Board of Health

City of Nashua Division of Public Health & Community Services 18 Mulberry Street, Nashua, NH 03060 BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING MINUTES March 10th, 2010 12:30 PM Meeting called to order at 12:30 p.m. by Dr. Anthony Storace - Quorum was met (Formal Meeting) BOH Members Present: Dr. Anthony Storace, Chair Dr. Ajay Sharma Aldermen Present: None Staff Present: Robert Mack, Kerran Vigroux, Sandy Mulcahy, Janet Graziano, Bobbie Bagley Staff Absent: Chris Lister, Heidi Peek, Ashley Conley, Patty Crooker Department Reports: A. Community Health B. Community Services a. Child Care/Grants b. Emergency Preparedness C. Environmental Health D. Welfare a. Mediation The Board was given the meeting Agenda, monthly departmental report, current Board of Health budget, February BOH Meeting Minutes and list of BOH members with contact information. 1 Community Health – Bobbie Bagley presented: Looking at data, things are pretty stable with regard to our statistics. Nothing really stands out for February….we have been very fortunate. We have had a good number of clients who come in for STD testing. HEP C is increasing and we try to get the clients to go into treatment; however, they must be drug-free for at least 6 months. If they are not drug free and psychologically fit, drugs could cause problems including possible suicide. Immunizations are going well. Children’s immunizations are four times higher than usual. HIV intervention is going well. Emergency Preparedness – Due to Patty Crooker’s and Ashley Conley’s absence, their presentation was postponed and will be discussed at the April BOH Meeting. They are at the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston this week. Child Care – Due to Chris Lister’s absence, her presentation was postponed and will be discussed at the April BOH Meeting. Environmental Health – Kerran Vigroux presented in Heidi’s absence: The big event was the windstorm and response. Food inspectors dealt with the people affected by the storm who were without power as well as food establishments. They also educated them on food retention and how to hold onto food longer. Welfare - Bob Mack presented: Welfare has experienced a decrease in the amount of general assistance that is granted. Contacts are down a little bit, new applications are down, and interviews are a little bit less. Expenses have also gone down over last couple of months. John Greenberg has been looking at municipalities across the state, and found that other municipalities are finding the same trends. We are not sure what the reasoning is, but we are still assisting people. Springtime is usually busier….fuel assistance has ended, tax returns have been used up. Moratorium is over, utilities start being disconnected. Bob will keep track of this, and if this trend continues we should be within our budget for the fiscal year. Mediation – Sandy Mulcahy presented: Mediation is currently working on the Annual Conference for the Victim Offender Mediation Program through the Department of Corrections. Sandy is on the Planning Committee for that. This month she did a presentation on Victim Offender Mediation at the Nashua Community College. Sandy attended the Merrimack Flu Clinic The Disaster Behavioral Health Response Team had training meetings and everything is going okay. The DBART training starts March 11th. Helping out with the Public Health Planning Meeting Numbers are leveling off. Barbara will be assisting with the Mediation mailings to get the word out. Sandy is meeting with the Advisory Committee on how to market the Mediation Program Nashua Children’s Home – looking into transition programs for helping children as they leave the home. Mediation could be helpful and reach out to them. Note: Dr. Storace would like to see a lecture series at City Hall (lunch and learn sessions) which would cover what we do at Public Health, for example: (1) Oral Health; (2) Being a parent to your parent, etc. It might be too late this year, but it’s something we can look into moving forward. 2 Public Health and Community Services – Kerran Vigroux presented: National Public Health Week – April 5th through 11th. Suggested events are: A walking program for City employees is scheduled to start on that Wednesday, April 7th, and possibly walk in teams. Also the team is looking into a community wide event which would be to conduct the 5-2-1-0 Program. We are currently looking for sponsors for all events and hope to have give aways, prizes, etc. The Mayor gave us permission to ask for donations, but not money. The Mayor has approved a banner on City Hall as well as a proclamation. Dr. Storace would like us to include our Public Health website on the banner, and also omit any reference to the year on the banner so that we can re-use it. Sandy mentioned that the National Public Health Week team also has talked about Seminars on different topics – DBART; BERT at MRC; Radio Spots; Tool Kit; Newspaper coverage. Dr. Storace would like us to highlight our building and what goes on here --- give tours of the building, etc. Focus on the Nashua Community and how we can make our community healthy. Dr. Storace mentioned dental health, and how it affects our geriatric population, as well as a lecture series on oral health issues. Note: Dr. Storace asked to delay the vote on Heidi’s proposed legislature network amendment until she returns. Motion to Adjourn meeting. Meeting went into Non-Public session Meeting Ended: 1:30 p.m. Next meeting will be on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010. 3