Policy Committee

Women & Heart Health Committee

CATCH

Worksite

Policy Committee

The Policy Committee met on March 18 and June 4, 2004.  This committee has focused most of its efforts on the work of the Commission to Study Public Health and its three sub-committees.  A mission statement for the Policy Committee has been drafted and is in final review.  During the spring, updates concerning legislation related to cardiovascular health were distributed.  Those updates tracked 10 pieces of legislation.

Women & Heart Health Committee

The Women & Heart Health Committee met on March 15 and May 17, 2004.  The committee has worked on promoting the AHA's Red Dress Awareness Campaign in February, integrating women and heart health into several local Healthy Maine Partnership work plans, providing planning input into the MCHC Cardiovascular Health Summit which focused on women and heart health, and the scheduling of women and heart health as the topic for the AHA Scientific Session in February 2005.  A five year Strategic Plan will be developed later in the year.

CATCH

The CATCH program recruited and trained five new Master Trainers in April, bringing the total of Maine-based Master Trainers to 10.  The new group is based primarily in Somerset County and was recruited by the former head of the DOE/Coordinated School Health Program, Bill Primmerman.  He intends to provide CATCH training in August 2004 to all the elementary schools in the county.  On May 6, 2004 five of these Master Trainers participated in a CATCH School training in Bangor.  There were 19 participants from six schools.  The number of CATCH schools trained by the CVH Program is now 55.

Worksite

Final edits are being made to the employer resource kit, "Good Work!  Linking Health to the Bottom Line:  Cost-Effective Strategies for a Healthier Workplace."  When finalized, the kit will be disseminated to HMP's, school health coordinators, and Healthy Community Initiatives, as well as being made available for download through this web site and the Maine Cardiovascular Health Program/Maine Bureau of Health web site.

Evaluation of the worksite pilot project has been planned.  Market Decisions will conduct interviews and administer post surveys with pilot site participants in order to conduct pre/post analyses and prepare summary reports for each employer, along with an aggregate report.