Dover-Foxcroft – The Piscataquis Public Health Council (PPHC), our region's Healthy Maine Partnership, is a coalition of community organizations, schools, and individuals that strive to develop an environment that supports a healthy life through education, prevention, advocacy, and services. Three areas of interest in which the PPHC works to improve community health and individual well-being are physical activity, nutrition, and decreased tobacco use. Recently, the PPHC received a grant from the Partnership for a Tobacco-Free Maine to conduct a project that will enhance the organizational capacity of the coalition. Seven of the 31 Healthy Maine Partnerships around the state received these one year grants to build the coalitions' infrastructure as well as to reduce and eliminate, tobacco related health disparities at the community level by working with a specific population.  

The PPHC's "Community Outreach Project" will work with groups like the Piscataquis Oral Health Coalition, Penquis CAP's Parents are Teachers Too (PATT) program, area providers, (including Ob-Gyn clinicians), and local housing authority and housing sites, to access smoking adults in the age range of 18-44 years. A special emphasis will be placed on reaching pregnant women and those with lower incomes. One of the goals of the project is to increase access to the more difficult to reach smoking population by incorporating educational and clinical resources into existing family service centers and health care practices. "This project is designed to approach the subject of tobacco use with some innovative methods. It is our hope that by utilizing a social marketing approach, the smoking population of Piscataquis County may be afforded more effective and efficient access to tobacco education resources and cessation techniques," said Susan Crippen, Community Partnership Assistant for this project.  

The Piscataquis Public Health Council is one of 31 local Healthy Maine Partnerships, working on tobacco-prevention and control, physical activity and nutrition using tobacco settlement funds provided through the Fund for a Healthy Maine.

For more information about the Community Outreach Project, contact Susan Crippen at scrippen@mayohospital.com / 564-4344. To learn more about the Piscataquis Public Health Council, contact Robin Mayo at rmayo@mayohospital.com / 564-4344 or visit the website at http://www.mayohospital.com/pphc/.