Southern Berkshire Public Health Collaborative Meeting Minutes 10/8/21
October 8, 2021 Monthly Meeting minutes (Prepared by Jayne Smith)
9:00 AM Via Remote Zoom
Present: Jim Wilusz (Tritown); Pat Levine (Sheffield); Rebecca Jurczyk (Great Barrington); Jayne Smith, (Alford); Jill Sweet (PHN), Diane Romeo (Lee)
- Action Item updates
- Review and Approve Sept 17, 2021 Minutes (ACTION ITEM)
Diane Romeo made motion to approve, Jim Wilusz Seconded- Minutes approved
2. Grant updates
a. SBPHC Workplan Revisions: Jayne will be transcribing
b. FDA Flexible Standards Grant Update: Jayne Smith talked about FDA Flexible Retail Grant program. Jayne had spoken to a couple of towns and presented the idea for SBPHC to use this grant to jumpstart our work on the FDA standards and start on work on conducting a risk assessment (Standard 9). The BPHA is also preparing a grant application to work on development of policies and procedures that are compliant with Standard 3.
Level 1 Grant: Lee, Lenox, Stockbridge, Monterey and Otis will need to conduct a Self-Assessment
Level 2 Grants: Alford, Great Barrington, Mt Washington, New Marlborough and Sheffield would all be eligible to apply for Level 2 of the program if we were able to get and to be eligible Jayne asked the group if they would be interested to apply for money to work on this Risk Assessment project, apply for training and equipment and work on conducting a baseline risk assessment. Pat Levine wanted to be sure that we avoided overlap and double dipping. Jayne explained that she has spoken to Sandra and we will be coordinating our applications best we can. Rebecca Jurczyk mentioned that wouldn’t it make sense to submit a group application vs. having individual towns apply.
Jayne Smith made motion to apply as group, pending agreement with New Marlborough and Mount Washington who were not present. Rebecca Jurczyk seconded the motion. Motion Passed unanimously.
c. MHOA Conference: Coming up October 22nd and 23rd
- PHN Updates (Jill Sweet)
COVID cases are down and is being driven by household transmission. Asymptomatic cases are being picked up by pooled testing in schools.
It was discussed at the last SBRSD Schoolboard meeting the discussed requesting the Sheffield BOH would consider mandating vaccination for student. Discussion ensued that there was some concern about issuing mandate for a specific population. Of course BOH support vaccination
Rapid Binax Now tests are now available and can be administered by BOH that are trained. We should determine what priorities should be for tests.
- Group Values and Mission Statement
*HOMEWORK: Feedback about mission statement that includes vision and values*
Draft mission statement was presented.
The mission of the Southern Berkshire Public Health Collaborative is to provide public health services that directly impact and improve the quality of life in the towns we serve. We strive to bridge accessibility barriers and to promote health and wellness through collaborations and partnerships.
It was decided to give it one more month to see if we can pare down to once sentence.
- Work Plan
* HOMEWORK: Feedback on work plan
Work plan being transferred to required format. We are on the right track and making a lot of progress in just the short time we have been together.
- Member Discussion
No-reply@multistatep4p.com – Jayne mentioned that this is the email that sent vaccination records for Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative sites.
ARPA Funding: Tri-town is asking its town and encourages other departments to reach out to their own town leadership to invest in the public health budget.
The SBPHC is facing high demand in the schools, doing increased blood pressure clinics and COVID contract tracing. The next steps are to looking at what other things that we can get better through out collaborative.
Looking at hiring a Shared Services Coordinator position to help Jim, who took on the responsibility initially. Jim is in the process of forming a job description.
The initial PHE grant was $300,000 to cover staffing, benefits and training but it doesn’t cover the costs like refrigerator, vaccines, capital equipment, etc.
Jim will be reaching out to VNA towns to see if they are willing to apply VNA money to the SBPHC to capture upfront funding for purchase of these items prior to reimbursement since the grant doesn’t cover the costs of capital equipment needed to build program.
7. Next Meeting Focus/Date: November 12, 202