Retiring
BANGOR — After 30 years working as co-founder and executive director of Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center, Ruth Lockhart is set to retire at the end of May.
Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center is a private, nonprofit, free-standing, feminist women’s health center. Under Ruth’s leadership, the organization has grown “from conversations around a kitchen table” to a comprehensive women’s health center and a leading advocate for women’s health issues in the state and region.
The purpose of Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center is to provide educational and clinical services in sexual and reproductive health care to women regardless of age, ability, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, or economic resources.
“It has been an exhilarating ride from co-founding the center to celebrating 30 years,” Lockhart said. “Those years were full of action, surprises, challenges and victories. Best of all, Mabel Wadsworth Center has had a positive impact on the health and lives of thousands of women from Maine and beyond. It has been my privilege and deepest pleasure to steer the center’s ship through both stormy and sunny weather, and now both the organization and I are ready to turn the helm over to someone else.”
Friends and supporters are invited to help celebrate Lockhart’s legacy at the center’s annual dinner event on May 21. Additional details will be available at the center’s website and Facebook pages in the coming months.
A search for a new Executive Director is under way. Interested applicants will find application materials at mabelwadsworth.org.
Tobacco free hospitals
STATE — The Maine Tobacco Free Hospital Network, a program of the Breathe Easy Coalition of Maine, recognized 31 Maine hospitals through the annual Gold Star Standards of Excellence program, during a recognition event on Nov. 19 at the Maine Hospital Association. The program encourages and rewards Maine hospitals for meeting best practice standards around creating a tobacco free environment and supporting tobacco free lifestyles. The number of health care organizations meeting these standards has more than doubled since the program began in 2010, with nearly 80 percent of all hospitals in the state recognized in 2014, according to a press release.
Maine hospitals that meet at least six of the 10 standards are invited to apply, and they are recognized at the gold, silver or bronze level depending on the number of best practice standards they have met.
The recognized hospitals are addressing the issue through comprehensive policies, education, social norm change and treatment support. The 10 Gold Star Standards of Excellence include creating a 100 percent tobacco free campus, implementing evidence-based treatment strategies, divesting from tobacco industry stock, promoting smoke free lodging options for visitors, and providing tobacco treatment and medication benefits for employees.
The 31 recognized hospitals are:
Gold Level (met all 10 standards):
Acadia Hospital, Cary Medical Center, Charles A. Dean Memorial Hospital, Eastern Maine Medical Center, Franklin Memorial Hospital, Lincoln County Healthcare, Maine General Medical Center, Maine Medical Center, Mayo Regional Hospital, Mercy Hospital, Mid Coast Hospital, Northern Maine Medical Center, Parkview Adventist Medical Center, Pen Bay Medical Center, Sebasticook Valley Health, Southern Maine Health Care, Spring Harbor Hospital, The Aroostook Medical Center.
Silver Level (met eight to nine standards):
Blue Hill Memorial Hospital, Calais Regional Hospital, Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center, Millinocket Regional Hospital, Mount Desert Island Hospital, Penobscot Valley Hospital, Redington-Fairview General Hospital, Stephens Memorial Hospital, Waldo County General Hospital, York Hospital.
Bronze Level (met six to seven standards):
Down East Community Hospital, Houlton Regional Hospital, New England Rehabilitation Hospital.
For information, visit MaineTobaccoFreeHospitalNetwork.org or call 874 8774.