Healthy Berrien Consortium

Activities

The process of the Healthy Berrien Consortium is to assess current and accurate data to determine the health issues of focus for the upcoming year. Once a priority area is established, one of the organizational HBC members leads the efforts to develop a solution to the problem, obviously with the support and endorsement of the Healthy Berrien Consortium. Some current projects include:

Obesity Reduction Initiative:

Lakeland Regional Health System was charged with the task of developing a plan to combat obesity in Berrien County. The task force developed a coalition and established Berrien as a WeCan! County, as described by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). We Can! Healthy Berrien provides educational sessions to children and their parents, provides community events promoting healthy lifestyles and coordinates efforts among various agencies in Berrien so that we avoid duplication and maximize our efforts.

Smoke Free Berrien:

Berrien County Health Department was charged with establishing a smoke free environment in Berrien County. With the help of the Berrien County Tobacco Reduction Coalition, and the support of the HBC membership, we were able to encourage the Berrien County Commissioners to pass the Berrien County Clean Indoor Air Regulation in June 2007. In December of 2009, with the encouragement of several Michigan counties establishing clean indoor air regulations, the State passed the Dr. Ron Davis Act of 2009 (HB 4377) which will promote clean indoor air throughout Michigan by prohibiting smoking in all public places, including bars and restaurants. This Bill will take effect May 1, 2010.

Berrien Health Plan – Access to Care:

In early 2004, Healthy Berrien Consortium members brought community leaders from both the public and private sectors together to address healthcare access in Berrien County. After a year long effort, the result of this public-private partnership's work was a countywide health plan called the Berrien Health Plan.

This plan is a community sponsored program for low-income Berrien County residents who have no medical healthcare coverage. The program is not insurance, but it can help eligible persons get certain medically necessary services at no cost or low cost. When a person enrolls in either Plan A or Plan B of the Berrien Health Plan, he/she is assigned to a doctor's office or medical clinic that will take care of his/her basic health care needs. Health care providers can refer to a specialist when necessary, and they can also set up lab tests and X-ray services for those under their care.

For additional information on the Berrien Health Plan, please call 269.927.5693 to find out eligibility requirements and obtain additional information.

Falls Prevention Campaign:

In 2003, the Healthy Berrien Consortium, recognized that preventable falls contributed significantly to the admission of older county residents to emergency rooms and to their unnecessary deaths. The Area Agency on Aging agreed to take the lead in an effort to curb the incidence of these falls and enlisted the support of the Berrien County Health Department, Lakeland Regional Health System, the Berrien County Medical Society, and several other interested community agencies.

The group launched an endeavor called the “Heads Up” Falls Prevention Project, creating written materials explaining the dangers of falls and citing action older persons and their families, physicians, and pharmacists might take to prevent falls. The materials, printed by Lakeland Regional Health System, were made available in senior centers and nutrition sites, Senior Expos, physicians’ offices, drug stores, and emergency rooms.

A group of Andrews University graduate students conducted a follow-up at three annual Senior Expos providing to individual older persons tests for risks associated with falls.

Infant Mortality Reduction:

Healthy Berrien Consortium identified Infant Mortality as a priority health issue to be addressed in Berrien County back in 2001. Data presented to the Consortium at that time indicated that there was a significant and unacceptable disparity in infant mortality rates between babies born to African American mothers compared to White moms (21.7 deaths per 1,000 vs. 5.5). The Consortium assigned the addressment of this unacceptable disparity upon the Raising-Up Healthy Babies (infant mortality reduction) Taskforce.

Since 2001, a number of intervention and programs have been initiated through the Taskforce including Baby’s Own Bed (BOB) providing portable cribs for eligible families for safe sleep environment, and House to House (H2H) peer education – funded by the March of Dimes of Michigan, providing group education sessions (often in homes) regarding healthy pregnancies and safe sleep.

In addition, the Coalition has assured collaboration of other maternal/child health program services:

Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) Program, which pairs Berrien County Health Department nurses who make home visits with first-time mothers throughout the pregnancy and for the first two (2) years after birth.
Maternal and Infant Health Program (MIHP) services for Medicaid eligible pregnant women and their infants
Family Planning. Provide services to prevent unintended pregnancies, resulting in reduced infant death.
Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides nutritional assessment and education, food coupons, support and counseling for eligible women and their children (through age 5).

Others:

Healthy Berrien Consortium (HBC) has sponsored several large and small scale meetings in their effort to educate the community on various health issues.

In November, 1999, HBC co-sponsored with Congressman Fred S. Upton, a community forum entitled “Aging in America”. Dr. Teri Wetle, Deputy Director of the National Institute on Aging was the keynote speaker for this one-half day gathering. Among the panelists were such well-known personages as ethicist Dr. Leonard Fleck, and Michael Hash, the Deputy Director of HCFA. Lively debate and information-sharing dialogue created a very enlightening day for those 200 or more doctors and community residents who attended.

On April 12, 2001, HBC and Congressman Upton co-sponsored a second community forum, this one on the subject of “Telehealth … Connecting Healthcare to the Future.” The keynote speaker for this event was Ms. Dena Puskin, Director of the Federal Office for Advancement of Telehealth. The morning’s meeting provided demonstrations of cutting edge technology that is able to connect home, patients, and medical providers; as well as informative data from a panel of national and regional leaders from the field of telemedicine and telehealth.

Most years a legislative forum is held in the spring and both state and federal legislators are invited to hear from local experts on topics of concern in the health community. This year the focus is on access to health care along with decreasing smoking and preventing obesity.

Healthy Berrien Consortium also schedules meetings and hearings with local and national legislators and their health advisors, providing members of the local health community an opportunity to advocate for improved health care policy.

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