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 March 4, 2014 to begin learning about an IT/e-Referral system designed by DPH that will be used to effect referrals between providers and community-based services. 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, 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 21-minute video of the beginning of the meeting. Click here for the presentation slides. For more information, contact New Bedford Public Health Director Dr. Brenda Weis at 508-991-6199. 

(Top row, left) MA Department of Public Health staff member Bonnie Andrews is introduced to New Bedford Public Health Director Dr. Brenda Weis by Tom Land, Director of Health Information Policy and Informatics for DPH. (Top row, center) YMCA Southcoast COO/VP of Operations Nancy Bonell talks with PAACA CEO Carl Alves before the meeting. (Top row, right) UMass-Dartmouth Center for Policy Analysis Associate Director David Borges talks with Dr. Weis before the meeting. (Row two) DPH Prevention and Wellness project staff members Tom Land, Laura Nasuti, Patty Daley and Bonnie Andrews introduce themselves after Dr. Weis welcomes them to the session. (Row four) Laura Nasuti goes over the outlie of the e-referral system before taking questions from Seven Hills VP Lee Dalphonse and Jonathan Howl of Boston University. (Bottom row, left and center) UMass-Dartmouth faculty members Barbara Weatherford and Nancy Dluhy and Nancy Bonell and project administrator Stephanie Harrington chat at the end of the session.