As 2014 comes to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support and encouragement. I hope you agree that the November 7th Annual Meeting was a special moment for PCW. Dr. Susan Blumenthal’s words were an inspiring call to action, and a fitting preamble to 2015 and what we have dubbed our “year of action.”
While January will indeed usher in new opportunities for our membership to support community wellness initiatives, there are some truly fantastic PCW members who dove right in to this work in 2014 and have been immeasurably valuable in redefining what this organization is all about.
First, I would like to acknowledge and thank our PCW Executive Committee. Your leaders have put in many hours meeting, brainstorming, editing bylaws, and carving out our new place in D-H and beyond. Their input, energy, and motivation give me great confidence in the future of PCW. Thank you for your hard work, Executive Committee.
Dr. William Boyle│Otto Engelberth │ Alan Keiller, Vice Chair │ Mary Susan Leahy │ Tracey McGrail │ James Putnam │ John Xiggoros │ Alfred Griggs, Ex-officio │ Robert Oden, Ex-officio │
James Weinstein, Ex-officio
Also, I welcome our 6 new Executive Committee members. I look forward to the work we will accomplish with these new leaders.
Eva Castillo │ Ellen Curelop │ Bill Helm │ Toni LaMonica │
Buff McLaughry │ Marguerite Wageling
As PCW leaders and staff completed our re-structuring, we had some fantastic members already putting our vision into action, contributing to the D-H vision of Population Health. I’d like to acknowledge their hard work. Thank you,
Ruth Bleyler, Honoring Care Decisions pilot team member and trained facilitator
Becky Cook, Honoring Care Decisions communications committee member
Alan Gayer, CHaD Taskforce Member
Bill Helm, Honoring Care Decisions pilot team member and trained facilitator
Maureen Hirtle, for connecting town officials in Hooksett, NH with PCW and prompting conversations of health & wellness at the town level; Honoring Care Decisions pilot team member in Manchester
Deb Holmes, Honoring Care Decisions communications committee member
Howard Trachtenberg, CHaD Taskforce member
Mimi Weinstein, CHaD Taskforce member & D-H Environmental Sustainability Council Member
In 2015, PCW is embracing a focus on Healthy Aging in NH and VT and will be offering opportunities to support Healthy Aging efforts in your communities. Honoring Care Decisions (the Dartmouth-Hitchcock program to promote Advance Directives) will continue its rollout and will be looking for PCW support throughout the process. To supplement these D-H efforts, PCW will be sponsoring community based conversations about end of life planning. If you are interested in hosting or participating in these conversations, please let us know here.
Finally, as inspired by conversations with town officials in Hooksett, NH, the UNH Cooperative Extension, and others, PCW looks to bring a focus to health & wellness at the town level. Public health advisory council membership, community committee participation, and town forum facilitation are just some of the ways PCW can encourage conversation about health & wellness at the grassroots level. As we cement a PCW action plan for this initiative, we hope our members feel encouraged to participate in the discussion and reach out to us with any ideas, questions, or input.
As PCW begins to flex our new action arm, we ask again that you fill out our membership level selection form if you have not yet done so. Thank you to the almost 100 people who have selected their engagement levels already. Your self-selection will enable us to offer each of you the types of opportunities that are appropriate and interesting to you. We understand that our members lead busy, productive lives, and so we will be offering short term action opportunities as a way to learn more about the new direction of PCW without a fulltime commitment. You will always have the option to join in our efforts if a particular strategy or focus catches your attention, and you may change your level at any time.
Regardless of your level of engagement, we are grateful for your partnership as we take charge of our health & wellness as community members and D-H ambassadors. Your continued support will be vital to our success in the New Year. That support may be hands-on, collaborative, philanthropic, or more, and can be at whichever level of engagement that is right for you.
I am confident that with a group filled with such smart, resourceful, generous, and inspiring individuals, there is nothing we cannot accomplish if we work together.
I wish you and your families a healthy and happy holiday season together.
Jane
November 7th PCW Meeting Snapshots
Past Chair Al Griggs with keynote speaker, Dr. Susan Blumenthal
Executive Committee Member John Xiggoros learns about tele-health at D-H with Fred Glazer
PCW Members Evelyn Reid and Isabel Riley
Jim Weinstein and Maureen Hirtle
Click here for more photos from the November 7th meeting.
PCW an Integral Part of “Our Generation’s Moonshot”
Steve Bjerklie
“We have the science, we have the tools. We have to add in the commitment and the will,” Susan Blumenthal, MD, MPA, former U.S. Assistant Surgeon General, told the annual meeting of the Partners for Community Wellness (PCW). She called the effort to provide quality, affordable health care for all “the moonshot of our generation.”
“Much progress on the road to a healthier future has been made, but much more needs to be done,” she said in her keynote address.
Blumenthal, who was also the first Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women’s Health in the Health and Human Services Department and who is a clinical professor at the Tufts and Georgetown University Schools of Medicine, focused much of her address, titled “Tipping the Scales Toward Health: Transforming Community Care,” on strengthening community participation in health care to reduce what she called “health inequity.”
She said that despite the fact the U.S. spends 18 percent of its gross domestic product on health care ($2.9 trillion), the nation ranks just 26th in life expectancy compared to other developed countries, most of which spend 10 percent or less on health care. Since 2000, health care costs in the U.S. have increased 40 percent, yet Americans, she said, get the right treatment for their ailments and conditions just 55 percent of the time, and 50 percent of physician care is not based on best practices. “We are not getting what we pay for,” Blumenthal commented.
She said three lethal killers in U.S. — obesity, smoking and lack of physical activity — in particular are devastating the nation’s health. Despite huge decreases in the smoking rate among adults over the past 40 years, smoking still causes one out of five deaths in America. Obesity and lack of physical activity conspire to compromise the health of 68 percent of the population, she added.
“In 2012, nearly one in two Americans reported having a chronic illness,” she said. “Seventy percent of all disease in the U.S. is caused by environmental and lifestyle factors.”
She called the disparities in health care in the U.S. — which have been detailed extensively by The Dartmouth Institute for Health Care Policy and Clinical Practice — “shameful and profound.” Income and education levels are the most powerful predictors of health worldwide, she noted, adding that 14 percent of the U.S. population lives in poverty. “Poverty is a carcinogen,” Blumenthal stated.
“Health equity is not only a moral imperative, but also vital for the financial health and economic productivity of our communities and nation. Disparities for minorities and the poor cost the U.S. $229 billion in direct medical costs and $1 trillion in indirect costs between 2003 and 2006,” she reported.
“Because we’ve had a ‘sick care’ system, not a real health care system, we have to perform CPR — we have to breathe new life into the health care system by 1) Covering all people with quality care, 2) putting Prevention first, and 3) investing in Research,” she said. “We have to work together to design communities for wellness, where people can thrive — communities that are livable, safe and healthy. We need to emphasize aging in place for seniors. The result will be healthier people and economies. With a more efficient health system, cost savings can be invested in creating healthier communities.”
She said there needs to be more emphasis on prevention and called communities “the cornerstone for prevention. We need to engage families, individuals, businesses, policy makers and community organizations.”
Continue reading about Susan Blumenthal and Rob Greene's presentations here
Rob Greene gives his presentation "Partnering with the Community"
PCW Honors Rep. Laurie Harding, CVS Health
Steve Bjerklie
Partners for Community Wellness awarded its 2014 Alfred L. Griggs Ambassador Award for promoting wellness to Rep. Laurie Harding (D-Grafton), who serves on the New Hampshire House of Representatives’ Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee. She also co-directs the Upper Valley Community Nursing Project and in that capacity has been integral to forming a partnership with Dartmouth-Hitchcock to support a parish nurse program in Upper Valley churches.
Also at its annual meeting, PCW presented its first Business Leadership Award to CVS Health, which recently removed all tobacco products from its stores and invites customers who are smokers to join smoking cessation programs. In acccepting the award, Nancy Gagliano, MD, chief medical officer for CVS’s Minute Clinic program, said, “I’m very proud to work for a company like CVS. CVS knew it had an important role in the health care in its community. For example, a typical diabetic patient will see their internist about once every three months, but that diabetic patient comes in to CVS six to eight times a month. We have an enormous opportunity to be a partner of yours in your community and help with health care. I would like to implore you to think of CVS as a partner in your journey to improve the health care in your communities. Because that’s our goal: health is everything. CVS became CVS Health because of this.”
Alan Keiller presents at the November 7th PCW Meeting
Coming in 2015: PCW’s “Year of Action”
Steve Bjerklie
Alan Keiller, Vice Chair of PCW and a member of PCW’s Executive Committee, gave the Committee’s report to the annual meeting this year. He called 2014 the “year of organization,” with significant developments in staffing, including installing a new executive director, Karen Borgstrom, and new chair, Jane Stetson. “In 2015 we think we’re ready to move forward with very significant initiatives into a ‘Year of Action,’” he said. “PCW has a unique opportunity to be an integral, valuable resource in creating a sustainable health system in New Hampshire and Vermont.”
Click here to hear Jane Stetson's introduction and Al Keiller's presentation from the November 7th meeting.
Make Your Membership Level Selection
The concept of PCW Membership Levels was introduced by Al Keiller during his presentation at the November 7th meeting. You can listen to his presentation here, which includes important context for the future role of PCW.
PCW is made up of over 350 members across NH and VT, and, as we complete our transition to an active group, we hope to cater our action opportunities and engagement outreach to best suit each membership level.
Sustaining Partners will continue to receive various PCW updates, newsletters, and invitations to the Annual November meeting. They will continue to serve as ambassadors of D-H and their ideas, feedback, and support will always be welcome.
Supporting Partners will receive all PCW communications, as well as various invitations to participate in new initiatives. There will be short term projects, planning opportunity, and various opportunity to support and engage in particular strategies and initiatives. Supporting Partners are eligible to serve on subcommittees if they so choose.
Guiding Partners will be the most engaged Partners. They will help determine PCW's path forward, and they may be active participants and leaders in certain initiatives. They have the potential to Chair subcommittees and will engage with D-H Leadership to provide a conduit of communication between their communities and Dartmouth-Hitchcock.
The choice is up to you, and you can change your membership level at any time.
We ask everyone to fill out our Partnership Level survey here if you have not yet done so.
Thank you to those who have already made their selection.
Please note, if we do not hear from you by January 1st, you will automatically become a Sustaining Partner.
December Spotlight!
Healthy Choices for Kids at Salt Hill Pub
Salt Hill Pub has launched Upper Valley HEAL’s Easy Choices in its Lebanon and Hanover locations. This children’s healthy eating program will soon launch in Newport and the soon-to-be Lake Sunapee location.
Salt Hill will be providing healthier options for children, with sides including carrot sticks, apple wedges, low-fat milk, and sparkling water with a splash of 100% juice. Entrée items have been analyzed and approved by a dietician, and have been renamed to appeal to kids’ imaginations.
Salt Hill Pub is leading the way, and we hope more NH and VT restaurants will soon follow.
Help us celebrate Salt Hill, Upper Valley HEAL, and CHaD for their collaborative efforts to promote healthy nutrition choices for children and families!
Articles of Interest
To learn more about Susan Blumenthal's thoughts on Aging in Place, click here to read the article she penned for the Huffington Post.
PCW Member Maureen Hirtle was featured in the latest issue of D-H's Pinnacle Perspectives. You can read the article here