WELLNESS AND PREVENTION COMMITTEE Membership
Cathy Brennan, Chair
Pat Donegan
Michele Lazerow
Kathy Rose
Charles Silberstein
Dukes County Health Council
Wellness and Prevention Committee
Goals for FY 2005 (July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005)
Mission Statement
It is the mission of the Wellness and Prevention Committee to support prevention and interventions designed to maintain and improve the physical and mental health of the community of Martha’s Vineyard. The Committee will work under the auspices of the Dukes County and in collaboration with local health and human service practitioners to develop and implement programs that further this mission.
Goals
To educate the community and health care agencies and practitioners about wellness and preventive health.
To promote wellness and preventive approaches in the health care system
To identify current wellness and preventive services, and needs for new services
To facilitate communication and coordination of current wellness and prevention activities and services
To “plant seeds” for new wellness and preventive services to meet needs
History to Date
The Wellness and Prevention Committee has met for several years, and has the following accomplishments:
The procurement and distribution of 2000 Healthwise Handbooks for prevention and education about common health concerns for families in childbearing and childraising years, and for older adults and elders.
The publication of the Wellness Matrix, listing wellness and preventive health care services available on Martha’s Vineyard.
Grand Rounds presentation on pediatric oral health, which has led to the formation of the Oral Health Working Group, seeking to improve education and access to dental care for children and adults on Martha’s Vineyard.
In addition, the Wellness Committee has gathered facts and supported those working on these other health activities on Martha’s Vineyard: adolescent tobacco prevention, lyme disease prevention, and youth health status.
Wellness and Prevention Committee Current Direction
In Fall 2003, the Wellness and Prevention Committee re-evaluated its activities and how to best meet its goals, particularly in light of the preliminary data of the community wide Health Report survey with identified the following prevalent health conditions on Martha’s Vineyard: depression, headaches, hypertension, alcohol use, Lyme disease and skin cancer. The Committee decided that the best approach to addressing these conditions was not to form working groups with limited resources and volunteer power for each condition, but to focus on developing a coordinated, comprehensive public health system or entity on Martha’s Vineyard. We added this new goal to our charge.
The Committee has just begun a process of assessing the current public health services available on Martha’s Vineyard. The Committee includes representatives of Visiting Nurses Service and Vineyard Nursing Association who carry out most of the public heath clinical care on island, through the Board of Health contracts for each town. The Boards of Health will be invited to participate in this assessment. The assessment will include a further analysis of the public health data in the Health Report. This will allow a determination of the public health needs of the island that are, or are not, being met.
The next step in this goal will be the exploration of how to develop a public health system or entity for Martha’s Vineyard, including issues of funding and the “home” or “homes” for such a service (eg. The current system shared by VNS/VNA/Boards of Health? A department of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital? A Dukes County Office of Public Health? An outgrowth of the Island Health Plan?), and the political implications of these decisions. We will also research other models of community public health, certainly those of our neighbors on Cape Cod and Nantucket.
As this goal is one of study and planning, there are no budget requirements. However, to meet our established goals listed above, the Committee is planning an update of the Wellness Matrix, and to sponsor quarterly Grand Rounds presentations at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital with a focus on the prevalent health conditions identified by the Health Report. Our budget request is based on these funds needed for these projects.
Respectfully,
Catherine Brennan RN
Chair, Wellness and Prevention Committee
| 
