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Moderator: Thank you very much. I have the honor now to introduce Dr. Barbara Ferrer.
Dr. Ferrer, of course, is the city's Health Commissioner. She manages a fairly impressive
budget as most big city health commissioners do, but it's often not understood that the
role the City Health Health Commission here plays. Obviously they have a strong history
in that of Paul Revere, of being forthright and aggressive and improving the health of
the public. But what many of you don't know, the Boston Commission oversees the emergency
medical services. So when we had the tragedy of the bombings here in Boston, it was the
Health Department that was very much engaged in making sure that lives were saved.
And so with further ado, I'd like to bring to the podium the Commissioner of the great
city of Boston, Dr. Barbara Ferrer.
Dr. Barbara Ferrer: Good afternoon and thank you so much Dr. Benjamin, Dr. Troutman, and
the entire APA team. Your outstanding leadership and commitment to securing support for public
health practices and policies that promote optimal health and well-being for all people
is deeply appreciated. The American Public Health Association is
a source of much needed assistance to those of us practicing in cities and towns across
the nation and in particular, we here in Boston have benefited from your renewed focus on
advocacy aimed at improving access to quality prevention services. Congratulations and many,
many thanks. I also want to thank our esteemed speakers
today and the thousands of public health practitioners that have come together in Boston to share
best practices and collaborate on finding solutions to our most pressing challenges.
I am honored to be here today to introduce one of the nations finest public health heroes,
my boss and my friend, Mayor Thomas Menino. From embracing our work at the Health Department
to address racism as the root cause of health inequities, to his support for regulations
promoting health, such as banning artificial trans-fat, embracing strong tobacco control
measures, and regulating neighborhood polluters, the Mayor has been a champion of the public
health cause that means so very much to us.
But it has never been just about initiatives and regulations. There isn't a meeting I attend
or a conversation I have with the Mayor where he doesn't ask me or another program director
to reach out and help a person in distress, a person who needs a second chance, or a person
who's falling behind. His actions are rooted in core values, respect for everyone, an obligation
to make the world a better place and a belief that those of us working in government are
here to serve.
It would take too long for me to list the Mayor's many public health accomplishments,
or tell you about all the times that he has been on the cutting edge of public health
practice. But I hope you'll indulge me as I share a couple of examples that I think
illustrate the Mayor's uncanny ability to connect with residents and take their stories,
their lived experiences and use them to inform the way he runs the city.
In 2003 the Institute of Medicine published a study that pointed to the enormous gap in
health outcomes between people of color and White residents in the United States. Almost
immediately the Mayor dug into the city's health data and proclaimed it unacceptable
that in a city full of health care resources, such serious gaps could exist based on the
color of ones skin. The Mayor convened a first of its kind task force on racial and ethnic
health disparities and issued a blueprint for eliminating inequities in Boston.
Even more importantly, the Mayor talked openly about the relationship between racism and
health in Boston. Dedicated city resources to narrowing the gap and called on all other
sectors in the city to be part of the solution. I am proud to say that under his leadership
we have reduced the gap in infant mortality. We still have a lot of work to do, but we
would not be where we are without the Mayor's support. The Mayor's grasp with humanity transcends
race, age, class, and disability status. He feels residences pain and experiences their
joys as well. No where was this more evident then when he took up the mantle for children
with Autism and their families. In 2008 the Mayor was at a community event,
as he often is, and ran into a resident who's son had recently been diagnosed with Autism.
In their conversation the mother talked about how difficult it was for her to get services
for her son and how much her family had to pay out of pocket to get adequate health care
and social supports. Within months the Mayor was hosting the first ever Autism Summit in
Boston and marshaling resources in the public schools and community centers to meet the
needs of students with Autism.
He also uses considerable clout to push for legislation requiring full health insurance
coverage of Autism tests and treatment which passed in 2010. As with health inequities,
the Mayor saw unfairness in the system and said to these families, “You should not
have to face the challenges of receiving care alone,” and then he did everything in his
power to help. Most impressively the Mayor has stood behind
policies that address the fundamental issues effecting health. Supporting zoning changes
to expand urban agricultural opportunities. Testifying for legislation, mandating paid
sick leave benefits for all workers. Establishing a living wage requirement for all city employees
and unifying mayors from across the entire country to end gun violence.
I could spend the entire afternoon telling stories like these about our mayor and if
you've had the pleasure to meet him, as over 80 percent of Boston residents have, you know
that these are more than snapshots of an average elected official. This is how the Mayor lives
his life and the reason why he's been so effective at his job. We have been so lucky to benefit
from his compassion, his energy, and his unwillingness to accept anything less than the best for
this wonderful city.
Mr. Mayor, it's now my honor and pleasure to introduce you to the American Public Health
community.
Mayor Menino: Thank you Barbara. Thank you all for being here. Thank you Barbara for
that introduction. Welcome all of you to Title Town. I'm getting so tired of winning World
Championships! That's why I'm leaving office because I just don't—I can't do these parades
all the time.Barbara Ferrer is my Executive Director in the Public Health Commission;
she's a very special person. Her commission has done so much good in the city of Boston
in my years as Mayor, changed the thoughts about how public health adresses some of the
issues in Boston.And so, as I leave office I hope that whoever takes my place in the
City Hall, will continue the practice we've had with public health in Boston.
While you're here, let me just say that I hope you're able to get around and see our
city and enjoy our wonderful restaurants, museums, and historical sites. I'm a little
bias, I think this is the best city in the world. Right?
I'm here to talk with you today about some of the things we are doing in Boston to make
our city even healthier. And I'm proud of what I've been able to do promoting the health
of our city. We've gone to a lot of trouble banning smoking
in bars and the workplace. They said to me at the Public Health Commission, “We're
going to do this,” I said, “Okay, let's do it.” And so they said, “Okay, well
announce it,” and we announced it on Valentine's Day. In the smokiest bar in the City of Boston,
Doyle's. If anybody's been to Dolye's in Boston, that was the smokiest bar in the city. We
said we'll do it on Valentine's Day. We survived. We survived.
And I'll tell you folks, the media made a big play of that. Nobody, as I met people
in the neighborhoods, nobody ever criticized me about that. They thanked me for it. Sometimes
these issues the media makes out as important issues, it's important to them, but it's not
important to the people who live in your city. That's still important.
Some of the other ones is trans-fats in restaurants. Taking blunt wraps out of retail stores, pulling
soda out of the schools; biggest political fight in my whole career. I had teachers and
parents against me. Imagine teachers
and parents coming together? They wanted those soda machines so bad. But you know, Mayors
win. We also got soda machines out of the city buildings and talked honestly about the
impact, like Barbara said, of racism and the health of our residents of our city.
We're the greatest health care in the whole world, our hospitals. By the shadows of those
hospitals, there was some young people who weren't getting health care and so I put this
team together. Let me tell you, the hospitals in our city reacted immediately, Mass General,
Brigham Womens Hospital, all important placed to deal with that issue. They [inaudible]
why they are available to first responders, active users and families and friends of active
users. We invest in youth development to make sure
that our kids have a positive outlet. All this wasn't easy, even though we've taken
some lumps in the media and a few more in the community, I don't regret any of those
decisions I made and that's because we've been effective improving the health of the
residents of Boston. During my tenure we have seen smoking rates
dropping 25% to 15%. We've seen young tobacco rates drop during this time as well. Speaking
of young people on the investment education, after-school programs, summer jobs has paid
off. Since I became Mayor we have seen our teen pregnancy rate drop by 50%. I'm really
proud to say that drug abuse mortality, which peaked in 2006, dropped 5-6% after initiating
our [inaudible] education and training program. Now I don't want to leave you with the impression
that we've solved all the problems. I assure that the next mayor will not be bored. But
let me just say, I know that we're leaving the city in a solid foundation with the neighborhood
coalitions stronger than ever and I still see infrastructure and built a foster health.
And also one of the things that the Public Health Commission did in Boston was connect
violence—no the police take that job, right, but public health took a round in the City
of Boston. We created violence intervention programs. When we had violence in a neighborhood
we had a teen go in and talk to all the neighbors and see what the services were that they might
need. It's helped us so well. The crime rate in Boston is down in numbers better than ever
before; murders, the instance of violence have gone way down because of our violence
intervention program that Barbara Ferrer created in the City of Boston.
I hope that you all have a wonderful conference these next few days. Enjoy our neighbors while
you're out here. Take a look at our complete streets, our community guides and our wonderful
parks. Walk along the boardwalk out here and across from the Convention Center. Be sure
to come back and visit us often or better yet, become a resident of our city.
Boston's population has grown in the last two census'. We're one of the few urban areas
in America that continues to grow, old urban areas and I just say that it's important.
But public health to me is, as I was growing up in, particularly in college and other things,
there were only two jobs I wanted in life, was being Public Health Commissioner or the
Head of the Boston Redevelopment Authority because in public health you make a difference
in people's lives every day and be [inaudible] the development agency for the City of Boston.
Those are the things that make a difference folks. [Inaudible] continue to drop because
Washington doesn’t care about us. It's gone away from the people. Public health is so
important we've got to continually cut funding from those folks down there. We've got to
stay strong. We've got to send that message out there. We've got to advocate for the programs
we leave are so, so important.
So all of you, have a great afternoon. Go Red Sox!