Hamilton, Wenham, Manchester-By-The-Sea And Essex Awarded Public Health Excellence For Shared Services Grant

Press release from the Town of Hamilton:

May 13, 2021

The Towns of Hamilton, Wenham, Manchester-by-the-Sea and Essex are pleased to announce that Massachusetts Department of Public Health has awarded the towns funds to form a new Regional Public Health Partnership through the Public Health Excellence for Shared Services grant program. The grant will provide the new partnership $200,000 per year for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 fiscal years to support a full time Regional Public Health Nurse and a part time Regional Social Worker.

The two new regional positions will supplement each town’s existing public health staff to ensure that all four towns receive the public health services required to adequately meet their needs. While final details will need to be worked out, it is expected that the Regional Public Health Nurse will be responsible for managing public health clinics, emergency preparedness planning, communicable disease follow-up, and all other nursing functions as required. The Regional Social Worker is expected to provide crisis intervention and information referral services for all residents, infants to seniors, as well as working with the two regional school districts as both an educational and mental health resource.

The new regional health partnership expands on a history of collaboration amongst the communities, including school districts, veteran services and other regional staff positions. The towns look forward to continuing to work together to provide the best possible service to their residents.

This press release was produced by the Town of Hamilton. The views expressed here are the author’s own.