PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Health Department is seeking a rebrand to represent the scope of services that it offers.

Director of Public Health Andy Cambi revealed an effort to rename it the Department of Health and Human Services.

"We have really been expanding our human services part of the department and it's great that we have these great staff that are doing this work," he said to the Board of Health. "So it gives us an opportunity to rebrand ourselves, I think."

With support, Cambi could move forward with the process of renaming the department in the city charter.

Community health worker Gabrielle DiMassimo reported that the department has served more than 100 people with wellness clinics for the last two months.

These include clinical services, wellness screening, nutritional counseling, hypertension management, main management, medication review, diabetes management, primary care physician referrals, and cardiac assessment.

The department has also connected residents with supportive services such as housing/rent assistance, food assistance, medical health counseling/support, utility assistance, employment/unemployment assistance, health insurance assistance, COVID-19 test kits and guidance, referrals to specialty care, and harm reduction.

With support from the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, the department has also held meet and greets at the Berkshire Anthenaeum on Fridays.

"We've seen that the level of engagement is already starting to increase," DiMassimo said.

"At first it was people that were more stopping by grabbing a bite to eat, they might grab some pamphlets and might have a few minutes to speak with them, they'll take some giveaways, and now we're starting to get some more of those in-depth longer conversations, addressing what do you need, how can we support you, and the barriers that they're facing."

The board was supportive of the idea but, given the recent resignation of members Kimberly Loring and Steve Smith, wanted to hold off on making a formal endorsement.

"I think it's kind of interesting to kind of explore that. I guess my concern is when you talk about health and human services, it implies that there are divisions and there's a whole system of services," Chair Bobbie Orsi said.

"And I think that it's an interesting idea but I think we only have three board members now, you have a new department which is just evolving so it would be likely, I think, that we would want to have a subcommittee of the board to help with that new system development. So I think it's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure right now is the right time especially given that I think the state is going to be coming out with some new standards for public health departments across the state of Massachusetts."

Board member Brad Gordon encouraged Cambi to think about how the renaming would change the mission of the department and have it in writing as a guide for staff.

Orsi pointed to the state’s Blueprint for Public Health Excellence that was done in 2019, which recognizes the need to reassess the Massachusetts local and regional public health system and make recommendations to improve it.

"When the pandemic hit, all of their great ideas kind of sat there through that course," she said. "But there's a lot of really interesting stuff in here with what the basic services are and how they want to grow the workforce because public health has been pretty invisible until you really need it."

She suggested tabling the item until there is a full board and, in the meantime, reviewing the document and intentionally moving forward in that direction.

Board member Dr. Jeffrey Leppo highlighted the importance of the department's new initiatives and encouraged them to continue through the name-changing process.

Cambi said he understands the process won’t happen overnight and was glad to start the discussion.

In other news, the city is in the green incidence rate for COVID-19 transmission for the first time in almost two years.

Cases ranged in the "red zone," having more than 10 average cases per 100,000 people and a more than 5 percent positivity rate, for a majority of the time and occasionally dropped into the lesser yellow incidence rate.

On Monday, there was a 2.4 recent positivity rate and 4.4 cases per 100,000, compared to the rate of over 13 percent positivity rate and 25 cases per 100,000 in late March, and about nine estimated actively contagious cases.

Biobot sewage testing, which is said to be the most accurate telling of the virus's impact on the community, showed 177,100 copies per liter compared to over 470,000 copies per liter in late March.

Board members were glad to see the lessened metrics, saying it took a lot of work to get there and there were a lot of lessons learned.

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