Board of Health

City of Nashua Division of Public Health & Community Services 18 Mulberry Street, Nashua, NH 03060 BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING October 12, 2011 12:30 PM 18 Mulberry Street Nashua, NH 03062 MEETING MINUTES BOH Members Present: Dr. Anthony Storace, Dr. Peter Klementowicz, Dr. Ajay Sharma Aldermen Present: None Staff Present: Kerran Vigroux, Heidi Peek, Patty Crooker, Ashley Conley, Christine Caron, Bob Mack, Victoria Alabi, Corinn Dembkoski, Barbara Scacco The Board was given the meeting Agenda, monthly department reports, “Save the Date” for the Project Homeless Connect and the BOH Meeting Minutes from the September 14, 2011 meeting. Meeting called to order at 12:35 p.m. by Dr. Storace 1. Vote on the September 14, 2011 meeting Minutes: a. Motion presented by Dr. Storace to approve September 14, 2011 Minutes b. Motion seconded by Dr. Klementowicz 1  Department Reports Community Health – Presented by Christine Caron  Four communicable disease investigations during the month of September  TB – one active case and one suspected active case reported  Immunizations for September : 61 children and 74 adults  Flu Clinic has begun and is going well o Supply of flu vaccine is good o Holding school clinics this month  Lead – one new case and one ongoing case management  Refugees: eight new refugees from Malaysia for a total of 16 in the city Health Education and Tobacco – Presented by Corinn Dembkoski  Health Education  Continuing to update the website to include more fact sheets, including CHA, MRSA and flu information  Working with Patty regarding Emergency Notification Policies  Twitter and Facebook – When updates are posted to Facebook, they are also posted to Twitter o Facebook has 177 followers and Twitter had 7 followers  MRSA information from our webpage is now on the St. Joseph Hospital page as well  Dr. Storace stated that the school nurses might like to receive this information. o Corinn will reach out to them o Information is available on the school newsletter and parent newsletter  Tobacco  Attended a Tobacco Treatment Conference in Vermont sponsored by Dartmouth Hitchcock where Dr. C. Everett Koop presented  Also attended a conference on September 28th: “Helping Professionals to Help Families Around Tobacco and other Drug Abuse”.  Results of the “Dear Me” Campaign o TV, radio and bus ads promoted this campaign from June to September. o There were 16 callers to the Quit Line; 35% heard about it from TV; 10% from radio and 2.5% from busses o Contest: 3-6 finalists will be chosen on their submission on why they want to quit smoking.  The winner will do a TV commercial o Dr. Storace spoke about the confusion and misinformation that surrounds Lyme Disease and asked if we could put together a PSA for the public.  Corinn will put a fact sheet on line covering Lyme Disease. 2 Environmental Health – Heidi Peek presented  Routine food service inspections are ongoing o September results have not been received yet  Indoor pool samplings are going well  Concerns about bedbugs continue o There also was a concern regarding a child in one of the schools who had bedbugs  A policy is being worked on which will cover this.  October 1st was the end date for mosquito testing o We had 2 positive batches this summer  Septic Activities o Meredith Lyons is putting together a Septic Review Manual Emergency Preparedness – Patty Crooker and Ashley Conley presented  Patty Crooker o After Action Meetings held with both City and State after Hurricane Irene o Vaccination supplies were given to Community Health in order to be used prior to their expiration date o Trainings  9/1/2011 – NH Public Health Regionalization  9/7/2011 – Radiation Symposium  Ashley Conley o Community Health Assessment Report is now on the City website  Students from various colleges are using the information contained in this report o Community Health Improvement Plan is the next step  Will organize structure  Eventually will put together work-plan and time-line in order to address issues.  This next step will take quite a bit of time.  Kerran noted that Chris Lister’s position will be replaced with that of a Project Coordinator who will also be involved in strategic planning processes and the CHIP.  Dr. Storace spoke of his recent trip of the University of Vermont where students were used to assist the MMRS in the Rochester, VT area, which was hit hard by Hurricane Irene. Welfare - Bob Mack presented  The number of applications and clients is comparable to last year at this time  Fifteen families were assisted during the month of September with one individual needing emergency motel placement.  We are moving into the winter moratorium on heating bills, and we anticipate people will be dropping by o We will monitor this closely and will refer some to the South New Hampshire Services for assistance.  The 6 Annual Project Homeless Event will take place on Tuesday, December 6th at Harbor th Homes at 45 High Street, Nashua.  We have expended approximately $210,000 of our General Assistance FY 2012 funds, which is somewhat higher than last year at this time. 3 Community Services - Kerran Vigroux  The Division was accepted for a Grant, which used to be the Childhood Lead Prevention Grant. This year they added the Healthy Homes component. We put in a new application and were accepted. o Currently working through the Board of Aldermen so that we can receive funds, and hope to receive these funds around the beginning of the year. Victoria Alabi  MRSA Education Campaign o Work group consists of St. Joseph Hospital, Southern NH Medical Center and Greenbriar o Using information from the CDC and the New York Board of Health o The next step will be to get schools in the region, athletic facilities and child care facilities informed through educational materials, such as Power Point materials and a tool kit. o Kerran: Victoria will be our lead person on the Healthy Homes project. Dr. Sharma  Requested information regarding STDs now that we no longer offer testing. o Kerran responded:  We are putting together a plan to see what we can do in house with the funds and resources that we have, but are still not close to the amount needed.  This program previously ran on $150,000 in State grant funds.  Client fees we took in for testing totaled $4,000.  This is a critical program for the city. Dr. Storace: Questions: None Closed this part of the session Public Comments None Public session closed Formal Meeting Ended: 1:05 p.m. The next BOH Meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 9th, at 12:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted: Barbara A. Scacco Administrative Assistant II Public Health & Community Services 4