Office of Healthy Communities (OHC)
“Public health in partnership with communities…building bridges that link and coordinate ideas, knowledge, programs and people.”
Mission
Coordinate or network with all existing interdepartmental community health efforts that improve the health and quality of life of the community. The Office of Healthy Communities (OHC) plays a lead role on behalf of the Department, in service to the community capacity building including community linkages, quality systems improvement, training and communication.
Purpose
- Support healthy communities, enrich peoples lives
- Work towards eliminating health disparities
- Move DPH to broad-based thinking about health and empowering communities
- Expand the reach of public health
What We Do
- Organize, build capacity and support communities
- Support collaboration across Bureaus, Centers and Outside Partners
- Help facilitate the development of competency based trainings, policies, protocols and practices
- Assure Massachusetts public health organizations, CHNAs and agencies have resources and opportunities to build skills and capacity based on best practice standards
Intended Outcomes
- Communities are actively engaged in collaboration and partnership to improve health
- People most in need are listened to, advocated for, and respectfully connected to services
- Community has access to information and resources
- DPH and broader public believe in the power of the proactive prevention perspective
- DPH policies and practices are developed or revised to meet the assets and needs within communities
OHC Highlights
Community Health Network Areas (CHNA)
In 1992, MDPH began a statewide initiative to enhance access to care, provide an opportunity for greater collaboration, and to create a client-centered, outcome-oriented health service delivery system in each community. The six EOHHS regions were divided into twenty-seven Community Health Network Areas or CHNAs. Each CHNA is a coalition with broad based membership from the public, non-profit and private sectors, such as local health and human service agencies, schools, consumers, faith based communities, businesses and many other partners interested in working to enrich their community. The CHNAs promote efficiency and enhance the effectiveness of community- based services by reducing duplication and gaps and by increasing health promotion and prevention services. CHNAs are guided by their founding principles and the National Healthy Communities principles.
CHNA Principles
- Community Health Networks are committed to continuous improvement of health.
- Community Health Networks are focused on tracking area health indicators and eliminating identified disparities.
- Community Health Networks are community and resident based.
- Community Health Networks are inclusive of key stakeholders in health improvement: residents, consumers, coalitions, communities of faith, local and state governments, businesses, and providers of community-based health, education, and human services.
- Community Health Networks are reflective of the age, racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and linguistic diversity of the area.
- Community Health Networks are working partnerships among the Department of Public Health, residents, consumers, coalitions, local service providers, local and state governments.
National Healthy Community Principles
- A broad definition of "health." Health encompasses not just the absence of disease, but the full range of quality of life issues, including lifestyle and behavior choices, genetic endowment, and the socio-economic, cultural and physical environment. Health is a byproduct of a wide array of choices and factors - not simply the result of medical intervention.
- A broad definition of "community." Communities are inclusive and based on faith, perspective, profession, as well as geographic lines.
- Shared vision from community values. A community's vision is the story of its desired future, reflecting the core values of its diverse members. It is a living expression of shared accountability to priorities.
- Improved quality of life for everyone. Healthy communities strive to ensure that the basic emotional, physical, and spiritual needs of everyone in the community are attended to.
- Diverse citizen participation and widespread community ownership. In healthy communities, all people take active and ongoing responsibility for them selves, their families, their property, and their community. A leader's work is to find common ground among participants so that everyone is empowered to take direct action for health and influence community directions.
- Focus on "systems change." The Healthy Communities movement contemplates a different vision for the way people live and work together, how community services are delivered, how information is shared, how local government operates, and how business is conducted. It demands mat resource allocation and decision-making be spread throughout the community.
- Development of local assets and resources. Healthy communities identify and build on a community's strengths and successes and then invest in the enhancement of a community's civic infrastructure. The idea is that, by developing an infrastructure that encourages health, fewer resources will need to be spent on "back end" services that attempt to fix the problems resulting from a weak infrastructure.
- Benchmarks and measures of progress and outcomes. Healthy communities use performance measures and community indicators to help expand the flow of information and accountability to all citizens, as well as revealing whether residents are heading toward or away from their stated goals. Timely, accurate information is vital to sustaining long-term community improvement.
Determination of Need (DON/ Factor 9)
DoN receives applications from health care facilities planning substantial capital expenditures or substantial change in services. It is the responsibility of DoN to evaluate proposals and make recommendations to the Public Health Council members who then approve or disapprove the expenditures and/or new services. Applications are reviewed using specific standards and guidelines including factor 9.
DON Factor 9: 105 CMR 100.533(B)(9) For any project filed on or after July 1, 1992 , the facility seeking the determination must contribute an amount reasonably related to the project toward funding for primary and preventive health care for underserved populations. The programs and projects (community health initiatives, CHIs) funded through this regulation must be determined in collaboration with the community using the CHNA structure to align the development of CHIs with the CHNA principles of locally driven health improvement efforts. OHC manages this process by acting as a liaison between the applicant and the local CHNA to assure full community participation and adherence to the following funding principles:
- Creation of the CHIs include community decision making, community programming and policy development and partnership building; and
- Funds are directed to resource community-based programs or community wide prevention efforts to achieve measurable outcomes.
OHC reviews progress on these outcomes on an annual basis.
Regional Coordination and Community Outreach
DPH has six Regional Offices each staffed by a Center for Community Health Regional Director who provides leadership in connecting the programs, initiatives and services within the Center as well as other DPH programs as appropriate. Working within the Office of Healthy Communities, the Regional Directors assist communities, coalitions, and organizations within their region in identifying, communicating and addressing existing and emerging public health needs and trends. They partner with community based organizations and serve as the critical link between them, the Department of Public Health, and the CHNAs within their regions. As senior managers for the Department, they work with public health professionals at a wide range of levels as well as with EOHHS area and Regional Directors. The Regional Directors provide support and matrix supervision for Bureau of Family and Community Health regional staff and programs.
In the Fall of 2004, The Office of Healthy Communities in response to requests from DPH staff, providers and the general public committed to helping facilitate a Department wide collaboration to develop a DPH outreach and health education plan. To help inform this process, OHC has convened a DPH Health Communications Committee to strategize, develop goals and objectives and improve communication. The purpose of this initiative is to better coordinate information about all DPH outreach, training and health promotion activities including the development and distribution of health education materials. OHC will oversee the coordination of these public education and communication efforts.
Massachusetts Partnership
The Massachusetts Partnership for Healthy Communities is a statewide infrastructure and capacity building entity that provides training, partnership development and resource development and support. MassForum is the training branch of the Massachusetts Partnership and provides training on leadership, developing coalitions, communication skills building, diversity, using data to assess the health of a specific community. One effort developed by the MassForum is a nine-month workshop that provides intensive training for coalitions to apply healthy communities principles. Expert Clinics, statewide Mentoring Program, and Customized training and technical assistance are other initiatives sponsored by the Partnership. OHC works in collaboration with the Partnership on the development of the MassForum and manages the DPH contract.
Regional Centers for Healthy Communities (RCHC)
There is an RCHC funded by the Department in each of the six EOHHS regions. By utilizing healthy communities principles the agencies mobilize support for health and safety related initiatives in each region. Experts who can help individuals, agencies, community-based organizations or coalitions to develop and implement strategies to prevent alcohol and other drug use staff the Centers. They provide training, technical support and facilitate a process for community partners across the region with a focus on science-based substance abuse practices and environmental change. Each RCHC also hosts a health resources library which provide free of charge videos, books, curricula, health data. Many materials are available in languages other than English. OHC serves as contract manager for the Centers.
Preventive Health and Health Services
Block Grant - OHC administers Preventive Health and Health
Services Block Grant funds provided annually to MDPH by the federal
Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention. The Preventive Health
and Health Services Block Grant provides support for preventive
health activities in the key areas of health education and risk
reduction, health protection, clinical preventive services, surveillance
and data systems, programs for special populations, emergency medical
services and rape prevention and victim services. It is used to
promote community-based and statewide efforts to develop comprehensive
prevention programming.
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