Massachusetts Health Council (MHC)
From MAHealthIT
Massachusetts Health Council (MHC)
Overview:
The Massachusetts Health Council is a non-profit, non-partisan statewide organization of more than 150 governmental and voluntary agencies, consumer and advocacy groups, professional societies, and private corporations committed to improving and protecting the health of the residents of the Commonwealth. Since 1920, MHC has provided a forum whereby health care leaders -- often from opposite sides of health policy issues -- come together to make a difference in improving health. Membership is open to Massachusetts statewide organizations and businesses. To learn more about joining MHC, click on the website link below.
MHC is the largest and the oldest health council in the country working to create healthier individuals and communities by concentrating on the pressing health care issues of access to care, quality, cost, and prevention. They are an organization playing a very active and successful role in shaping the development of policy on numerous health issues over the past decades. MHC authors and publishes a nationally-recognized biennial report: "Common Health for the Commonwealth: Massachusetts Trends in the Preventable Determinants of Health" which tracks issues that affect the health status of our communities. To download a copy of the report, click on the MHC website link below.
Current projects:
MHC serves as a convener, an educator and an advocator for issues of health promotion and health policy through the programs they develop and the issues they support. Below is a sample of their recent accomplishments and projects:
- In 2010, MHC’s advocacy on school nutrition was instrumental in the passage of a School Nutrition Bill in MA which will be implemented in all MA schools by 2012. This bill, which MHC worked on with Rep. Koutoujian since it was first addressed in the Legislature in early 2000, will ensure that school children have healthy nutritious foods available to them during and after school hours.
- In early 2011, MHC saw their advocacy and commitment to the formation of a Prevention Caucus in the State Legislature come to fruition. The Prevention Caucus will frame a dialog and focus public health policy within the General Court o the areas of prevention. A Prevention Caucus will encourage state leaders to support and endorse statewide efforts and legislation to promote healthy behaviors and create healthy communities.
- In the Fall of 2011, MHC will launch a MA Medication Awareness Program in collaboration with the MA College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The program will be held at senior centers in Worcester and Brookline and will provide education and medication counseling to seniors in an effort to prevent medication errors from occurring.
Links:
- Massachusetts Health Council (MHC) website
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