Western MA Public Health Association Member Update

MEMBER UPDATE

5 MINUTE ADVOCACY ASK

from the MA Public Health Association:

Call the Governor to request he sign the SAPHE 2.0 ACT

Amazing News from the State House this evening: SAPHE 2.0, the legislation to transform the Massachusetts Local Public Health system, passed unanimously in the Senate today (after passing unanimously in the House yesterday) and is on its way to Governor Baker’s desk! Thank you to the many WMPHA members for everything you have done to help get get this critical piece of policy through the legislature. This has been a heroic effort by all involved. Your advocacy to your legislators resulted in unanimous support for the bill in both the house and senate.

The bill is hopefully at its last stop before becoming law. The governor now has 10 days to act. If you would like to encourage him to do so, please take a few minutes to call or email the governor by clicking here and ask him to sign the bill into law. Once you’ve done that, we hope you’ll also take a moment to reach out to your reps and senators and thank them for their support of this bill. You can find step by step instructions as well as phone and call scripts here.

Thank you for your support on this issue and for all you do for local public health every day.

Pre-Rental Housing Inspection Regulations:

A tool for improving health

Missed this workshop but interested in learning more about how this local board of health regulation to ensure housing safety works? You can check out the YouTube recording here and see all the materials by clicking here.

Health Education Resources to Share:

Tick Prevention, Removal, and Testing information from FRCOG

COVID 19 Quick Reference Guide developed by Greenfield Public Health Department

Have a resource to share? Send it to Walker@frcog.org.

SAVE THE DATES:

BOH RESPONSIBILITIES WITH PRIVATE WELLS AND PUBLIC WATER SUPPLIES -- DEP WORKSHOP

Thursday Sept 8 PM 3:30 PM

TOTALLY TITLE 5 CONFERENCE

10/25/2022 from 8:30-4:30 at the Log Cabin

Is Your Town Interested in Joining the State-Funded Wastewater COVID Testing Program?

As our testing data becomes less reliable due to the preponderance of at-home tests, the state is stepping up access to Biobot wastewater monitoring ( you can see it here: https://biobot.io/data/). Massachusetts will cover the costs of wastewater COVID monitoring for FY23. If your town has a wastewater treatment plant and you are interested in exploring if the testing will work there, reach out to Tami Segal at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services at tami.segal@mass.gov.

WMPHA JOB BOARD

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

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 Eichstaedt.

Local Public Health Training Institute Sites

New to Public Health Training Site:

Please share with your NEW Board of Health Members, Health Agents and Public Health Nurses:

https://sites.bu.edu/masslocalinstitute/newtopublichealth/

Joint Coalition for Local Public Health Training Calendar:

https://sites.bu.edu/masslocalinstitute/calendar/