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, met Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) officials at St. Luke's Hospital on May 6, 2014 to discuss progress-to-date on the project and to problem-solve some of the issues. The project is part of the Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund (PWTF), 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, and falls among the elderly.. 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 photos of the kick-off conference with DPH. For more information, contact New Bedford Public Health Director Dr. Brenda Weis at 508-991-6199. 

(Top row) MA Department of Public Health staff members, including Jenna Roberts and Susan Svencer, welcome members of the SHIFT project to the meeting after New Bedford Public Health Director Dr. Brenda Weis, right, opens the meeting. (Row two) Drs. Nancy Dluhy and Jonathan Howland listen as Jenna Roberts talks about some of the requirements of the grant. (Row three, left and center) DPH staff member Patti Daley talks about the clinical linkage process as Sherrie Nobre of the New Bedford Housing Authority, Southeast Regional DPH Director Ron O'Connor, Fall River School Nursing Director Karen Long and Dr. Dluhy listen. (Row three, right) David Borges of the UMass Center for Policy Analysis talks with UMass-D School of Nursing Professor Barbara Weatherford during a break.  (Bottom row) Dr. Jonathan Howland of Boston Medical Center Center for Injury Prevention and Dr. Dluhy of the UMass-Dartmouth School of Nursing present  the Falls Prevention Outcome Sub-Group algorithm before Dr. Weatherford responds.