Miles City, MT –
Miles City, MT – A Consensus Building Forum titled Priorities in Healthcare Delivery in Eastern Montana took place on June 2, 2011, at the Miles City Community College
Global Health Equity Foundation, in collaboration with Holy Rosary Healthcare Foundation, and sponsored by Yellowstone Insurance Exchange, conducted a 2nd live Consensus Building Forum that focused discussion on five critical areas in healthcare delivery for Eastern Montana. This Forum was a follow-up to the Forum held on March 03, 2011 in Miles City.
“Consensus Building Forum: Priorities in Healthcare Delivery in Eastern Montana” brought together fifty healthcare providers, healthcare & technology experts, and community leaders from many parts of Eastern Montana. The Forum was opened by Tayeb Al-Hafez, MD, Founder of Global Health Equity Foundation, Jackie Muri, Director of Holy Rosary Healthcare Foundation, and Chris Hopkins, VP of Strategy for Montana Health Network. Albert Mons, Executive Director of the Concept Web Alliance, gave a presentation on next-generation web search technology in the context of health information and health education. There was representation by the Custer, McCone and Prairie County Health Departments and by the offices of Senator Tester and Senator Baucus.
Participants broke up into five discussion groups for two hours, where each discussion was facilitated by a Group Facilitator and focused on a major issue previously discussed in the March Forum, with the addition of one new topic. The discussion topics were: Access to Health Education/Health Care/Preventive Services, Challenges Facing Healthcare Providers, Mental Illness & Behavioral Health, Health Management of the Aging Population, and Technology & Multimedia. Each group worked to develop practical solutions that address the challenges and opportunities identified for each topic. In this Forum, each group was asked to create an action plan that outlined the next steps required to produce outcomes based on those solutions. All groups reconvened at the end of the day to share their results and to engage in an open discussion with one another. The results of the Consensus Building Forum are presented in a Declaration of Consensus.
For More Information Contact:
press@ghef.org
(406) 233-4043
Holy Rosary Healthcare Foundation
http://www.holyrosaryhealthcare.org
Montana Health Network
http://www.montanahealthnetwork.com
Global Health Equity Foundation is a non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of people who lack access to health education, prevention services, and healthcare. For more information on Global Health Equity Foundation or any of its projects, please visit www.ghef.org.
When I took part in the Consensus Building forum, I was struck by how different stakeholders came together to develop concrete action plans. And now those plans are being put into action. Momentum has built. … We should put access to knowledge, in the hands of everyday people, no matter where they live. A simple directory of services needs to be developed. There’s a lack of providers for suicide prevention. There’s a lack of access to mental health services in general. There’s a lack of knowledge about mental health at all levels. Education is needed at the community level. Physicians need diagnosis guidelines for mental health, help with research, help with applying for grants and awards, guidelines for targeting specific problems.
One of the community members at the first forum held in Eastern Montana was the wife of one of my physician colleagues. Her child needed mental health services, and there were no adequate resources locally. Now she and other community members have come together to form a chapter of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) in Miles City. At a GHEF forum, she connected with the people she needed to know to get that done.
Relationships are the basis of knowledge. The ability to form relationships is where GHEF excels. Other organizations may not combine education with access to health care. They don’t provide education with the provision of medicine and food for displaced persons. Technology and education needs to be provided where the displaced population lives.
In the second forum that GHEF hosted in Eastern Montana, that was where an executive group made sure the action items were carried out. People were motivated. I would tell anyone in health care that a GHEF conference is one they don’t want to miss. — Dr. Paul Cook, MD, MHA, CPE, SCLA, Member of GHEF Board of Directors | Interview with Dr.Paul Cook