Health

Talking About Health Insurance? Don’t Forget Herpes, the Gift That Keeps On Giving & Costing $$$

Beginner’s Hunyuan Taiji Quan is a 8 week series that  introduces the principles of  alignment, balance, correct movement, qi (vital energy) cultivation. Each week participants will learn a new movement of the Hunyuan 12 movement Taiji Quan form. Through dedicated practice, students will complete the form by the end of the series. Participants will also learn chan si gong (silk reeling) exercises to help open and relax the joints while simultaneously nourishing the vital qi and blood of the body. All are foundational practices to re-condition the mind/body connection, deepening one’s capacity to relax, release stress, improve balance, and build core strength. 

Brattleboro, Vermont. On Thursday, April 27th, 2017 from 2-4 pm in Bellows Falls and 5:30-7:30 pm in Brattleboro. Brattleboro Area Hospice & the VT Alzheimer’s Association will host 2 presentations on Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia: Effective Communication Strategies for Caregivers. The daytime presentation will take place at the Immanuel Retreat Ctr and Stone Church Arts (Currier House) at 12 Church St. in Bellows Falls. The evening presentation will take place at the Gathering Place at 30 Terrace St. in Brattleboro. The presentations are free and the public is encouraged to attend.

Fluoride therapy as a medical necessity is a valuable tool in dispensing dental care. The question of whether or not it should be added to drinking tap water was resolved in 1995 when a majority of Brattleboro citizens decided against it being added to the municipal water supply. It was largely agreed that fluoridation of the water supply amounted to mass medication.

There is also the issue that most of any added fluoride would end up as runoff straight to waste treatment. Moreover, there is no room to site the equipment feeder to add fluoride to the water supply at the water works plant.In fact, Brattleboro’s Pleasant Valley Water Plant is a ground water supply where dissolved mineral residue does provide natural fluoride of about 0.10 milligrams per liter of water, well below any state regulations.

A new Six Week Bereavement Support Group for adults begins January 18th and will meet each Wednesday from 4:30-6:00 pm, ending February 22nd. 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 January 13th for a pre-group appointment. The group size is limited to 8 people.

The Death Café Comes Back to Brattleboro!

Brattleboro, Vermont . On Thursday evening, November 3rd, from 6:00pm-7:30pm, Brattleboro Area Hospice will host a Death Café at The Restless Rooster, at 134 Elliot Street, in Brattleboro. This free event is part of an international movement begun in Europe (www.deathcafe.com ), and is dedicated to taking death out of the closet in order to discuss it publicly.

Previous events that have taken place throughout Windham County have been met with tremendous praise. People have reported them as comfortable, supporting a full range of emotions – from tears to raucous laughter, easier than anticipated, energy charged, inspirational and fun.

Most of us are unsure of what to say and do when someone we know has experienced a death loss. And the more traumatic the death, in our opinion, the more awkward we feel. This leads us to procrastinate or even fail to reach out to the bereaved person. Unfortunately, what the person almost always needs is to know that others are thinking of him or her.

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.