Testimony of the Department of Health and Human Services Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Before the Joint Standing Committee on Health and In An Act to Ensure Access to Human Services Opposition to LD 1077 and Child and Maternal Health Nursing Care Washington County Public Health Nursing Care in Hearing Date: April 15, 2015 Sponsor: Senator Burns Members Senator Brakey, Representative Gattine, and on Health and Human Services, my name is of the Joint Standing Committee Kenneth Albert. lam the Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention within the Department of Health and Human 1077, the concept bill entitled ”An Services. state. We is here today to speak in opposition to LD Washington County." committed to supporting the needs of have been working in Act to Ensure Access to Public Health Nursing Care and Child and Maternal Health Nursing Care Our Department am I priority populations across the diligently to structure our limited public health nursing and community based resources to support l\/laine's most vulnerable populations improving health outcomes. Rural areas are an important consideration and one of the factors driving resource needs We in in this in work, Washington County. believe that the workforce and distribution of public health nursing services should be allocated based on data related to Maine's public health needs. effective, efficient use of public health resources, nursing needs across the state each time there temporary change in is In order to support Maine CDC reviews public health a vacancy; our response might be a duty assignments. For instance, if higher maternal and child health nursing referrals are incurred nurses travel who in one area ofthe routinely provide services in state, referrals are distributed other parts of the state. ln this case, nurses from areas such as Augusta and Bangor to Washington County and may include overnight accommodations Staff at DHHS know this in is still the temporarily assigned area to meet service needs. not an optimal means of operations. the duties of public health nurses to ensure work is at the highest We are structuring and best use of nursing scope of practice. This would include close partnerships with resources better able to meet psychosocial needs of community community members and elimination of nonclinical duties for public health nurses. Washington County has had its share of risk . factors and poor health outcomes. There have also been significant state and federal resources dedicated to the area few among in the past years, including these services that directly benefit Washington County: 0 A field 0 Partnerships with area providers to improve immunization rates for children and epidemiologist covering Washington, Hancock and Penobscot counties. distribute vaccine to the enrolled providers so they may offer vaccinations at no cost. 0 A district liaison local levels. and tribal district liaisons The Downeast Public Health to link public health at the state and District has an active District Coordinating Council (DCC) working diligently to address public health priorities and to convene health service providers to gaps they see in services, identify populations that they serve, ideas/strategies to remove barriers, and to build potential collaborations. The Downeast Public Health District Liaison works closely with local health officers, providing technical assistance as needed, to address community level public health issues. 0 The Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP- funded Northern Regional Resource Center (RRC) which convenes healthcare partners, including long term care and other social service providers to addresspublic health emergency preparedness and response. Through PHEP, the with county emergency management officials District Liaison also works closely on emergency and disaster preparedness planning and exercising. 0 Partnership between our Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory (H ETL) and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency to respond to clandestine such as meth Finally, labs, which has labs a public health impact. Washington County benefitted greatly from the work of Project LAUNCH, a federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Project LAUNCH allowed the Maine CDC to pilot an innovative model of support services to improve health outcomes, including a bridging system of wraparound services, early childhood mental health consultation and outreach, and increased capacity to support authentic collaboration and the inclusion of both community and family voices in policy and practice. The Department cannot support a bill that is still a concept and that does not take into account the innovations and reforms already being implemented. We can commit to more aggressively assuring that our vacancies are and would be happy to report back to this filled in the Washington County area committee as our efforts yield results.