NECON, a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization that serves as a vehicle for the development and enhancement of disease prevention and health promotion public policies and practices in New England, held its 28th Annual  Regional Conference on Promoting Prevention entitled "Health Literacy for All" on October 22, 2010, at the Providence Marriott Downtown Hotel. The conference opened with remarks by Regional Department of Health and Human Services Administrator Michael Milner. Dr. Rima Rudd of the Harvard School of Public Health followed with a keynote presentation on health literacy followed by a panel that included Dr. Walter Willet, Chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. U.S. Senator Patrick Kennedy spoke at lunch after acknowledging over thirty years of prevention advocacy by NECON Chair Bertram Yaffe. Federal Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary for Health Penelope Slade-Sawyer delivered the luncheon address. NECON originated in Fall River in 1984 as an initiative of the Yaffe Foundation and is now comprised of working groups and healthcare coalitions in the six New England states that periodically make recommendations to the New England Governor's Conference and health care policymakers throughout New England for the improvement of the health status of the region. Click here for a video of the opening remarks and announcement of the Bert Yaffe Health Promotion Fellowship Award. Click here for photos of the 2009 conference. For more information about NECON, contact Bert Yaffe.
 

(Top row, left and middle) NECON organizer Bert Yaffe opens the day-long conference and is praised for over thirty years of advocacy by U.S. Senator Patrick Kennedy and Dr. Walter Willett. (Top row, right) Michael Millner, administrator of the New England DHHS office, talks about efforts to address health literacy at all levels of federal programs. (Middle row, left and right) Dr. Rima Rudd of the Harvard School of Public Health talks about the need to balance the demands and expectations of health information with the skill level of the public before HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Penelope Slade-Sawyer talks about the realities of making this happen. (Bottom row, left) Southeastern Massachusetts Department of Public Health Regional Administrator Ronald O'Connor speaks with a conference participant during the break. (Bottom row, center) Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health Walter Willett, MD, DrPH, talks about ways of making nutrition information understandable. (Bottom row, right) Bert Yaffe poses for a photo with Dr. and Mrs. David Greer of Fall River. Dr. Greer was the first chairperson of Partners for a Healthier Community, Inc.