Health

HEALTHY COMMUNITY PLANNING

The purpose of Fostering Healthier Communities is to facilitate and encourage municipalities to plan for and create vibrant, active, healthier, and more equitable places through their built environments.

How a community is designed has a direct effect on the health of its residents. Land development patterns, zoning ordinances, and land use classifications impact walkability, access to services, and transportation options, which in turn impact our health. Often the built environment serves to create and exacerbate inequitable access to the resources and power that people need to be healthy and thrive.

Health equity is defined by the CDC as the state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health.

Health inequities are patterns of differences in health outcomes between groups of people. Those differences are driven by inequities in how resources, opportunities, wealth, and power are distributed within and across our communities.

How TRORC supports our communities in planning for health:

1. Including a specific chapter in your Town Plan explicitly focused on public health ensures that a greater emphasis is placed on health and health equity throughout other plan elements and helps to coordinate and focus Town resources to address community health needs. TRORC staff can assist you in developing or updating a health chapter for your Town Plan
2. TRORC can support your Town with planning or policy work that advances health equity. We can provide technical assistance for plan or ordinance work as well as funding to support community engagement.
3. Zoning and other ordinances also play a critical role in shaping the built environment and its impacts on our health. TRORC assists municipalities with creating or revising tobacco regulations, especially protections for smoke-free / vape-free public spaces.

If your town is interested in resources for developing a Health Chapter for your Town Plan, creating a Health and Wellness Committee, ensuring public spaces are smoke-free, or undertaking a health equity project, please email Sarah Wraight at [email protected] or call 802-457-3188.

PLANNING RESOURCES

Community Health Needs Assessments

• Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center Assessment(2021)
• DHMC and Alice Peck Day Assessment (2022)
• Valley Regional Healthcare Community Health Improvement Plan (2021)
• Hospital Community Health Improvement Plans

Local Health District Office

• White River Junction
  • Resources for WIC services, Maternal and Child Health, Healthy Community Design, Worksite Wellness, School Health, Immunizations, Infectious Diseases, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention, Tobacco Prevention, Emergency Preparedness, Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention, Local Reports and Data

Statewide/Local Health Partners

• Rise VT
  • works with municipalities, employers, schools, etc. to provide opportunities to “make the healthy choice the easy choice”
  • Scorecards available to measure/track progress
• Dartmouth-Hitchcock Partners for Community Wellness
  • Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity
    • CARHE brings together healthcare redesign, research, community action, and education to make sure that people in rural areas have the chance to live healthy lives.
  • Community Ambassador Program:
    • Ambassadors
      • Listen to the community 
      • 2. Inform DHMC on community health issues 
      • 3. Engage and promote health and wellness through initiatives
    • Interested candidates can submit an application to become an ambassador for their towns
• VT Department of Health
  • Public Health Data Explorer – View public health information, trends, and indicators on both local/state level
  • 3-4-50 Campaign – 3 Behaviors lead to 4 Diseases and result in more than 50% of Deaths in Vermont.
• Mt. Ascutney Prevention Partnership
  • A substance abuse prevention and health promotion coalition
• Ottauquechee Health Foundation
  • A non-profit foundation that provides grants to individuals and programs to improve health and wellness in specific Vermont communities
• Upper Valley Community Nursing Project
  • The overarching goal of the UVCNP is to add a health professional to the informal network of volunteers already providing care for elders.

Education, Health & Human Services

• Vermont Insights: data on VT’s children, families, and communities
• School Reports: information from the education system and schools
• Agency of Human Resources Maps: maps that include a VT social vulnerability index (SVI), a heat vulnerability index, and a VT travel clinic finder
• Vermont Afterschool Program Map

Food Security

• Food Research and Action Center: a toolkit for addressing food security
• Children’s Health Watch: Hunger Vital Sign
  • Households are identified as being at risk for food insecurity if they answer that either or both of the following two statements is ‘often true’ or ‘sometimes true’ (vs. ‘never true’):
  •  Within the past 12 months we worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more.”
  • “ Within the past 12 months the food we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have money to get more.”
• Hunger Council of the Upper Valley: discussing ways to end hunger in the Upper Valley
• Vermont Farm-to-Plate

Planning Toolkits

• Health Equity Planning Toolkit
• TRORC/MAPP Town Health Chapter Template (includes example goal, policy, and recommendation language from town plans published around the state)
• Plan4Health– Through an overarching collaborative strategy that brings together members of APA and the American Public Health Association (APHA), the Plan4Health project is building local capacity to address population health goals and promote the inclusion of health in non-traditional sectors. 
• Healthy Community Design– VT Dep. of Health design guides for:
  • Active Living and Healthy Eating
    • pg. 45 includes sample language for Town Plans
  • Physical Activity, Healthy Eating, Tobacco, Alcohol & Drug Abuse Prevention
• Lamoille County Planning Commission Health Planning Template
• TRORC Regional Plan: Fostering Healthy Communities Chapter

HEALTH SERVICES

Health Resource Manual– compiled by Mt. Ascutney Hospital

Hospitals

• Gifford Medical Center– Randolph VT
• Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center– Windsor VT
• Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center– Lebanon NH
• Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital– Lebanon NH
• Cottage Hospital– Haverhill NH

Health Centers

• Bethel
• Chelsea
• Kingwood (Randolph)
• Rochester
• Sharon
• Twin River (White River Junction)
• Ottauquechee (Woodstock)

Food Security Resources

• Upper Valley Haven– Along with shelter, UVH has a bread shelf open 24/7 to the community, a food shelf open Monday-Friday, and a cafe.
• Veggie Van Go– Vegetables are delivered at Mt. Ascutney Hospital twice a month (2nd Tuesday) and distributed to the community.