Health

Everyone can play a role in prevention and you can make a difference!

Stop by the River Garden today between 12-1pm and join Brattleboro Area Prevention Coalition, Center for Health & Learning and Turning Point of Windham County to play games, win prizes and have fun while learning how you can improve the health and safety of our community!

The Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Birthing Center announced the May and June program schedule for its New Moms Network, which meets every Wednesday from 9:30 to 11:00 AM in the BMH Exercise Room.

Chris Ellis, RD, presents “Starting Solids: Making Your Own Baby Food” on May 15. Ellis is a staff nutritionist at the Brattleboro Food Coop and part of the Early Education Services organization. On May 22, Dawn Kersula, RN, IBCLC, presents “The Advice I Would Give Someone Else About Birth.” Kersula is a perinatal specialist and lead lactation consultant at BMH. She is also president of the Vermont Lactation Association. The final Wednesday of the month, May 29, is an open session.

Interested in cultivating an educated & positive relationship to your body and food?

Want to empower yourself to work with your metabolism, lifestyle choices, and food to increase your health & vitality? 

This 4-week program (May 30th-June27th) is a support group for people wanting lose weight in a sustainable, healthy, and educated way. Gain greater health and lose weight through nutrition, herbs, lifestyle modification, and yoga. 

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) announced today that it has earned its STAR Program® Certification from the Massachusetts-based Oncology Rehab Partners, leading experts in the field of survivorship care. BMH is leading the way in offering excellent cancer rehabilitation services to its patients by becoming the first STAR Program Certified in Vermont.

The STAR program, which stands for Survivorship Training And Rehabilitation, is a national certification program that provides hospitals with the tools and training needed to minimize the debilitating side effects of cancer treatment. The clinicians that have completed the STAR certification course coordinate care to provide treatment tailored to the specific needs of cancer patients who may be experiencing musculoskeletal pain, limb swelling, general weakness, balance issues, fatigue, difficulty swallowing or other debilitating side effects caused by cancer treatments.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital will offer a free public talk entitled, “When A Loved One Has Dementia...” in the Brew Barry Conference Room on Monday, May 20 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.

Led by Michelle Rowland, RN, LISCW, the talk will cover expected stages of dementia and available support and treatments for patients in the community. The talk will also address how families, friends and caregivers can find support and relief.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital will offer a free class entitled, “Safe and Simple Chair Exercises for Those with Chronic Illnesses and/or Limited Mobility and their Caregivers” on Monday, May 13 from 3:30 - 5:00 pm in the Brew Barry Conference Room.

Led by Connie Baxter, a certified yoga instructor and bereavement care coordinator at Brattleboro Area Hospice, the class teaches a sequence of easy-to-learn exercises that can be done from the safety of a chair to increase circulation and range of motion. Participants will be given a diagram of the movements along with clear instructions so they can practices these chair exercises, based on yoga postures, with their caregivers at home.

Interested in learning Tai Chi? Medicine for the People is offering a new Beginners Tai Chi Series starting May 17th in Putney. This 14 week series covers the basic building blocks of Tai Chi movement -- increase stregnth, flexibilyt and vitality. Tai Chi Chuan is often described as a moving meditation; after practice, one feels invigorated, clear-minded, and peaceful.

The BMH Center for Cardiovascular Health announced cardiovascular surgeon Daniel Walsh, MD, will begin seeing patients in its offices starting Monday, May 6.

Dr. Walsh has been a member of the medical staff at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire since 1987. He will be at BMH every other Monday between the hours of 1:00 and 5:00 PM to consult on a variety of arterial and venous diseases, including aortic aneurysm, carotid disease, peripheral arterial disease, venous disease, renal artery disease, hypertension, stenosis and mesenteric ischemia.

“Having Dr. Walsh here to evaluate and treat vascular disease adds another element of care we can provide for our community,” says the Center’s Medical Director, Mark Burke, MD, adding that Dr. Walsh will also be available as a consultative resource for the BMH Center for Wound Healing.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital announced its Comprehensive Breast Care Program was awarded a grant from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Foundation in April.

According to Kelly McCue, RN, MSN, nurse navigator and administrator for the BMH Comprehensive Breast Care program, the grant will be used to support accommodation of patients with disabilities and improve accessibility to mammograms and other breast imaging services.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital announced it has received a grant from an anonymous foundation. This grant fully funds the training and implementation of the STAR Program into its Rehabilitation and Oncology Departments.

STAR (Survivorship Training and Rehab) is a national certification program developed by Massachusetts-based Oncology Rehab Partners, leading experts in the field of survivorship care. The program provides hospitals and health care providers with the tools and training needed to minimize the side effects of cancer treatment.

The Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Auxiliary is sponsoring a community wide event with former Vermont Governor Madeleine M. Kunin on Wednesday, May 8 at the New England Youth Theatre.

Based on her 2012 book The New Feminist Agenda (Chelsea Green), Kunin’s discussion will address longstanding concerns about opportunity and family responsibilities, including innovative work/family policies embracing affordable quality child care, paid family leave, and equal pay for equal work. “Can women and men unite on sensible and fair family/work issues?” she asks in her book The New Feminist Agenda. President Bill Clinton states: “In this important new book, Madeleine Kunin argues that empowering women to succeed at home and at work is both good economics and good social policy. She presents a convincing roadmap for how we achieve that vision, and calls on all of us to be part of a brighter future.”

National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposal of accumulated unwanted and unused prescription medications, while also educating the general public about the potential for misuse of these medications. Clean out your medicine cabinet and bring your expired and unused medications to one of the following locations.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has named Gregory Gadowski, MD, as Medical Director of the BMH Center for Wound Healing, scheduled to open May 9.

Dr. Gadowski has received intensive training in wound treatment from BMH’s partnering organization, Healogics. Under his direction, the Center’s trained staff of physicians, nurses and technicians will work with patients to set up individualized treatment programs utilizing hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), negative pressure therapy, bioengineered tissue and biosynthetics to treat open sores and heal wounds.

In addition to his new role as medical director, Dr. Gadowski will continue his practice at Brattleboro General Surgery, a member of BMH Physician Group. He is a graduate of University of Chicago Medical School and a Fellow in the American College of Surgeons.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has hired Lynne Vantassel as Program Director for the new BMH Center for Wound Healing, opening in early May.

Vantassel will be responsible for achieving clinical, operational and financial results at the center. Prior to joining BMH,

Vantassel served as the Director of Global Program Management at WPP in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She holds an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a BSBA in Business Management from Western New England University.

“We’re very fortunate to have someone with Lynne’s qualifications on board as we launch the Center for Wound Healing,” says Greg Gadowski, MD, who is the Center’s Medical Director. “She has done a terrific job already just making sure we are fully prepared for our opening next month.”

Green Mountain Care Board member Dr. Karen Hein will be the guest speaker during Brattleboro Memorial Hospital’s next Mediterranean Dinner, taking place on Thursday, May 9 at 5:30 PM in the Brew Barry Conference Center.

Hein, who lives in nearby Jacksonville, Vermont, will discuss heart disease and its impact on women. In addition to her work for the Green Mountain Care Board, Hein is an adjunct professor of Family/Community Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. In 1987, she founded the first comprehensive HIV/AIDS awareness programs for adolescents in the U.S. and is also the author of AIDS: Trading Fears for Facts: A Guide for Young People (Consumer Reports Books, 1994).