MEMBER UPDATE

DPH RACIAL EQUITY TRAINING

Racial Equity 101, conducted by Health Resources in Action (HRiA), is a requisite training for any and all Public Health Excellence (PHE) shared services staff members. This includes members of the group's governance board as well as any staff performing shared services activities, LBOH members, and HR professionals. DPH's Office of Local and Regional Health (OLRH) encourages any and all members of municipal staff to attend if at all possible.

Racial Equity 101 establishes a foundation and context for the racial equity work that grantees will conduct through their PHE shared services programming and activities. It is extremely important that all grantees, as well as OLRH staff, are speaking a common language around racial and health equity in our work together. Racial Equity 101 also examines some historical political and policy decisions in Massachusetts that negatively impacted, and in some cases continue to negatively impact Black, Indigenous, and People of Color across the Commonwealth. 

Flyer here: PHE Required Racial Equity Training Flyer

RSVP here: https://calendly.com/olrhracialequity/101training?month=2023-03

WMPHA JOB BOARD

Send your postings to walker@frcog.org for inclusion.

• Easthampton Health Director Job Posting



• Berkshire County Health Inspector and Training Hub Training Specialist Job Posting

• Western MA Health and Medical Coordinating Coalition Coordinator Job Posting

• Southampton Part Time Health Agent Job Posting

• Greenfield Health Agent Job Posting

• Northampton Grant Administrator Job Posting

• Northampton Public Health Nurse Job Posting

• Montague Health Director Job Posting



Public Health Field Training Hubs for Western Massachusetts

As readers may know, part of the Public Health Excellence grant program (which now covers 309 municipalities) is a major investment in local public health training -- for Board of Health members, Health Directors, Agents, Inspectors, and Public Health Nurses. The Departments of Public Health and Environmental Protection are adding staff capacity in order to deliver a standardized, consistent set of inspection classroom trainings for Environmental Health Staff, including housing, camp, pool, septic, and soil inspection trainings. These will be mandatory for all staff working in Health Departments participating in a PHE grant. After the classroom (or online) portion of each training is done, staff will receive a standardized field training as well, at one of ten Regional Field Training Hubs selected by DPH.

For Western Massachusetts, the Field Training Hubs are based at the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (covering Berkshire and Hampden Counties) and the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (covering Franklin and Hampshire Counties). Below are some updates from the two Training Hubs:

Berkshire/Hampden: The Training Hub has hired one full-time inspector/trainer, Ned Saviski, who specializes in food and housing and currently seeks to hire at least one additional full-time inspector/trainer (see the job posting above). Before fall of 2023, they also expect to hire one or more additional inspector/trainers who could be full or part-time to support the Training Hub roll-out. They are particularly interested in Health Agent applicants who live in or near Hampden County.

Franklin/Hampshire: The Training Hub has hired Bri Dupras, formerly the Easthampton Health Director, to be the Lead Field Trainer for the region. Bri starts work on March 20 and will be in touch with PHE Leads and Health Directors/Agents in the region in the coming weeks to set up introductory meetings. FRCOG also hired an administrative clerk, Liz Jacobson-Carroll, whose duties will include providing training and capacity building for BOH clerks throughout the region. Click here to read a Gazette article about Bri's hiring for the F/H Training Hub.

MassDEP Drinking Water Program 

Model BOH Regulations for Private Wells

The Model BOH Regulations for Private Wells, was developed by MassDEP for use by Boards of Health (BOH), if they so choose, in adopting a municipal regulation governing private wells within their borders. There are no Massachusetts state statues that require BOH to adopt any of the contents of these model regulations.

This update of the Model BOH Regulations for Private Wells was needed to include a private well testing requirement for specific Per/Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), define “drinking water” and “private well”, revise the definition of “private drinking water well”, and clarify the water testing requirements for private drinking water wells vs. irrigation wells.

The addition of the PFAS testing requirement was added because Massachusetts now has a public drinking water standard for PFAS. In addition, the Massachusetts PFAS Interagency Task Force report titled “PFAS in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Final Report of the PFAS Interagency Task Force” included a recommendation to “encourage municipalities to require PFAS testing during transfer of property with private wells and with new well permits”. The Massachusetts PFAS Interagency Task Force report is available here.

WHERE TO GET A COPY OF THE MODEL BOH REGULATIONS FOR PRIVATE WELLS

The revised document is available on MassDEP's web page Drinking Water Information for Boards of Health located at: https://www.mass.gov/lists/drinking-water-information-for-boards-of-health. An MS Word version is available at https://www.mass.gov/doc/model-board-of-health-regulations-for-private-wells-0/download and a PDF version is available at https://www.mass.gov/doc/model-board-of-health-regulations-for-private-wells/download. MassDEP has also posted a revised version of its Private Well Guidelines which are available at:  https://www.mass.gov/doc/private-well-guidelines.

If you have any questions about the model regulation or would like assistance in drafting your town’s private well regulation, contact the Drinking Water Program at Program.Director-DWP@mass.gov or 617-292-5770. 

Registered Sanitarian Study Supports!

Are you interested in taking the Registered Sanitarian exam? WMPHA has study guides available for free to help Health Department staff from Western Massachusetts attain this important credential. They can be checked out for three months at a time. If you are interested, contact Executive Committee member Bri Dupras.

And congratulations to the first WMPHA study guide borrower to pass the RS Exam, Orange Health Director Matt Fortier!

Missed a previous WMPHA Training Event?

Click here to see recordings and materials from recent workshops (Totally Title 5 materials coming soon!)



Sincerely,

The WMPHA Executive Committee:

·       Sharon Hart/South Hadley, President

·       Gerri Swanson/Southampton, Vice President

·       Brianna Dupras/Easthampton, Treasurer

·       Jen Hoffman/Greenfield

·       Phoebe Walker/FRCOG

·       Tom FitzGerald/Retired, Secretary

·       Laura Kittross/BRPC

·     Tom Hibert/Southwick

·      Tammy Spencer/East Longmeadow

·      Charlie Kaniecki, Retired, Ex Officio

·      Randy White, Retired, Ex Officio