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Home My WebLink About2024-08-28 Middlesex-Essex Public Health Collaborative Minutes Middlesex-Essex Public Health Collaborative Meeting Agenda Wednesday,August 28, 2024 at 10:00 am Via Video Conferencing How to join the meeting: Join via computer or smartphone: Follow this link: meet.google.com/yxpTergk-xfr Join via telephone: 507-339-5878 PIN: 185 572 572# Attendance • North Andover, Brian Lagrasse—Aye • Andover,Amy Ewing—Aye • Reading, Ade Solarin -Aye • Haverhill, Bonnie Dufresne—Aye • North Reading, Pam Merrill—Aye • Lynnfield, Coral Hope -Aye Also In attendance � Annette Garcia, MEPHC Shared Services Coordinator • Lea Anne Pero, MEPHC Public Health Nurse � Shane Pierce—MEPHC Shared Inspector 1. Approval of 7/31/2024 Meeting Minutes Motion to approve the minutes as presented made by Brian LaGrasse and seconded by Ade Solarin. Approved Unanimously(6-0). 2. Updates from the Shared Staff a. Shared Services Coordinator i. IMA 1. The following communities have fully executed the IMA: Haverhill, North Reading,Andover 2. The following communities have one meeting remaining: Lynnfield, Reading, North Andover 3. We anticipate the IMA will be fully executed after the final meeting scheduled for September 23. ii. Hiring 1. The Health communication specialist position was posted yesterday, I will share the posting with everyone after this meeting. Feel free to post to your own websites 2. Depending on the applicant pool, I am targeting mid to late September for interviews 3. I would encourage anyone interested to take part in the interviews iii. Food Handlers Manual 1. We created this Food Handlers Manual at the request of Lynnfield to provide during a food handler training 2. We'd love to translate this document into 1-2 commonly spoken languages to provide additional resources to local establishments 3. We can also print up some copies for departments to provide to establishments 4. I'll be sending around an order request form as well as gauging what languages are most commonly spoken in your food establishments iv. Local Health Department Staff Vacancies 1. North Andover—Inspector a. Reviewing resumes, looking to finalize candidates tomorrow and begin interviews 2. Reading—Inspector a. Inspector starts on September 23 3. Reading—Nurse a. Nurse starts on September 3 v. Resource Allocation 1. Currently filling all requests for support 2. If conflict arises, resources are allocated equitably across municipalities 3. During our September meeting, we will present a quarterly report on regional activities b. Public Health Nurse i. Looking into training for PHN 1. Looking for late fall/early winter 2. Focusing on Psychological First Aid 3. Lynnfield is interested in choke saver trainer courses so they maybe able to train food establishments ii. Invited nurses to participate in CPR trainer training 1. Carolyn will be participating in trainging iii. Did CPR class for Lynnfield and grant staff 1. Will continue to offer that out 2. Looking at 9/19, but that might not be the best date so we are looking at other dates iv. CPR Classes for communities 1. Lea Anne can assist with friends and family CPR classes for the community,these are not certification courses 2. PHE funds can only be used to provide certification for health department staff 3. If you are looking to run a community certification course, please reach out. It is possible,but we would have to charge a fee to cover certification costs or use local budgets v. Sent out COVID guideline resources, maternal mental health resource vi. September doing national recovery month education & vaccine/ wellness reminder c. Regional Health Inspector i. Has had the opportunity to meet with every community ii. Looking for list from communities for inspections iii. Has access to all Relevant which will streamline inspections 3. DISCUSSION/VOTE:Strategic Planning Scope of Services a. What would we like to set as the contract value? i. We have been approved by the state for up to$15,000 ii. Group agrees this seems like a reasonable amount to invest in setting up the groundwork for the success of the group in the future b. We have been matched with Doug Kress as a subject matter expert through the state to help us with strategic planning.They offer 5-hours at no cost i. This could be a good starting place for us to think about what we need to consider in a strategic planning vendor, but it may not be sufficient to meet all our need c. Who would we want to use for this project? i. BME Strategies ii. MAPC d. Andover feels that hiring someone to do this on a professional level is a benefit to everyone i. Lynnfield and North Andover agree that hiring someone with expertise and experience e. Next Steps:Annette will prepare a draft RFP for this project to be discussed and voted on during our next meeting.We will continue forward and meet with the SME. 4. Performance Standards: MAVEN Coverage a. Lea Anne shared data from original 2021 CART assessment which showed 83% MAVEN coverage across all MEPHC communities b. Lea Anne met with state Epis to understand how these numbers were met i. Based on how quickly municipalities responded to routine and immediate cases reported in MAVEN c. Increased to 90% in 2023-24 for all communities for routine and immediate diseases d. Plan moving forward continue to pull data quarterly to ensure we're continue to meet the standards across the communities i. This will allow us to provide targeted outreach when municipalities see changes in their MAVEN coverage ii. Continue to offer back-up MAVEN coverage e. Lea Anne to send copy to communities i. Lea Anne can pull data for each community ii. Every community is meeting the 90%data 5. DISCUSSION: Performance Standards,Self-Assessment a. The state has made available aself-assessment tool for PHE groups to identify how well they are meeting the performance standards b. The state last performed this capacity assessment in 2021 and they plan to repeat it in fall 2025 c. Annette is gauging interest in communities completing the self-assessment i. While Annette would lead these efforts, it would require some time from each of the departments d. The group feels that due to staffing changes in the last year, we have not made substantive progress towards improving on the original results e. Now that the SSA is fully staffed, we expect we will make progress that will be reflected in the fall 2025 capacity assessment and completing one now would be redundant 6. New Meeting Time a. Annette will send out a poll to identify a new meeting time 7. New Business a. Farmers Markets i. Comparing permit fees across communities ii. Looking for a way to regionalize application reviews iii. Expect outreach from Annette over the next few weeks for a list of your farmers market permitted establishments b. Mosquito Spraying, are any Towns trying to be proactive i. Andover did various spraying of public schools and academies ii. North Andover did all town fields, schools, etc.through iii. Reading sprayed different areas of the Town every two weeks 1. Have had positive mosquito pools iv. Haverhill spot sprayed NE section of the City c. Mosquito Announcements i. Lea Anne has created abite-prevention postcard in August. This has been shard on municipal social media and websites. 1. This will be sent after the meeting ii. Press release draft by Annette will be sent after the meeting. Communities can use this as a template if they wish to share apress-release on prevention activities. d. North Andover has been discussing Narcan training/accessibility with Lea Anne. i. SAMBoxes can be placed around the community 1. Lynnfield has implemented these un numerous public locations around Town. 2. They have been up for six months and they have not had any issues with vandalism or destruction ii. MEPHC will look into various train-the-trainer options as well as available training for the public. 1. Coral has participated in a group train-the-trainer.She will send the name of the agency that ran the training iii. Lynnfield currently offers free Narcan at various public locations. 1. The kit includes a dose of Narcan, an instruction pamphlet, and fentanyl test strips 2. Narcan is free to health departments from the state iv. North Reading has community impact team and they do all the training 1. Looked into boxes, but identified vandalism and upkeep as concerns 2. Can look into train the trainer program v. MEPHC staff will look into various options for Narcan education, training and outreach and will provide information to communities at the September meeting. 8. Next Meeting:TBD