The Franklin Regional Council of Governments seeks a well-rounded, professional, and intelligent candidate for a 30 hr/wk grant-funded position assisting with a variety of regional emergency preparedness activities in western Massachusetts. Read more here!
Massachusetts is in the midst of a heartbreaking crisis of addiction and overdose, and one of the most important things we can all do to prevent further deaths is reduce the stigma experienced by people with substance use disorder. Only 1 in 12 people people with this disorder seek treatment — can you imagine if numbers were similarly low for diabetes?
FRCOG’s staff have signed the Boston Medical Center Stigma Pledge and will work to make sure we use non-stigmatizing language. Join us!
To learn more about the Pledge, click here.
To review an “Addictionary” of stigmatizing and non-stigmatizing language, click here.
The latest population estimate by county shows that Franklin County’s population declined from 2000 to 2017 by about 670 people (or <1%), while the state and nation grew by 4.8% and 5.5% respectively. Of the fourteen counties of Massachusetts, Franklin County along with Berkshire County and Barnstable County (which is Cape Cod) declined in population.
| Geography | 2010 Census Population | Population Estimate 2017 | 2010-2017 Difference | 2010-2017 Change |
| Berkshire County | 131,219 | 126,313 | -4,906 | -3.7% |
| Barnstable County | 215,888 | 213,444 | -2,444 | -1.1% |
| Franklin County | 71,372 | 70,702 | -670 | -0.9% |
| Hampden County | 463,490 | 469,818 | 6,328 | 1.4% |
| Hampshire County | 158,080 | 161,834 | 3,754 | 2.4% |
| Bristol County | 548,285 | 561,483 | 13,198 | 2.4% |
| Worcester County | 798,552 | 826,116 | 27,564 | 3.5% |
| Plymouth County | 494,919 | 515,142 | 20,223 | 4.1% |
| Norfolk County | 670,850 | 700,322 | 29,472 | 4.4% |
| Dukes County | 16,535 | 17,325 | 790 | 4.8% |
| Essex County | 743,159 | 785,205 | 42,046 | 5.7% |
| Middlesex County | 1,503,085 | 1,602,947 | 99,862 | 6.6% |
| Nantucket County | 10,172 | 11,229 | 1,057 | 10.4% |
| Suffolk County | 722,023 | 797,939 | 75,916 | 10.5% |
| Massachusetts | 6,547,629 | 6,859,819 | 312,190 | 4.8% |
| United States | 308,745,538 | 325,719,178 | 16,973,640 | 5.5% |
The Western MA Health & Medical Coordinating Coalition participated in a tabletop exercise on April 25th testing the MA Dept. of Public Health’s new Patient Placement Coordination Plan. Following federal requirements, the Department had to practice moving at least 20% of western Mass’ hospital patients from sending hospitals to receiving hospitals. The scenario involved flooding that required Cooley Dickinson Hospital and Baystate Medical Center evacuating all of their patients and sending them to the remaining eight hospitals in the region.
Staff from the MA Dept. of Public Health Office of Preparedness and Emergency Management test out the State’s new Patient Placement Coordination Plan
Exercise facilitators from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health look on as Mary Clark, former MA Dept. of Public Health’s director of the Office of Preparedness and Emergency Management tests the statewide plan to handle hospital evacuations
A moment of laughter amid the chaos of practicing the movement of over 1,100 patients from two hospitals to the other eight in western MA.
Hmmmm…are you sure about that Michael? Michael Nelson, regional public health coordinator for the MA Dept. of Public Health’s Office of Preparedness and Emergency Management and Montague selectman,helps determine how many beds are available to handle incoming hospital patients.
Spring 2017 HMCC Full Coalition Invite
The HMCC will hold its second full Coalition meeting this year, open to any and all health and medical
stakeholders. We will update the membership on the region’s progress towards greater health and medical preparedness/response collaboration, and host a keynote by Chad Priest, Chief Executive Officer – American Red Cross Indiana Region.
Chad Priest, MSN, JD, BSN, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Indiana Region American Red Cross. Priorto joining the Red Cross, Mr. Priest served as Indiana Universities’ School of Nursing’s Assistant Dean for Operations and Community Partnerships.
Mr. Priest also currently serves as Senior Executive Advisor to the MESH Coalition, a non-profit, public/private partnership that coordinates, supports and strengthens healthcare and related entities to mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from the effects of emergency and crisis events and incidents. Mr. Priest formerly served as the MESH Coalition’s Chief Executive Officer for 4 years.
Mr. Priest will present “Towards Community Resilience: The Role of Healthcare Coalitions” from his perspective as a healthcare provider in multiple professions: as a military nurse, a healthcare lawyer, and as the CEO of a non-profit crisis management organization. Through these experiences, he has come to believe that in order to maintain individual and community health you have to mix it up – both the professions, and the interactions. In our April coalition meeting, Mr. Priest will discuss the role of community health and health equity in emergency preparedness and response coordination, including its effect on patient surge, and demonstrate that not only do we all play a role in keeping people healthy, but also that by ensuring the health of all members of our community, we emerge more resilient in times of crisis.
Please RSVP at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15xwFz9EaqRvb8eJ-s0TeZBOzQzEVWe4du69LqP1l8vA/edit
Registration is now opened for a new webinar developed by DelValle How to Start a Respiratory Protection Program to be delivered on Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at 11:00am-12:00pm. The target audience for this webinar includes Healthcare Facilities, Emergency Medical Services, Public Health.
The registration link for the webinar is: https://delvalle.bphc.org/rpp_webinar. Registration instructions are below.
————————–
How to register:
To sign up for a DelValle Learning Center Account:
The three Emerging Infectious Disease webinars put forth by the DelValle Institute for Emergency Preparedness have been archived on their webpage and are available for viewing. Stakeholders who were not able to access these webinars live can now view them at their own pace, prior to the live capstone event offered in Holyoke on September 30th.
View Webinar 2: Learning From the Past
View Webinar 3: Examining the Present
Register for the Live Event on September 30th
On September 8, 2016 the Federal Register posted the final rule Emergency Preparedness Requirements for Medicare and Medicaid Participating Providers and Suppliers. The regulation goes into effect on November 16, 2016. Health care providers and suppliers affected by this rule must comply and implement all regulations one year after the effective date, on November 16, 2017.
Facilities Impacted by the Emergency Preparedness Rule include: hospitals; ambulatory surgical centers; hospices; long-term care facilities; home health agencies; rural health clinics and federal qualified health centers; dialysis facilities. While all the above providers are impacted, requirements may differ between types. The full rules can be found online at: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/SurveyCertEmergPrep/Core-EP-Rule-Elements.html
Local municipal leaders need to prepare themselves to have an opinion on the upcoming legalization ballot question. Join the Communities That Care Coalition and Greenfield Health Department for a 5/19 workshop on the shifting landscape of marijuana in Franklin County/North Quabbin, and an update on what we know now about the drug and its effects on developing brains.
Click here for more information on the workshop.
RSVP for the workshop by clicking here.
Click here to review UMass’ new Climate Change Report, filled with great data and charts to help you think about the future of our community.
