History

Nashoba Associated Boards of Health (NABH) was established in 1931 under a grant from the Commonwealth Fund of New York, and the guidance of the Harvard University of Public Health. The agency provides public health services to member communities in North Central Massachusetts, in partnership with each community's local elected Board of Health. The original fourteen towns banded together to provide the needed services they could not afford to independently offer. The towns have grown and developed over the last 90 years, however remain essentially rural, isolated and/or financially unable to support the unique public health needs presented.

Sixteen North Central Massachusetts communities currently are members of the Association. Member towns include: Ashburnham, Ashby, Ayer, Berlin, Bolton, Boxborough, Dunstable, Groton, Harvard, Lancaster, Littleton, Lunenburg, Pepperell, Shirley, Stow, Townsend, and the community of Devens.

Home Health services were added in the sixties when the Medicare program was signed into law to provide health coverage and increased financial security for older Americans who were not well served in an insurance market characterized by employment-linked group coverage.  Hospice services were added in the eighties when Congress included a provision to create the Medicare hospice benefit.  With the addition of Home Health and Hospice services, the name Nashoba Nursing Service & Hospice (NNS&H) was adopted to help distinguish the different facets of the agency.  NNS&H closed as of August 4, 2023.

Fast forward to the present day, and the agency is divided into two divisions, each focusing on a different area of public health. NABH is comprised of the Environmental and Public Health Nursing divisions.