Public Health: Conversation and Opportunity

The Martha’s Vineyard Hospital’s new building project has seen four years of publicity, from a high-profile capital campaign to government approvals to actual construction to a gala opening last month.

But one of the quieter sides of the hospital project should now attract the immediate attention of Islanders. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, as part of the hospital’s determination of need application, requires that the hospital contribute money to benefit some aspect of community public health. The stipulated amount of the contribution is five per cent of the cost of the building project, which translates to just over a million dollars, to be paid out over five years.

Now the time has come to discuss how the money will be spent.

There have been a number of bureaucratic twists along the way, including a change in state rules that was invoked when the hospital returned for permission to add a permanent MRI facility to the new building. The new rules require more community involvement in the decision-making process for how the hospital contribution is spent. And that’s a good thing.

A group of Vineyarders, including town health agents and the Dukes County Health Council, have been meeting in recent months to gather existing material, including the Health Report of Martha’s Vineyard and Youth Task Force survey, in an attempt to assess public health needs. Priority issues have been targeted, including mental health, substance abuse, chronic disease and public health concerns, including Lyme disease.

More comment and participation is needed, and to that end a survey is available online and two public meetings will be held this week, one Tuesday at the Howes House in West Tisbury, the other Thursday at the Vineyard Haven Public Library. Both meetings will run from seven until eight-thirty and will be moderated by Paddy Moore, a veteran public health leader and meeting facilitator.

There is a tremendous opportunity here to devote serious money to one or two projects that could have a lasting, beneficial impact. And there is little doubt that one of the Island’s most pressing public health problems is in the area of mental health, including depression, addiction and substance abuse. Second only to that is Lyme disease, which occurs at epidemic levels on-Island, as documented in the Two thousand and five Health Report of Martha’s Vineyard. That report also drew an early connection between Lyme disease and depression, an area the study’s authors thought deserved more study.

A conversation has been going on in earnest in recent years about these serious public health ills that are endemic to the Island community. Now money may be available that could lead to pioneering programs, both in prevention and treatment. And that is certainly something worth pursuing.