Nancy LaRue Bonnell, Vice President of Operation at the YMCA Southcoast, envisioned a coalition of civic organizations and leaders that change community policies. With a $40,000 grant from the YMCA of the USA, she began to do just that.
Bonnell invited Southcoast Health Systems to partner with the YMCA Southcoast on the project because its hospitals matched the Y’s urban service areas: Charlton in Fall River, St. Luke’s in New Bedford, and Tobey in Wareham. Donna Querim at Southcoast Health Systems, who performs health screening and outreach in the Fall River area, was selected to co-coach with Bonnell on the coalition.
The two coaches sought community representatives with a background in health from Swansea to Wareham to help brainstorm ideas and implement changes in policies. Getting representatives has been challenging, said Bonnell. But she and Querim built a coalition of 26 volunteers from 22 organizations and businesses over the past two years.
By focusing on tobacco prevention, nutrition and an active lifestyle, the group hopes to make it easier for South Coast residents to make healthy choices that will reduce and prevent chronic diseases.
Tobacco Prevention
“Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of death on the South Coast,” said Bonnell. Reducing tobacco use will help change that. According to the CDC, smoking accounts for more than 440,000 deaths per year nationally. And, as noted in a recent Standard Times op-ed article, tobacco is the one consumer product that, when used as directed, causes illness and death, said Lynda Young, M.D., president of the Massachusetts Medical Society.
Working with Bristol County and Cape and Islands tobacco control officers, the coalition met with the Fall River, New Bedford, and Wareham boards of health to changes tobacco permit regulations to reduce smoking opportunities.
The result was a ban on the sale of tobacco in pharmacies in those communities. “It’s a mixed message at best when a pharmacy sells nicotine patches and cigarettes at the same time,” said Bonnell. Fall River and New Bedford voted to ban tobacco sales in pharmacies in 2011, and Wareham’s ban went into effect January 1, 2012.
“We’re hoping this will be a model for the State to use,” said Quirem.
Latest Comments