Participants in a community-based partnership involving New Bedford and Fall River and led by the City of New Bedford Health Department, the Southeastern Health Initiative for Transformation (SHIFT) Program, attended a day-long conference on March 13, 2014  in Leominster, MA. Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) officials outlined how the grant will be administered and what the expectations are for each of the nine participating partners. The Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund (PWTF), is a new, first-in-the-nation, $60 million grant opportunity created by the MA Legislature to reduce health-care costs related to tobacco use, hypertension, pediatric asthma, falls among the elderly, mental health issues/depression, and substance abuse. The SHIFT Program will focus on two ZIP codes in New Bedford and Fall River with some of the highest incidences of these conditions in the Commonwealth. The partnership includes more than 25 different clinical, community and municipal partners. Click here for an earlier announcement of the grant. Click here for the conference presentation slides. Click here for 19-minute video of Commissioner Bartlett's remarks at beginning of the meeting. Click here for photos of the IT site visit. For more information on the SHIFT program, contact New Bedford Public Health Director Dr. Brenda Weis at 508-991-6199. 

(Top row, left and right) Nancy Langhans, M.D. of the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center speaks with New Bedford Health Department Director and then to Joan Pernice of the Mass. League of Community Health Centers before the conference begins. (Top row, center) Mass. Public Health Association Deputy Field Director Andrea Freeman, Executive Director Rebekah Gewirtz, Val Sullivan of Healthy Weymouth, and MPHA Policy and Communications Director pose for a group photo. (Row two) Members of the SHIFT team listen as PWTF Program Manager Jessica Aguilera-Steinert opens the conference. (Row three) DPH Commissioner Cheryl Bartlett describes the various components of the project, including a listing of the nine communities who were awarded grants and the health conditions they will each address. (Row four) New Bedford Health Department Director and SHIFT project chair Brenda Weis describes how the group is organized. (Row five, left) UMass-Dartmouth Center for Policy Analysis Associate Director David Borges talks with Nancy Dluhy of the UMass-Dartmouth School of Nursing. (Row five center) UMass-Dartmouth School of Nursing professor Barbara Weatherford talks with Dr. Langhans as Dr. Weis chats with PAACA Director Carl Alves and Rev. David Lima. (Row five, right) Steward Health Care System staff John Horn and Tracy Ibbotson chat during the break. (Bottom row, left) Greg Robinson and Kerry Mello of Southcoast Hospitals chat during a break. (Bottom row, right) David Weed of Partners and Carl Alves of PAACA talk.