Dear Friends,
Happy new year, and welcome to the winter 2019 edition of CCHI News. These are just a few highlights of what we're working on in community health at Mass General.
In particular, I'd like to call out the new
website
for
ECOCH
(the Executive Committee on Community Health). This committee, chaired by
Physician-in-Chief Katrina Armstrong
and made up of leaders and practitioners from throughout the hospital, spent the past year engaged in an energetic strategic planning process. The
plan
, which can be found on the site, is outstanding, and I want to thank the members for their incredibly hard and visionary work. Areas of focus include promoting race equity, addressing social determinants of health and advocating for access to care at Mass General for all.
When I started this work almost 24 years ago, I could not have imagined the power of a leadership body like ECOCH to exponentially promote a community health agenda. Check back to the website for updates, and we will continue to keep you posted on the group's progress.
Until spring,
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Joan Quinlan
Vice President for Community Health
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MISSION
To improve the health and well-being of the diverse communities we serve.
VISION
We envision healthy, safe and thriving communities where all people have equitable access to employment, food, education, housing and a high-quality health care system that addresses these and other social determinants of health.
Mass General Center for Community Health Improvement (CCHI)
101 Merrimac Street
Suite 620
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 617-726-8197
ABOVE
: MGH Youth Scholars Alumni gather for
Homecoming 2019
(story below)
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MGH Youth Programs Featured as IHI's 100 Million Healthier Lives Bright Spot
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Click
here
for our live story,
Investing in Youth
.
We are so proud to join this "unprecedented collaboration aimed at systematically creating a community of solutions to challenges that stand in the way of achieving health, well-being and equity across the globe."
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Youth Scholars Alumni Group Gathers for Annual Homecoming Event
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More than 60 graduates of the MGH
Youth Scholars
(high school) Program who are now part of our Alumni Program
took time out during their winter break to attend our annual Alumni Homecoming. Freshmen through seniors from local and not so local colleges came back to
Mass General
to reconnect with each other and our staff, talk about some of their challenges and aspirations, learn more about potential careers here and at Partners HealthCare, and enjoy lunch and a chat with
Mass General President
,
Peter Slavin
.
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Opinion - Private Public Partnerships are Key to Closing Boston's Educational Gap
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The
Boston Globe
recently published a remarkable series called the
Valedictorians Project
which exposed significant educational inequities in Boston. Many of the issues raised in the project--inequity in education, lack of support and preparation for first generation college students, struggles with "belonging," and scarce financial resources--are all too familiar to those of us working to promote educational attainment for the city's young people.
Joan Quinlan
and
CCHI Executive Director
Leslie Aldrich
weigh in, calling for stronger private public partnerships as one solution.
Read more >>
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Community Health YouTube Channel Launched
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How does our team of community health workers at MGH Chelsea help reduce barriers to care and promote health equity for our most vulnerable patients?
Click
here
or on the video above to learn more.
And there is more to come! We've just launched a new YouTube channel, and over the next couple of weeks, we'll be sharing more
explainers
about our work with community coalitions and youth programs. Stay tuned, and
subscribe
to our channel today!
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The
Executive Committee on Community Health
(
ECOCH
) is the governance, policy and oversight committee for community health here at Mass General. Learn more about the work of this important committee supporting the fourth leg of the hospital's mission by visiting our new website
here
.
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Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA’s)
are conducted every three years by Massachusetts hospitals and are critical to understanding and addressing urgent health issues in the community. As we've reported, the first ever
Collaborative CHNA
is now going on in Boston. The
Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals (COBTH)
is supporting the Collaborative comprised of teaching hospitals, the City of Boston, community health centers and community-based organizations. In Revere, Chelsea and Winthrop, Mass General is co-leading a collaborative assessment with the
North Suffolk Public Health Collaborative
.
Both initiatives are currently launching into primary data collection, which includes surveys, focus groups, and key informant interviews. Both are continuing to work on secondary data collection which means collecting data from the MA Department of Public Health and the Boston Public Health Commission, as well as the census, Department of Education, and the like. We’re working with ambitious timelines and will keep you informed as these important initiatives progress, so stay tuned.
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Coming Together to Support Immigrants
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"We stand with our immigrant patients, co-workers and communities. Nobody should have to choose between staying in this country or visiting the doctor.” Read the
commentary
by Mass General physicians,
Jess Zeidman
and
Jo Henderson-Frost
and their colleagues from Boston Medical Center and the Cambridge Health Alliance in WBUR’s
Cognoscenti
.
Drs. Zeidman and Henderson-Frost are leaders of the
MGH Immigrant Health Coalition
.
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MGH Chelsea
Health Center leadership joined with the
Lawyers for Civil Rights
in opposition to the administration's proposed "public charge rule" which could force people to choose between basic necessities and permanent residency. Read the full press release
here
.
Mass General
and
LCR
have had a 15 year medical-legal partnership through our
LINC
program.
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Clients struggling with addiction were connected to resources through the Charlestown Coalition's Community Navigator last year.
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