June 9, 2000

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy will deliver the keynote address at the MGH Community Benefit Program anniversary celebration June 19 under the Bulfinch Tent, beginning at 11 am. Other speakers will include James J. Mongan, MD, president of the MGH, and patients and community representatives who have benefited from or participated in some of the programs. For more information, call 4-6424.

It is a Saturday evening and a mental health clinician from the MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center rides in a squad car with a Chelsea police officer. The two respond to a scene where a child has witnessed an act of domestic violence. This collaboration, the Police Action Counseling Team (PACT), is just one of the many programs established by the MGH Community Benefit Program that go above and beyond what might be expected of one of the world's largest and busiest hospitals. Now in its fifth year, the program will celebrate its anniversary June 19.

"The MGH Community Benefit Program is all about partnerships," says Joan Quinlan, director of the program. "Its mission is to collaborate with underserved communities to make a measurable improvement in health status," she says.

The program has created partnerships with health care facilities, schools, local governments, police and residents to address goals such as decreasing violence, expanding access to health care and reducing and preventing substance abuse among youth. Since its creation in 1995, the MGH Community Benefit Program has developed programs and partnerships that have achieved real results in Boston-area communities, including Chelsea, Revere and Charlestown.

When the program began, Quinlan says, the communities of Chelsea, Revere and Charlestown were asked to join the MGH to identify key community health concerns. "The communities identified substance abuse and violence among youth as the priority issues," she says. "Comprehensive initiatives were developed in partnership with the communities to address these issues. Each of the programs within these initiatives has had measurable impact on our surrounding communities."

Community Benefit programs include PACT, a partnership between the MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center and the Chelsea Police that provides crisis intervention to children who have witnessed violence; Revere CARES (Community Awareness, Resources and Education to prevent Substance abuse), a community coalition led by the MGH to reduce substance abuse among Revere's youth; CHAMP (Chelsea Asthma Management Program); and the Immigrant and Refugee Health Initiative, a program that helps Bosnian and Somali immigrants and refugees in Chelsea access available health care services.

Other Community Benefit programs include the HAVEN (Hospitals Helping Abuse and Violence End Now) program and the MGH/Timilty Partnership, which provides science programming and education to students of the James P. Timilty Middle School in Roxbury.

Debbie Eason, director of the First Baptist Family Resource Center — a member of the Revere CARES coalition — says that the collaborative efforts initiated by the MGH Community Benefit Program have had real impact on substance abuse in the community she serves. "It has helped create a dialogue about the problems Revere faces with substance abuse among youth and helped us to become proactive in finding solutions," she says.