York District DCC Update - State Coordinating Council Quarterly Meeting December 8, 2011
Prepared by: Megan Rochelo
SCC meeting convened: Welcomed by Dr. Pinette
Background/Orientation: Shawn Yardley provided a quick historical overview of the SCC as there are many new members and he wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page as to where the SCC came from and what it has been tasked with doing.
Getting to know each other: Extended introductions were done due to the many new people joining the group
Options for remote participation in SCC meetings: Joanne Joy will be informally polling SCC members to determine the ability for people to participate by video or conference call to future meetings. Due to budget constraints and long travel distances options for participating remotely need to be investigated. She will be sending out a request for information soon on this topic. In the meantime Dr. Pinette stated there will continue to be quarterly meetings and that there would be phone in options in the future so people don’t have to travel in unsafe weather.
Report to HHS: Shawn Yardley is working on a report to DHHS on the SCC in collaboration with Chris Zukas
Subcommittee Updates
- Planning and Coordination Subcommittee: Joel Kase and Jerry Whelan
- working on one electronic storage location for all health related data
- looking to the future to ensure that DCC assessment work and hospital needs assessment work are done collaboratively in the future (hospitals need to report again in 3 years)
- Disparities: Kathie Norwood and Leticia Huttman
- Goal is to provide resource to identify and support health disparities work throughout the state
- Will conduct a statewide inventory and comparison (snap shot)
- Asking DL’s and DCC’s to provide 3-4 concerns within in each district related to disparities
- Will review Healthy Maine 2020 to find connections to District work and will convene a joint meeting with the Hanley Health Disparities Ambassadors
- Next meeting 1/10/12 9:00 virtual meeting
- Assessments: Stephen Fox
- Identifying 1-2 priorities for State Public Health Assessment
- Will determine projects based on other findings and what makes sense with timeline and needs and wants to districts
Fund For Health Maine Update: Dr. Pinette provided an update on the Fund for Health Maine Study Commission, it was a bi-partisan group of legislators and non-legislators who were able to come up with many unanimous recommendations, most notably that FFHM money should remain focused on prevention. It also added obesity as a priority and recommended keeping the positions funded within the AG’s office to keep up with related litigation that is ongoing. In addition they requested the study commission be allowed to continue and that the funding within the FFHM continue to be reviewed every four years. It was noted however that the Governors’ proposed budget has significant cuts to the current programs in the FFHM and the money was being used instead to cover MaineCare costs and didn’t seem to take into account the recommendation of the study committee. A number of individuals mentioned the importance of reaching out to legislators to inform them of the potential impact of proposed cuts.
You can find the whole FFHM Study Commission report here:
DCC Rep agenda items
- Drug Abuse (Rx and non Rx) Robin Mayo and Emily van Eeghen – presentations were given on programming in specific districts. A pilot project in Aroostock County had law enforcement providing data on drug arrests to medical providers and it was a successful project. Looking to scale up project and try another county with a larger population to determine how to take the program county wide.
- ImmPact: Peter Smith provided an update on ImmPact. Most notable a new law now makes it easier for providers to order immunizations and track through one system instead of multiple vendors depending on who was paying for the vaccine. 70% of the data entered into the system is on a per dose basis.
State Integration Task Force presentation and Q & A: Catherine Chichester, Executive Director, The Co-Occurring Collaborative Service Maine CCSMEgave an in-depth presentation on their activities, many questions were asked regarding how HMP’s and providers could integrate with their program or program ideas.
Community Transformation Grant: Debbie Wigand provided an overview of the grant process and the current stage of activities for the whole group, many who are not familiar with CTG. They have identified Market Decisions as their evaluator and are excited to have chosen Dawn Littlefield as the project office for this grant. Districts are now working to meet specific milestones. Went over the structure put in place at State and District level to provide guidance on the grant process.