About The PHC

The Public Health Council of the Upper Valley (PHC) is comprised of community leaders and representatives from many community sectors. These partners work together to create a more healthy, safe, supportive, and vital Upper Valley.

PHC members work together to set regional health priorities, provide guidance to regional public health activities, and ensure coordination of health improvement efforts. In the Upper Valley, the PHC  leverages and coordinates existing and new resources to address priorities. We work by encouraging multi-disciplinary partnerships, sharing innovative approaches across the region, and improving consistency of public health approaches across towns.

In January 2016, members of the PHC adopted a Charter to describe how the Council operates, how leadership is selected, and what roles members play. This Charter was updated in September 2017 to reflect major organizational changes in the organization.

“In a lot of ways, I view the PHC as miraculous. It gives volunteer-based organizations the strength to make crucial changes for entire communities that we could never attempt alone.” Marjorie Matthews, NAMI NH Volunteer Advocate, Teacher, and Support Group Facilitator

Setting Priorities

The Upper Valley Agenda for Public Health was created in 2014 by PHC members to lay out a broad set of priorities and the measures we will use to assess our progress. This Agenda was built on more than a decade of needs assessments and examining regional trends in health and well-being. Records of the meetings at which this work was accomplished can be found at this archive website.

The Upper Valley Community Health Improvement Plan: 2015 to 2017 provides a more detailed set of strategies for addressing five of the region’s priorities:

• Substance Misuse Prevention
• Promoting Healthy Weight
• Preventing Older Adult Falls
• Improving Oral Health Care
• Emergency Preparedness

The PHC will continue to develop approaches to addressing other priorities as time, resources, and opportunities permit.

Upper Valley Community Health Needs Assessment, November 2015

The PHC works with area hospitals to conduct routine community health needs assessments. These assessments form the basis for updating priorities and give us insight into what we are accomplishing.