Health

On Tuesday, September 27, 2016, from 1:00 – 5:00 PM, Brattleboro Area Hospice will host an opportunity for adults to make a memory or tribute box in remembrance of a loved one. The event will take place at the Brattleboro Area Hospice office at 191 Canal Street in Brattleboro.

Participants in the workshop should bring photos and small treasures, poems, and mementos to create your special work of art. If you have a box you’d like to use, please bring it. Otherwise boxes and the materials you’ll need to paint and decorate your memory box will be provided.

A new Seven Week Bereavement Support Group for adults begins on September 29th and will meet each Thursday from 6:00-7:30 pm, ending November 10th. This group is sponsored by Brattleboro Area Hospice and will meet at the hospice office at 191 Canal St. in Brattleboro. Interested individuals must meet with the facilitator, Connie Baxter, prior to the first session, so please call her at (802) 257-0775 x104 by September 23rd for a pre-group appointment. The group size is limited to 8 people.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is offering a Chronic Pain Self-Management Program at in the Holt Conference Room with a partnership with (Support and Services at Home). This free workshop series is scheduled to start on September 21^st from 3:00 PM to 5:30 PM and continue every Wednesday ending October 26^th 2016.

Living a Healthier Life with Chronic Pain Workshop is a Self-Management Program (CPSMP) designed for people who have either a primary or secondary diagnosis of chronic pain (as defined as lasting for longer than 3 to 6 months or lasting longer than the normal healing time of an injury) and focuses on problem solving, appropriate usage of medications and exercise, nutrition, emotions and communicating with health care providers. The CPSMP is a workshop given over two and a half hours, once a week for six weeks.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is offering a WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) workshop series scheduled on September 23rd (3PM – 8PM), 24th (9AM – 6PM) and 25th (9AM – 5PM) in Brew Barry Conference Room 2. This free workshop, conducted in three sessions, provides participants with tools to deal with life’s complications and to plan for the inevitable bumps along the way.

WRAP was developed in 1997 by a group of people searching for ways to overcome their own mental health issues and move on to fulfilling their life dreams and goals. It is now used extensively by people in all kinds of circumstances, and by health care and mental health systems all over the world to address all kinds of physical, mental health and life issues.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Medical Group Director, Dr. Tony Blofson announced three recent additions to the hospital’s staff.

is joining BMH’s . Dr. Fleet received his BA from Columbia College of Columbia University and his M.D from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He served his internship and residency at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital, as well as a fellowship in Cardiology at Lahey Clinic in Burlington, MA. Dr. Fleet is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine, Nuclear Cardiology, and Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Most recently a member of Senior Staff at Lahey Clinic in Burlington and Peabody, MA, Dr. Fleet has also served on the medical staff at Beverly Hospital in Beverly, MA and Union Hospital in Lynn, MA.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is offering a Tobacco Cessation Workshop starting on September 7, 2016.

The Tobacco Cessation Workshop is a FREE quit smoking program that meets for an hour each week in a caring and encouraging group format. Each week you will be given concrete strategies to use on working toward your goal of tobacco-free living. Together, the group will develop an understanding of the dynamics of tobacco addiction and the ability to choose alternative behaviors to tobacco use. The role of nutrition and healthy habits is covered as well as goal-setting and follow-through.

InnerWell is delighted to welcome Heather Kuhn, MA, RSMT, R-DMT, to join InnerWell Integrative Counseling Services in Brattleboro. A warm and skillful body-mind psychotherapist, Heather holds a Master of Arts in Somatic Counseling Psychology from Naropa University. She is relocating here from Boulder, Colorado, and begins seeing clients at InnerWell this month. Specialties include anxiety, depression, trauma, life transitions and relationship issues. With the addition of Heather, InnerWell is again welcoming new clients for adult individual psychotherapy and counseling.

As you probably already know, healthcare isn’t cheap in Vermont.  In recent years, our state’s healthcare has been among the costliest in the nation, mostly due to low population and little competition in the so-called marketplace.  This year, the state’s two health insurers — MVP and Blue Cross — have again sought rate increases, averaging over 8%.  If you’re already struggling to afford healthcare and haven’t seen an increase in your income in a while, such hefty increases in insurance premiums are going to take a toll.

The Community Opioid Response Committee Present, Ways to Think about and Talk about Addiction: A Community Conversation on Stigma, moderated by Geoffrey Kane, MD, MPH.

The Community Opioid Response is a collaboration between various community partners including VT Dept. of Health, Brattleboro Area Prevention Coalition, Turning Point Recovery Center, Nar-anon Family Groups, Brattleboro Retreat and concerned community members.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital will be holding a job fair targeted at filling positions within their Environmental Services (Housekeeping) department. The event will take place Tuesday, June 14^th from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM in the hospital’s Human Resources Department on the 3^rd floor of the Dunham Building.

“Our housekeepers are critical members of the BMH team,” says Bill Norwood, BMH’s Director of Human Resources. “They are responsible for enhancing the safety of our patients and staff by maintaining an impeccably clean environment, and their work is at the heart of our infection control protocols.” Norwood hopes that the event will draw the interest of those seeking jobs at one of the region’s top employers, and give them an opportunity to meet some of the hospital’s leadership team.

Recent news is full of stories about addiction, and not just the reports about arrests and overdoses. The good news is that more and more, we view addiction as a health-care condition, and we understand and support the life-saving measures available to manage the physical dependence. The media reflects this shift in attitude and covers things like new approaches to treatment and recovery; legislative efforts like the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act and bills to combat the nation’s opiate crisis to ensure medical support is available to people struggling with substance abuse; more specialized programs, like Vermont’s Hub and Spoke provider system which supports people in medicated-assisted recovery from opiate addiction; programs like pre-trial services that redirect people to treatment rather than court when the situation allows it; and peer-recovery services that help people not only stop destructive behaviors but adopt healthy practices to thrive.

Senior Solutions staff provides unbiased information about the Medicare system at Medicare Boot Camp. In May this free class will be held in two Windham County locations: in Townshend on Thursday May 19, 1-3 P.M. and in Brattleboro on Thursday May 26, 1-3 P.M.

The class is for Vermonters who are new to Medicare. Family members who help these beneficiaries may also find it useful. Medicare has strict enrollment periods, and Medicare Boot Camp prepares participants make timely decisions about drug plans and supplemental plans as well as many other issues.

A new Seven Week Bereavement Support Group for adults begins on May 3rd and will meet each Tuesday from 5:00-6:30 pm, ending June 14th. The group is free of charge and open to anyone in the community grieving the death loss of a loved one, no matter when or where the loss occurred.

Bereavement Support Groups offer a safe, mutually supportive environment for sharing experiences through discussion, readings, simple activities, and suggestions for moving through grief. This group is sponsored by Brattleboro Area Hospice and will meet at the hospice office at 191 Canal St. in Brattleboro.

These are my homeopathic books. Needless to say I have an abiding interest in this subject. Perhaps another time, when the vibes are less hostile, that story can be told.  It’s hard to conceive all the information contained within these pages is mass hallucination, unicorn farts, and utter bunk. 

I don’t practice homeopathy anymore actively, for me the deal-breaker was encountering the disdain, abuse, mocking harassment, even legal threats from those who choose to thwart and crush rather than consider possibilities and positives.

Just So Pediatrics (JSP), a member of the BMH Medical Group, is now offering extended hours in order to accommodate patients who request evening and occasionally, weekend appointments. In addition to its regular hours of 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM on weekdays, JSP has extended their office hours from 8 AM until 8 PM on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with additional appointments available on some Saturdays.

“Extended hours benefit working parents who cannot come during 8:30am to 5pm hours,” says Cynthia Howes, RN, a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner with JSP. “They also increase health care access to school aged children and decrease school absences.” Research from the University of Michigan shows children who have access to extended pediatric primary care appointments have half as many Emergency Department visits as those who do not.

WKVT radio presents a live broadcast of a public forum about mental health needs and services in the community, from 10:00am to 12:00noon on Thursday, March 31 in the Brooks Memorial Library Meeting Room.

Much like the 2014 “Call to Action” program that addressed opiate abuse, WKVT hosts Peter “Fish” Case and Chris Lenois will moderate a guest panel consisting of state and local officials involved in policy-making, treatment, and emergency response, as well as impacted individuals and families. 

“There is a similar level of urgency around mental health issues as there is around addiction in Windham County and the surrounding area,” says Case. “We hope to connect those people who are facing the same challenges with those who are working on solutions, so the community has a better understanding of the available resources.”

In collaboration with , podiatrist will be opening a local office at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, where she will see patients in the Podiatry Department as well as the BMH . 

Dr. Newkirk holds a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine from New York College of Podiatric Medicine in New York, New York and a Bachelor of Science from North Georgia College and State University in Dahlonega, Georgia. She completed her residency in Podiatric Medicine and Surgery at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in New Hyde Park, New York and is qualified by the American Board of Foot and Ankle Surgery. In addition to joining the staff of the Center for Wound Healing, Dr. Newkirk is an employee of the Department of Podiatry at Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene.

Brattleboro OB/GYN & Four Seasons Midwifery, a department of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is pleased to announce their CenteringPregnancy® site approval. CenteringPregnancy is a holistic childbirth program committed to the empowerment of pregnant women. “This is an exciting time for our practice as we offer CenteringPregnancy, a nationally recognized model of care,” said Cynthia Pearson, Director of Maternal and Child Health.

In CenteringPregnancy, pregnant women with similar due dates join together in a group with their healthcare provider. They receive all the components of prenatal care, including health assessment, education and support. There is a facilitated discussion of pregnancy, birth and newborn care as well as overall health, stress management, etc. Studies in sample populations show Centering care increases breastfeeding rates and duration of breastfeeding. Patient and provider satisfaction are higher than traditional care.

This spring, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is offering three self-management workshops to give individuals new tools to deal with chronic health issues and live a fuller, healthier life. All of the workshops are free and open to the public.

The first program, Tobacco Cessation Workshop is for anyone over 18 ready to quit smoking. Your will help you get ready to quit with advice and support that works for your needs. Free nicotine replacement therapy available for Vermont residents. The workshop meets at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital every Wednesday from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM or 4:30 – 5:30 PM. There will be an additional two community workshops offered by BMH with pre-registration required: one at Grace Cottage Hospital running April 4-25 and one at Parks Place running April 5-26, both will be from 5:00 – 6:00 PM. For more information call 802-251-8456.

With the goal of increasing the pool of volunteers available in the Greater Falls area, Brattleboro Area Hospice will offer its Spring Volunteer Training at the Westminster Institute on Route 5 in Westminster beginning on March 16 and ending on May 25. Sessions will be held from 3 – 6 PM on Wednesdays. Application deadline is March 4, 2016.

Throughout Windham County hospice volunteers aid neighbors and their families who are living with life-threatening illnesses. Help may range from errands to gardening to emotional and physical support. Our volunteers report the work is challenging and very rewarding. Training topics include hospice philosophy, nuts and bolts of volunteering, ethical issues, personal attitudes toward death and dying, and grief issues among others. Presenters include professionals from the community as well as Hospice staff and volunteers.