Staff Members Honored at MHOA Conference.

Seth Eckhouse, senior program manager of Public Health Practice, and Kathleen MacVarish, director of practice programs at the Activist Lab and associate professor of the practice, have received an award from the Massachusetts Health Officers Association (MHOA) for their work on the Massachusetts Public Health Inspector Training: Housing (MA PHIT) course, now in its 10th year.

Course instructors Amy Riodian and Paul Halfmann, environmental analyst and assistant director of the Department of Public Health’s Community Sanitation Program (CSP), respectively, also received the award, which was presented during the MHOA Annual Conference November 14-16 at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel in Falmouth, Mass. 

The PHIT course provides standardized training to public health and housing officials on housing-related laws and regulations. It is offered through the School of Public Health-led New England Public Health Training Center and the Local Public Health Institute, in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Eckhouse is the course administrator, while MacVarish, an initiator of the course in 2009, oversees course development with input from the instructors.

MacVarish says she is proud of the course because it allows for uniform application of the housing code across the Commonwealth. “The award demonstrates the commitment and partnerships of the Activist Lab, the MHOA, and CSP, all working together for the good of the residents of Massachusetts,” she says.

Eckhouse says prior to the creation of the PHIT course, there was no uniform system of training on state and municipal housing codes and procedures, and as a result, housing and health officials received varying information and training from their agencies and organizations. Offered twice per year and usually completed within 6 to 12 months, the comprehensive course includes five components: self-paced pre-classroom assignments, three in-person classroom sessions, a virtual housing inspection, supervised field inspections, and a final online assessment.

By the end of the course, participants are able to successfully complete health and safety inspections on various types of housing and conduct enforcement procedures so that housing meets regulatory standards.

Feedback from participants has been “overwhelmingly positive,” Eckhouse says. “Many students of the course have told us that they now fully understand how to apply the housing code appropriately in the differing situations that they face every day in their work.”

—Jillian McKoy

For more information about the spring 2019 session, which begins May 8, email Eckhouse at sekhous@bu.edu.