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Prevention Works! Minutes |
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Clallam County Prevention Works! Community
Coalition The meeting was called to order by president, Norma Turner. She had each person tell the highlight of their summer. Those attending were Marian Birch, Sue Renes, Nancy Martin, Jennifer Charles, Jane Shefler, Ellen Fetchiet, Elna Kawal, Rachel Anderson, Florence Bucierka, Quen Zorrah, Anton Wishik, Jim Borte, Nita Lynn, Jessica Smith, Norma Turner, Gwen Cole, Diane Williams, and Cynthia Martin. The minutes of June 14 were approved. Rachel Anderson, treasurer, reported there was no change in the last month. Report by Chair Review of previous board meeting All committees have come up with goals and they will present it today. Endorsement of Healthy Families Grant was done by board action via email. Reports on Goals from Committee Chairs: Tobacco Free Committee: Rachel Anderson indicated their goals will be to continue doing compliance checks: they will send a letter to each group from Prevention Works! to reward those who comply with the laws related to minors. They will also continue to work with the schools, department of health, and the tribes. They had a hearing with the commissioners about banning smoking near the courthouse; Norma and others wanted something stronger. Local employees wanted to make sure it was in compliance with their union rules. Commissioner Chapman was very supportive and he and Rachel went to Fair Board. The Fair will have some additional no and they came up with additional rules for the Fair. Membership and Rock N Roll: Gwen Cole gave the report for Susan Hillgren from Rock and Roll. The place for the homeless teens is up and going. She is interested in getting more people to attend Rock and Roll meetings. Gwen was requested to send the wish list to Shaine so she could get it out to the Prevention Works! members. Nita said she spoke with Susan and they have enough things to get things going. They need volunteers and anyone interested in helping should call Cindy at Evergreen. They especially need Saturday volunteers. They need dry soup. A number of congregations are going to be supporting this on a monthly basis. Gwen also an update on the membership committee. They are looking at a new name, perhaps combining with another committee, and needing new members. Labels for Education: Nancy Martin talked about Labels for Education. This is sponsored by Costco and the Foundation for Early Learning. This is the third round and Clallam and Jefferson County were selected to participate. Garrison Kurtz will be meeting with the committee on Friday. Last night was deadline for applications for the grant from the child care providers. Publicity Committee: Jim Borte has three projects for the committee. One is on training for advocacy such as something like assault weapons ban; they are still deciding how the trainings should be. The second training would be on public relations and how to get public support and media support. The third goal is to devise a communication plan for PW! He plans on doing a survey of what the needs in our county are. Home Visiting Committee: Nita Lynn talked for Pam Arnott who couldn’t be here.. She went over the plan submitted to the Executive Committee. The home visitors want to enhance funding for home visiting and to get seat time for trainings. They also want to continue with the summit and other trainings as needed, look at other studies about mental healthy not just post- partum depression but always keeping in mind using best practice techniques. She also reported that a committee was meeting to talk about a federal grant which begins this next month. This time there is more funding than before. It is a Healthy Start grant which looks at infant mortality rate and is for 1.6 million dollars. Last year it was 5 months late because of funding going to war. They anticipate it coming late again this year. KEYS (Kids Elementary Years for Success): Elna Kawal reported that the committee is working on children transitioning into kindergarten transition. They are working with the school districts. They need more members also. Parent Education Committee: Florence Bucierka reported on the Parent Education Summit which is on “Families Don’t Come with Manuals.” This conference will be on Friday, October 1. The fee will be $20 prior to September 24 and then $25. Anyone can contact Jennifer Charles at 417-2384 for more information. The fee will include lunch. There will also be certificates of attendance, school clock hours, or STARS. The speakers will be Kevin Haggerty from University of Washington School of Social Work and Drew Betz, M. Psych from Washington State University. General Information: Jennifer Charles was doing labels on “I Am Your Child: The First Years Last Forever.” The whole group helped. These tapes are distributed to everyone who has a baby in Clallam County. Jane Shefler said that they are 90% done with getting the 501 © (3). It should be done by the end of the September. Nancy Martin said she was having trouble with translators. Healthy Families has two translators, and they suggested they call. Nita Lynn from First Step said that they at times can help. Cynthia Martin from Parenting Matters Foundation said they have the names of some translators who can help. Florence Bucierka talked about Meth training which will include a power point presentation, September 21, 10-2 with lunch for $20. The Prevention Summit will be in Yakima on October 20-23. There may be a subsidy if someone is interested. Anyone interested should contact Florence Bucierka at 417-2366. There will be a presentation by Dr. Olds in Yakima. Call Florence for more information. We will put out an e-mail on it as soon as we get the information. GUEST SPEAKER Our speaker, Quen Zorrah, a public health nurse from Jefferson County Health Department, came to talk about “Improving Health By Reducing Adverse Childhood Experiences.” She started working 24 years ago at Jefferson Hospital and then moved to Health Department 13 years ago. She is the program manager, supervision and a provider in their department. She also does WIC and other things since this is a small community. She is now trying to figure out how to get more mental health into the department. She felt a recent presentation with a little data and a lot of personal kinds of touchy feeling things and felt she was not reaching her audience. Beth Wilmart who is in charge of the Jefferson County Community Network helped her put together a new presentation which so far has been very effective in the community where Quen has presented it. Adverse Childhood Experiences Study Kaiser Permanente Department of Preventive Medicine in San Diego and the Center for Disease Control became curious about the high drop out rate in their weight reduction program for obese clients. They felt obese people have higher rate of drop-outs were having mental health issues that was preventing their success. This was not social workers but medical doctors who wanted to be cost effective. They had 17,421 people seeking preventive health care. Each person filled out questionnaires. They were asked what happened in childhood because the obesity study had found unusually high incidences of childhood sexual abuse. They wanted to see if other childhood experiences accounted for adult health and well-being. Found that physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, domestic-family violence, substance abuse, mental illness, parental loss, and a family member in prison all contributed to what happened for the rest of people’s lives. They found the higher the score and found that throughout the life cycle they higher health problems. What happens in childhood is the foundation for what happens for the rest of your life. Perhaps we need to rethink addiction. Jefferson County then took this information about abuse before age 18 and compared that with Jefferson County. They found that in Jefferson County that any abuse including being punished violently, witnessing abuse, sexual abuse are all higher than the average in the state of Washington.. They also found that poor physical health, poor mental health, and impaired functioning was higher if people had had any abuse as a child. This was measured by the number of difficult days people had. They then linked their results with someone who had witnessed domestic violence and found a correlation there also. The conclusion they came to were: · Time does not heal all, · People don’t just get over it, · Unhealthy behaviors can be seen as an attempt to manage unresolved adverse childhood experiences. Physicians don’t like to talk about these issues, but at Kaiser they give questionnaire. If the patient has a high score, someone (nurse practitioner, nurse) asks about the person’s childhood and how this may have affected the patient’s life. This is crucial question.. The good news is that it can be stopped. Jefferson County now looks at family support rather than just maternity support services. They believe this expanded vision is critical to include child abuse prevention. They continue to look for research-based prevention programs that had proven outcomes. The Nurse Family Partnership started in 1999 after they began looking at the data. The Jefferson County Nurse Family Partnership is a research-based best practice program using public health nurses. It provides intensive home visiting services during the pregnancy and the first two years of the child’s life. They felt it was most cost effective to look at first time pregnancy. The services continue until the child’s second birthday. The long term results have included a 79% reduction in rates of child maltreatment from birth through the child’s 15th year, 69% fewer arrests among low-income people, 54% fewer arrest and 69% fewer convictions among the 15 year old child, and 83% increase in rates of labor force. They also found that short term results in Jefferson County show the results in Jefferson county are getting closer to state average as a result of their work. They have had a 50% reduction in young children entering foster care in Jefferson County since Nurse Family Partnership Started. What makes their program work? They believe it works because of the following: · it is relationship-based; · clients receive services from one nurse throughout program enrollment, · starts early, · frequency of visits and duration of services designed to meet the needs of high risk clients, · holistic program (looks at all areas of life), · focus on success empowers clients to make positive changes in their life · 7 visits during pregnancy and by that time they feel the nurse likes them. · have to say something positive at each meeting. · focus on what client wants to focus Their goal is preventing intergenerational transmission of communicable disease such as substance abuse, family violence and mental illness. They believe the program not only impacts the family but also the entire community (your neighborhood, taxes, business, quality of life). Now they are in funding trouble; they have lost one nurse and see a reduction in overall services. They now expect to see an increase in the very behavior they have helped decrease.. Clearly they believe they have shown that adverse childhood experiences are common, destructive, and have an effect that often last for a lifetime. They are the most important determinant of the health and well-being of the health and well-being of our nation is what Vincent J. Felitti, M. D. believes. Florence commented on the comment by Joe Martin on the importance of prevention efforts. The meeting was adjourned after thanking Quen Zorrah for an outstanding and helpful presentation. Respectfully submitted, Cynthia Martin Temporary Secretary |
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