You may have heard that there is a new health center in the works for the Boothbay region. It is getting closer to coming to fruition and here’s more information about the plans.

The Boothbay Region Health Center (BRHC) is envisioned to be a comprehensive primary care health center under community governance to serve the health needs of the people of the Boothbay region with a collaborative team of physicians, nurses and allied health professionals working in partnership with our patients and other community health services.

We plan to provide:

• Comprehensive primary care
• Extended hours, same day access, walk-in availability, after hours on-call
• Mental health, behavioral health and substance abuse services
• Dental care
• Patient compass program employing health coaches to assist patients to navigate the health care system and to provide proactive and preventive care
• Integrative and holistic health services
• Referral to selected specialists and acute care facilities
• Community health education

We are a private not-for-profit corporation established to do business in the state of Maine to “provide health services for the residents of the Boothbay Region.” The board was formed in March 2014 as an initiative of the Boothbay Region Health and Wellness Foundation to research the health care needs and plan for health services for our community that would improve access and coordination of health services and decrease the need for emergency care. Board members currently include Jerry Homer, Liz Lussier, and Carl Hamrin. The rest of the board will be comprised primarily of patients. Bringing health care back under the control of the people of the Boothbay region is an important part of our vision for the new health center.

We want the Boothbay region to be on the cutting edge of the changes that are taking place across the country. As we researched the best ways to provide effective primary care, several models stood out.

We discovered that there are grassroots efforts to improve access to comprehensive primary care around the country as health care changes such as hospital closures are occurring everywhere. Efforts are being made to make health care more accessible, affordable and efficient by going back to the old style of the family practitioner with whom you build a relationship. That includes house calls and 24-hour access to your primary care team.

A new concept in the provision of comprehensive primary care that we found in other successful models is the inclusion of health coaches on the primary practice team. Health coaches are not necessarily medical personnel, but their role is to be an extension to your doctor and to be your wellness coach. Health coaches can help patients with chronic medical conditions monitor their health status and alert the doctor when needed. Health coaches will be valuable members of the team at BRHC.

A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) in 2013 revealed that Lincoln County is the oldest county in the oldest state in the nation with many healthcare needs normally associated with an aging population — heart disease, cancer and stroke. More recent statistics from the Maine Shared Community Health Needs Assessment, 2016 reported that Lincoln County has:

• Higher hypertension prevalence than the state
• Higher pre-diabetes prevalence
• More children with confirmed elevated blood lead levels (4.5 percent Lin; 2.5 percent ME)
• High Lyme disease incidences
• High pertussis (whooping cough) incidences

A healthier community requires that we all have a good relationship with a primary physician and health care team that help us stay on top of our health issues. Part of that is ensuring that we are also more emotionally healthy. The same report also reveals some mental health and substance abuse issues that need addressing:

• High rates for firearm deaths, reported rape and suicide deaths as compared to the state
• High alcohol-induced mortality
• More chronic heavy drinking (adults)
• More drug-affected baby referrals received as a percentage of all live births
• More past-30-days nonmedical use of prescription drugs (adult)
• High prescription Monitoring Program opioid prescriptions

Mental/behavioral health counseling and substance abuse treatment/counseling will be an important part of the services offered at the new health center.

For more info and related news go to our website: www.boothbayhealthcare.org.

Does this sound good to you? Are we missing anything? Since we are still in the planning stages there’s time to get more input from the people of the Boothbay Region. We want to hear from you. What do you want from your community health center? Please contact us: info@boothbayhealthcare.org Like us on Facebook. www.facebook.com/boothbayhealthcare.org/

We need your help. Watch your mailbox in May for our capital fund appeal. We cannot do this without the support of the community.

For more information contact Elizabeth Lussier, 633-1162, or go to: http://boothbayhealthcare.org/contact-us-2/