STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS
August 25, 2015
Organizational Updates
On July 27th, Marsha and Laura moved into office space at Peanut Butter & Jelly (PB&J) located at 209 San Pablo SE, but may be moving again into space that would provide a large conference room for our monthly meetings. More information to come...
SCALE - Spreading Community Accelerators through Learning & Evaluation
(See June 23 Staff Report for background on SCALE grant.)
Local SCALE partners have decided to work toward an aim of engaging more community members with lived experience in the ongoing planning and improvement of our Healthy Here initiatives. We will be using various approaches that we're learning through our involvement with SCALE and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Partners are participating in monthly calls with all SCALE Pacesetter Communities, as well as an additional monthly call with our 4 SCALE Peer Communities and Mentor Community with whom we will be sharing experiences, questions and ideas for the next year and a half. The second Community Health Improvement Leadership Academy (CHILA) will be held in South Carolina September 9-12, to be attended by Leigh Caswell, Enrique Cardiel and Marsha.
HEALTHY HERE: Communities Leading Healthy Change
The next Lead Team will be meeting on Friday, August 28th at La Mesa Presbyterian Church. The Mobile Market pilot continues to provide affordable, fresh and locally-grown fruit and vegetables every Tuesday afternoon, rotating between the South Valley (Presbyterian clinic at Rio Bravo & Isleta SW and First Choice Community Healthcare's South Valley Commons) and the International District (First Nations Community Healthsource, followed by the UNM SE Heights Clinic). The Mobile Market accepts cash, credit, EBT Cash Card and EBT SNAP. In addition to BCCHC, partners involved in the Mobile Market include: Presbyterian Healthcare Services, Bernalillo County, Agri-Cultura Network, the Storehouse and the Streetfood Institute. More information and downloadable flyers are available at .
Opioid Accountability Initiative
The Coordinating Committee and implemention teams - Prevention, Treatment, Narcan and Law Enforcement/Criminal Justice - continuemeeting regularly. A new contract between BCCHC and Bernalillo County for FY16 is currently in the process of being finalized. Laura and Marsha will both have the time they spend on the Initiative paid out of this contract.
Links to the videos, reports and handouts related to the Opioid Accountability Initiativecan be found on the BCCHC website at: .
Anyone who is interested in serving on any of the Implementation Teams for Prevention, Treatment, Narcan or Law Enforcement/Criminal Justice should contact Marsha for more information on how to get involved.
Early Childhood Accountability Partnership (ECAP)
The next meeting of the full ECAP Network, including all three strategy groups (Communications, Early Literacy and Family Supports) will be held at United Way on Thursday, October 1st from 8:30-10:30 am. Contact Tracy McDaniel, ECAP Coordinator, at for more information on ECAP and how to get involved.
Assessment & Planning
Meetings have been held with the City of Albuquerque Planning Department and the Mid-Region Council of Governments to continue receiving feedback on the Healthy Communities Assessment Tool (HCAT) mentioned in previous meetings. Additional meetings are being planned with the UNM MPH program, Bernalillo County Place Matters and others. The focus of feedback in this round will be how these entities will be able to actually use the tool, as well as looking for a "home" for the website, since the HUD pilot will be ending in the fall. As a recap, this tool has been designed to help cities assess and monitor the physical, social, and economic roots of health in their communities, by comparing neighborhoods (locally we use the DOH small areas consisting of several neighborhoods) on over 40 indicators related to healthy communities, ranked by top, middle or bottom thirds. The project is based locally out of the NM Mortgage Finance Authority (MFA), however the data input has been done by the NM Community Data Collaborative, and BCCHC has been contracted for a community engagement process to gather feedback on the tool's format, content and usefulness. The pilot site can be viewed at . Comments regarding both content and format are still being accepted and should be sent to Marsha at
New Mexico Alliance of Health Councils (NMAHC)
NMAHC is once again supporting an increase in health council funding to be added to the DOH budget. Health council members are encouraged to contact their legislators to share the value of health councils in general, using BCCHC as an example. We are particularly hoping to reach members of the Legislative Finance Committee who represent Bernalillo County. Contact Marsha for more information on how you can help.
NMAHC continues assisting health councils in the process of community engagement to gather input for the NM Health Systems Innovation (HSI) project, funded by the SIM planning grant. BCCHC had their second round of the engagement process at our July meeting with a discussion of who we need to get input from and beginning to define some of the assets and barriers to health in our communities. Marsha attended the HSI Steering Committee meeting on August 5th, which is the group that will be approving the final plan to be submitted to the governor. Several members of BCCHC have also been attending the regular monthly Summits.
Marsha, along with Dick Mason from the Sandoval County Health Council, recently had their second meeting with Deborah Helitzer and Scott Olds from UNM who are developing the curriculum for the proposed College of Population Health at UNM. NMAHC was asked to assist UNM in the development of a summer course for the new BS program in Population Health that will be part of the new College. The purpose of NMAHC involvement (besides contributing to curriculum ideas and speakers) will be to put students in contact with the health council in their home county or pueblo to be able to work on a project during the summer break when it's hoped they might be returning to their home community. Local Bernalillo County organizations and initiatives may be contacted by students interested in getting exposure in the field.
NMAHC is currently in the process of hiring a part-time administrative assistant who will help with increasing communications among the state's health councils, among many other tasks.