Health Committee Meeting – December 15th, 2020

The notes to the Health Committee’s December meeting. Hosted on Zoom, 23 participants attended this meeting which lasted from 11am- 11:40am on Tuesday, December 15th.

•  Announcements
  • Sarah is reassigned for 6 months to help the state with CoVid relief
    • Sarah may not be able to join the Health Committee meetings and functions as per usual during this 6-month term
    • Sarah will return to her normal capacity in the Health Committee after the completion of this reassignment
• Community Health Needs Assessment Update
  • It’s clear that Rutland county statistics have been some of the most helpful and viewed components of past reports and health needs assessment
    • Yet, in past reports, these statistics have not been fully unpacked and tended to be relegated to the appendix
    • It is the aim of this current assessment to make these statistics easily viewable and accessible to the community, with ample graphics
  • Previous community and organizational survey responses have definitely helped the hospital prioritize which directions to take the assessment
    • Additional surveys may be distributed in the future 
      • Collectively, the members of this committee offer a unique perspective on how the health of many community groups are impacted by the needs assessment priority areas
• Updates on upcoming programs or assistance needs from PV partners
  • Building Bright Futures has several large reports, 2 already published and 1 coming in January
    • VT Early Childhood Needs Assessment 2020
    • VT Early Childhood Action Plan 2020
    • In January, the report ‘How Are Vermont’s Young Children and Families’ will be released. In this report, data will be broken down by county. 
      • Request a free hard-copy of the report. Digital copies will also be available like the two previous reports of this year
  • Zoom for the Holidays
    • A venue to help members of our community who wish to virtually connect with their families but don’t have the means to on their own
    • Event is hosted at Evergreen and will be December 24th, 3pm – 8pm
    • There will be 4 rooms available for 30-minute appointments
      • 2 appointments at a time for a rotating cleaning schedule
    • The Evergreen company van will be able to offer transport for those who need it with a roughly 20 minute travel radius from the Evergreen center
    • Equipment is ready to go and volunteers are lined up
    • Depending on demand, another time slot may be added
    • We are all encouraged to spread information on this event to clients who may be interested
  • Mentor Connector is partnering with United Way to start a transitional living program for youth aged 16-22 in Rutland County
    • Aim is to offer 3 residencies for three individual youths
      • One location is secured so far
    • The Mentor Connector will start to build a referral network among other area organizations and agencies to support this program
    • Program may start as early as January
  • Evergeen Center has 10 wifi routers and 10 boosters that they are able to distribute to clients
    • There is a rough list of clients in need of this assistance
  • United Way received a grant to support those suffering from substance abuse disorder – 175k this year and 125k each following year of the contract
    • Assistance will be offered to the Rutland Dismas House
    • United Way will increase collaboration with the Turning Point Center
    • Stigma training will be provided to first responders throughout the county, and then community-wide trainings will be offered
      • All trainings will present the same unified language
  • United Way ‘Invoice for Community Relief’ funds are finalized
    • 50k will be distributed among the Open Door Mission, 00000, and Troll House to help them continue to provide homemade meals and offer marketing support 
  • Turning Point Center was awarded the 2020 Bowse Health Trust fund, along with Mentor Connector and Homeless Prevention Center
    • Turning Point will run a peer recovery outreach program with the funds
    • There will be weekly program sites at Brandon, Rutland Free Library, Castleton University, Fair Haven, Benson, and Mount Tabor 
    • In addition to these weekly in-person services at multiple locations, remote service will be offered
• Faith Stone, West Ridge, Rapid Access to Medication (RAM)
  • RAM is a project to address shortcoming in how patients are referred to substance recovery program after an initial treatment
    • For opioids, people are commonly treated for an issue and then referred to the next specialist, which may constitute a time gap of a few days. This current method leaves people vulnerable and at risk.
    • All about getting people into the right door that they need and to get medication to the individual as quickly as possible
  • 3 major goals of RAM
    • Get people into receiving treatment in 3 days or less, or same day treatment when appropriate
    • Increase points of access and address barriers on the path towards treatment
    • Ensure people don’t have gaps in treatment as they transition from provider to provider, in-patient to out-patient services, ect. 
  • If individuals enter an emergency department, a medication assisted treatment starter pack can be distributed once the given substance is identified, meeting with a recovery coach is scheduled, referrals for treatment programs are given, and the programs will start within 72 hours
    • Recovery coaches follow-up for a minimum of 10 days and help stop substance abuse, develop a recovery wellness plan, and connect the individual to other resources
  • If an individual makes initial contact through one of the numerous non-emergency providers, this block schedule outlines which other providers are currently available to provide walk-in help and rapid access to medication referral
  • A total award of 20k will be shared with RAM partners and put towards prevention, with a specific focus targeting youth substance abuse prevention
• Discussion on welcoming Mark Stockton
  • A meeting will be scheduled with all the chairs and co-chairs to hold with Mark
• See you all in our January 19th meeting