities, talks about Active Recreation in New Hampshire as part of HEAL NH's Healthy People Healthy Places Plan in her latest blog:

Since the fall of 2014, HEAL NH has been the lead organization responsible for forwarding the goals of the 2014-2019 NH Healthy People Healthy Places (HPHP) Plan. While the HPHP Plan boasts four hearty objectives in the areas of active transportation, active recreation, healthy food access and healthy food promotion, today we will highlight one in particular that has been moving the ball forward: Active Recreation.

The active recreation objective states all NH communities have access to indoor and outdoor recreation facilities within a reasonable distance. While lofty in its presentation, the folks behind the curtain responsible for accomplishing it are used to striving towards such ambitions...one step at a time.

In 2014, HEAL NH formed the Active Recreation Work Group, pulling together a variety of partners across NH dedicated to increasing access to places to play and recreate for NH residents. A list of them can be found below, and include professionals who have the passion and the networks to push the needle in the right direction.

The work group is focused on three main strategies as outlined in the HPHP Plan:
1. Increase access to public and community facilities for physical activity through coordinated statewide education, outreach, and advocacy for Joint Use Agreements.
2. Increase public and private investment to create and improve access to healthy and safe parks, playgrounds, open spaces, and other places for community recreation.
3. Increase use of parks, playgrounds, open space and other places for community recreation.

All three of these strategies, and most of those within the new Healthy People Healthy Places Plan, prioritize this work for NH's highest need communities. To read more about the Active Recreation Work Group, its activities and latest accomplishments, visit the New Hampshire Public Health Association online.