SALEM LEGISLATORS SUPPORT I-93 IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation's TIGER III application has received the support of two key Salem legislators.  In a formal letter to the Honorable Ray H. Lahood, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt and Senator Chuck Morse, the chairman of senate finance committee, requested his support for the project.

  

The project is part of the larger I-93 Improvements Project that would complete construction from the New Hampshire/Massachusetts state line to just north of Exit 2,  on Interstate 93.    Specifically, it will finalize the reconstruction of the Exit 2 interchange resulting in three travel lanes being operational in each direction from the state line northward four miles by reconstructing and widening three miles of interstate and replacing two red-list bridges.

 

"This is a major corridor used by hundreds of thousands of tourists and residents travelling north through our state each year and it is important that the infrastructure adequately handle the traffic flow," said Bettencourt.  "Because of its important to the economy in the region and its impact on commuters, jobs, the retail industry, and the tourism industry, I felt it important to personally contact the secretary of transportation and ask for his support," added the majority leader.

 

The I-93 Improvements Project has been identified as the number one transportation project in the state by the New Hampshire Legislature.  It was originally designed to handle a capacity of 60,000 vehicles per day.  However, it is currently carrying more than 100,000 vehicles on a daily basis.  Not only does I-93 connect southern New Hampshire with Greater Boston for commuters, the corridor is also vital to freight movement and New Hampshire's tourism industry.  Northbound, it also connects residents of Massachusetts with the retail industry in southern New Hampshire.

 

The project will eliminate the last remaining red list bridges in the corridor, increase capacity, reduce congestion and travel times, improve safety for its users, and increase the connectivity of southern New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

NH DHHS Receives Planning Grant to Improve Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families

Concord, NH – The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

(SAMHSA) has awarded the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human

Services (DHHS) a 1-year planning grant. The award, “Systems

Transformation for Youth,” will help in developing a strategic plan for

providing comprehensive and coordinated services to children and youth as

well as developing a plan for the blending of funding across child-serving

agencies. The grant is for $300,000.



“Every child deserves the best care possible, not only for their physical

health but their mental health as well,” stated DHHS Associate Commissioner

Nancy Rollins. “With this funding we will be able to bring together child

serving agencies to work together to enhance existing services and

ultimately to improve the mental health of people we serve.”



During the past year, the Children’s Behavioral Health Collaborative has

convened all child-serving systems and stakeholder groups to develop a

strategic plan. Receipt of this grant will help further the

Collaborative’s efforts in the final development, marketing and

implementation of the strategic plan. Members of the Collaborative include

the Endowment for Health, who with the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation

jointly funded the initial year’s planning effort. Other members in the

Collaborative also include various family organizations as well as staff

from the Departments of Education and DHHS.



“This grant provides New Hampshire with the opportunity to create a more

efficient and effective children’s behavioral health delivery system,” says

Kim Firth, Program Director at the Endowment for Health. “Working together

we will create a unified system of care that fosters resiliency and ensures

improved outcomes for children, youth and families struggling with social,

emotional, and behavioral problems.”



The strategic plan will provide recommendations for improving and expanding

services for children and youth from birth to age 21.

NH DHHS Receives Grant to Support Home Visiting Programs to Help Parents and Children

Concord, NH - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is awarding

the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Division

of Public Health Services (DPHS), Maternal and Child Health Section a new

competitive $1.4 million grant to help at-risk families voluntarily receive

home visits from nurses and social workers to improve maternal and child

health as part of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting

(MIECHV) Program. The funding will help families with such issues as child

development, school readiness, economic self-sufficiency, and child abuse

prevention.


This award will expand the current Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood

Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program at DPHS and allow more families to

participate in home visiting programs.

This new grant will help New Hampshire parents gain the skills they need to

succeed in promoting healthy development in their children, and will

connect families to the kinds of assistance that can make a real difference

in a child’s health, development, and ability to learn.


“Raising children is a difficult job” said Dr. José Montero, Director,

Division of Public Health Services, “and expanding this program to help

more families participate in home visiting programs that have been proven

to help improve maternal and child health, reduce child maltreatment,

increase parental employment, and improve the rate at which children reach

developmental milestones will be a huge step forward in making sure

children in New Hampshire get off to a strong and healthy start.”


High quality, early childhood development programs have consistently been

found to provide return in savings for every dollar invested. Using tools

and methods shown to work in promoting positive parenting skills and health

today sows the seeds for safer, healthier children who are better prepared

to learn tomorrow.


For more information on the Division of Public Health Services, Maternal

and Child Health Services, Home Visiting Program, please visit

www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/bchs/mch/home.htm

For more information about the U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services’ MIECHV Program, go to http://mchb.hrsa.gov/programs/homevisiting/

NH DHHS Receives $10 Million Grant to Help Improve Health of Medicaid Recipients

Concord, NH – The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is

awarding the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) a

$10 Million grant for an innovative program that will improve health

outcomes for adults with mental illness. National data has shown that

adults who have a severe mental illness have a 25-year shorter life span

than those without. NH has been actively attacking this problem, and this

program will include specialized services to address the barriers that

prevent individuals with a severe mental illness from effectively managing

their health, including physical fitness, improved nutrition, and smoking

cessation assistance. This grant will fund services for nearly 4,500

Medicaid recipients at New Hampshire’s ten mental health centers.


“This is a great opportunity for us to work within our own Department

integrating our public health and mental health programs in an effort to

improve the health of those we serve,” said DHHS Commissioner Nicholas

Toumpas. “


This program is aimed at helping to fight obesity, smoking, and inactivity,

all of which result in increased rates of heart disease and other chronic

health conditions. The New Hampshire Medicaid Wellness Incentive Program

(NH-WIP), will promote and reward healthy lifestyle choices leading to

improved health, and reduced Medicaid healthcare costs.


"We are excited about the opportunity New Hampshire has been provided to

take a leadership role in attacking the issue of early mortality for

individuals who struggle with a mental illness,” stated Erik Riera,

Administrator for DHHS’ Bureau of Behavioral Health. “We have already

demonstrated this type of initiative can be successful. The InShape

Program, which was developed here in New Hampshire by Monadnock Family

Services, has significantly improved the overall health of hundreds of

individuals, this new effort puts us in a position to offer help to

thousands more."


This program and grant application to CMS was developed by a team from the

Centers for Health and Aging and the Prevention Research Center at The

Dartmouth Institute. It will be co-directed by Dr. Stephen Bartels, who

oversees the Dartmouth team, Erik Riera, the Administrator of New

Hampshire’s Bureau of Behavioral Health, and Dr. Doris Lotz, Medical

Director for New Hampshire’s Office of Medicaid.

$250,000 Awarded to NH DHHS as Part of Public Health Improvement Programs for Systems and Infrastructure

Concord, NH - The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

(DHHS), Division of Public Health Services (DPHS) received an award of

$250,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This

funding, made possible through the Prevention and Public Health Fund

created by the Affordable Care Act of 2010 and administered by the Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Office for State, Tribal, Local

and Territorial Support, aims to make fundamental changes and enhancements

in health department organizations and their practices to help improve the

delivery and impact of public health services.


This includes increasing health departments’ efficiencies of program

operations to ensure seamless and coordinated services, the readiness for

health departments to apply and achieve accreditation by the Public Health

Accreditation Board, and building upon the national network of performance

improvement managers by sharing and utilizing evidence-based policies and

practices for improving the public health system.


The money will be distributed for year 2 of a 5-year cooperative agreement

program known as the National Public Health Improvement Initiative (NPHII)

Strengthening Public Health Infrastructure for Improved Health Outcomes.


DPHS is using these funds to train staff and contracted agencies in

performance management and quality improvement methods and tools; develop a

performance management system based on public health program indicators and

measures; assist DPHS programs and contracted agencies in conducting

performance improvement initiatives and implementing scientific

evidence-based policies and practices; and assist them in applying for

national public health accreditation.


“A strong, efficient, effective public health system is critical for

building a healthy society,” said CDC Director, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden.

“Investing in preventive services, system improvement and policy level

interventions in an atmosphere of accountability is essential to reducing

the burden of health care costs in the future.”


“New Hampshire will utilize these funds to measure and improve upon the

effectiveness of the public health services we deliver,” said Dr. José

Montero, Director of Public at DPHS. “We believethat this investment in

staff training and improved measurement of the services we provide will

lead to a higher level of accountability and improved delivery of public

health services.”


“These investments propel public health toward a new era of productivity

and effectiveness,” said Dr. Judith A. Monroe, CDC’s Deputy Director for

State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support. “We will be supporting health

departments in strengthening systems that are critical for detecting and

responding to unexpected disease outbreaks or other threats to the public’s

health.”


In response to the CDC’s original funding announcement March 25, 2011, CDC

received 74 applications from previously funded NPHII health departments

seeking funds through this cooperative agreement. This award was one of the

many the Prevention and Public Health Fund created through the Affordable

Care Act of 2010. For more information, please visit www.cdc.gov/ostlts  and

http://www.cdc.gov/ostlts/nphii/