Community Report

CHS to Celebrate 30th Anniversary this Fall!Child Health Services is proud to announce its 30th Anniversary since Dr. Selma Deitch and the Board of Directors held the very first meeting in the fall of 1979. During this time, CHS has grown in so many positive ways and we are enormously proud to have reached this milestone. Together, we have all been a part of this success and together we will continue onward for another 30 years.

As we begin to make plans for our big anniversary party, please take a moment to reflect on how you first came to know of our clinic and what that means to you.

“The inaugural meeting of the Child Health Services Board of Directors was called to order by Board President, Eugene Lariviere, MD at 4:00 p.m. on September 5, 1979.” (From the CHS Board Meeting Archives)

And so Child Health Services came to life. Some things haven’t changed over the ensuing 30 years. As presented in 1979, the mission statement remains the same today “...the provision of high quality health services for a high risk population...that are promotional to their total health, meaning their physical, social and psychological well-being.” Created upon the understanding that the provision of health care alone will not ensure the development of a healthy child, CHS continues to address the factors that do make a difference: development of parenting skills, access to enrichment programs for children, linkage to other health care services such as dental health, nutritionist services, mental health and services such as family guidance in school matters.

All of these services are linked to expert, multi-discipline pediatric care, just as envisioned 30 years ago.

While the country remains enmeshed in figuring out how to create universal access to health care, CHS has not wavered from its founding principle that when it comes to helping at-risk children grow up healthy, access to health care alone is simply not enough.

A milestone such as 30 years of exemplary service to thousands of children should not pass by unnoticed. The agency is currently planning some events and other initiatives to occur throughout the next year to mark this occasion. As always, thank you for your support. Without your help, CHS would be unable to help its families raise healthy children.

Fred Rusczek, MPHExecutive Director

Executive Director’s Report

Quarterly Newsletter Summer - 2009

CHS Program Note:In partnership with

generous donations from the Green Acres School

in Manchester, gives out over 500 new and used books to our patients

through the “Reach Out and Read” program. CHS

has participated in this program for the past

ten years. Children and parents enjoy leaving

their appointments with a new book.

Special Medical Programs UpdateThe summer months are bring-ing significant changes to the Child Development and Neuro-motor Clinic programs within the Special Medical Programs offered at CHS. Not only are we able to expand our services to include the North Country and Lakes Region of New Hamp-shire, but we also look forward to working with a Developmen-tal Pediatrician at New London Hospital and a psychologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon and Weeks Memorial Hospital in Lancaster. Additionally, Public Health Nurse Care Coordinator posi-tions will continue for Man-chester, Seacoast, Keene, and Lebanon neuromotor clinics through these contracts. These new programs will enable us to more efficiently provide diagnostic evaluations and on-going specialty care to young children throughout much of New Hampshire.

CHS Program Fact:The average income for a family

of three at CHS is $13,000.

A rainy morning slowed to a drizzle in time for families to converge on the parking lot behind CHS for the annual Bike

Clinic in May. Started over fifteen years ago by Dr. Selma Deitch, the CHS Bike Clinic provides a way for our children to tune up and repair their bikes for the nice weather.

Nault’s Cyclery and Optimist Club volunteers repaired bikes and generously defrayed the cost of bicycle parts. Manchester Police Department

officers registered the bikes to their owners and several community volunteers fit helmets and ran the obstacle course. Thanks to the generosity of Hannaford and Stop ‘N Shop Supermarkets, there were refreshments for everyone. At the end of the day, over forty happy children went home with safe bicycles, new helmets and big smiles.

Bike Clinic a Big Success Once Again

Field Trip to the Manchester Library

Social Services at CHS partnered with the Parent

Information and Referral Network recently in order to provide an orientation of the Manchester Public Library to Spanish-speaking families. Both bilingual family support workers from CHS were on-hand to help parents and

children obtain library cards, take a guided tour, and learn how to use the library. The benefits and positive outcomes from parents reading and using books with their children is well documented. CHS will continue to provide this service to our families and we hope to increase our participation as time goes on.

CHS Program Note:The Children’s Care

Campaign started in 2006 and has since provided more functional clinic

space and a more inviting environment for our clients.

We are well positioned to serve a growing number of

children in need.

Child Health Services has raised over $1.2 million

dollars for this campaign and we are at 97% of our

fundraising goal.

CHS Program Fact:45% of all patient exams at CHS

require a language interpreter. The three languages most often spoken

are Spanish, Nepali, and Arabic.

Nutrition Class Highlights

PartnershipsThrough our friends at The Bean Foundation and the New African Americans Organization, the Teen Health Clinic at CHS conducted the first pilot food sanitation and cooking class on June 9, 2009. The purpose of the class was to orient students to safe food handling techniques and to demonstrate the preparation of nutritious cultural foods with products generally available in local grocery stores. CHS has received funding for eight more classes and we hope this will continue to have a positive impact on our refugee families.

Medical Director News By Lisa DiBrigida, M.D.

It is my great honor to address you as the Medical Director of Child Health Services. As we approach our 30th year anniversary, I want to look back to the founding principles that Selma Deitch first outlined when she started CHS in 1980. Providing medical care for low income children and adolescents in the Manchester area through a multidisciplinary model (medical, nutritional and family support) has long been our mission. Many of these children have special health care needs and we have expanded to include behavioral health, mental health and legal services for our families.

“Comprehensive Medical Home,” is a term describing a national movement to encourage coordinated, primary preventive care for all. According to the Center for Medical Home Institute (CMHI) web site: “CMHI defines the medical home as a community-based primary care setting which provides and coordinates high quality, planned, family-centered health promotion, acute illness care and chronic condition management.” This is and always has been the philosophy at CHS. The agency’s biopsychosocial model of care forms the basis of our medical home principles and is indeed the best practice to assure our desired outcome: healthy children, teens and families in the Manchester community. Over the coming months, we will be working to attain the highest level on the CMHI’s Medical Home Index and other Medical Home certifications.

As our client population continues to grow in these troubling economic times, it is important to remember that without our services, children and adolescents living below 185% of the poverty line would have limited health care options. Our new families are often first-time parents or refugees from Albania, Somalia, Iraq, Burundi, and Bhutan - to name a few. More often than not, these families are not able to successfully navigate the traditional health system because they lack health insurance, do not understand preventive health care, or simply do not have transportation.

The staff and management at Child Health Services continue to review and improve our methods of delivering the necessary care clients deserve. We work very hard to provide coordinated health guidance, treatment and support to families in need, and partner with many other agencies in our community to make it happen. We have done so proudly for the last 30 years, and look forward to doing so well into the future.

2nd Annual Mothers Breakfast

a Huge Success!

Child Health Services is proud to announce this year’s Mothers Breakfast raised over $25,000 for our organization and we are all very appreciative of all the attendees who supported the event. Started in 2008, our annual breakfast is held to honor mothers and members of the community who help raise healthy children. Our major sponsors, Elliot Hospital, Bank of America, and Dartmouth-Hitchcock, were very generous in their contributions. We are grateful for their commitment to our programs.

WMUR News anchor Erin Fehlau provided the keynote address. Ms. Fehlau is pictured above with our two honored guests, Hashira Rodriguez and Tina Verville. Hashira and Tina are patients in our Teen Health Clinic and both did an amazing job speaking about how CHS was able to give them the support they needed when times were tough.

We’re already beginning to plan next year’s Breakfast and we are looking forward to increasing community participation. Thank you to all who have supported this event and we look forward to seeing you in 2010.

Long time pediatrician Maria O’Sullivan is known for her compassion for the families and children served by CHS. As a parent, Dr. O’Sullivan instilled the

same values in her children. Her two sons, Andrew and David Kurd demonstrated their caring spirit by going the extra mile to raise a significant gift for CHS. In fact, they ran 26.2 miles in the Philadelphia Marathon. They were cheered on and supported by dozens of friends who collectively pledged nearly $10,000 and finished the race!

“Running the Philadelphia Marathon allowed us to continue our strong support for CHS’s mission to improve the medical care and lives of the children in New Hampshire. We dedicate our participation in the marathon to the twenty-five years our mother worked at Child Health Services,” said David Kurd. We all appreciate their outstanding commitment to the children of CHS!

Philadelphia Marathon Runners Raise Money for CHS

Lunch with the Board - Join Us!

This fall will mark the return of Lunch

with the Board - where each week

CHS will invite special guests to come

have lunch in our downtown Man-

chester clinic.

In an effort to help develop a stronger

bond between the community and

our clinic, we want anyone who may

be interested in hearing about our

progress and hard work to come join

us for an afternoon lunch. We would

greatly enjoy the opportunity to hear

from you about how we can continue

to improve our services and help the

families we serve. Please call (603)

668-6629 if you are interested in

having lunch with us this fall.

CHS Program Fact:The Teen Health Clinic at CHS has

helped hundreds of homeless teens find jobs and get on the right track towards making healthy choices in

their lives.

D o c t o r P r o f i l e S e r i e s : To m B i s e t t , M . D.

A very pensive and thoughtful man, Tom is soft-spoken and very calm in his demeanor. He was initially turned onto

medicine through his high school biology teacher who stressed the importance of accuracy and the pride that comes with a job well done. These lessons traveled with Tom throughout his schooling at the University of Rochester New York and eventually his residency at University of North Carolina School of Medicine at Chapel Hill.

It was there at Chapel Hill that Tom was faced with a decision between Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. He found great inspiration and influence from his mentoring doctors on the pediatric team and chose to pursue this discipline.

Around that same time, doctors were just starting to integrate the biopsychosocial model of medicine. At its core, the biopsychosocial model helps us understand that in order to treat a patient, the biological symptoms, psychological stresses, and social environment must all be considered in order to accurately treat a health issue. Tom worked with a

1245 Elm StreetManchester, NH 03101(603) 668-6629www.childhealthservices.org

Child Health Services NON PROFIT ORG.

US POSTAGEPAID

Manchester, NH 03101Permit #361

CHS September Open HouseSeptember 16, 2009 5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Refreshments served and tours conductedCome meet our doctors and amazing staff!

group of physicians during his residency to develop a team-centered approach to treating children.

Tom views poverty and access to adequate health care as the two most important problems facing the people of Manchester. Other considerations revolve around these two central issues, such as family structure, obesity, and other social influences that can have detrimental effects on our children. Tom’s expertise in the biopsychosocial model has prepared him very well for his work here at CHS and our clients enjoy him greatly.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTORFrederick A. Rusczek, MPH

MEDICAL DIRECTORLisa A. DiBrigida, M.D.

BOARD OF DIRECTORSNorm Turcotte

PresidentBarbara Labonte

TreasurerJoanne Gustafson

SecretaryJoseph A. DiBrigida

Clerk

DIRECTORSAndrea Chatfield

Marc CullerotLaurie Forlano, D.O., MPH

Laurie GlaudeTed Krantz

Christine MaddenSteve Paris, M.D.Rick Phelps, M.D.

Timothy RileyChristine Rosenwasser, M.D.

Susan Scacchi Judy Streeter