LEBANON — Young people will talk about mental health on Monday evening during the fifth and final event in a series of programs inspired by the art exhibit, “99 Faces Project: Portraits Without Labels,” currently on display at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
The artist, Lynda Michaud Cutrell, will give a tour of the exhibit from 5 to 5:25 p.m., followed by speakers from the state Department of Education, the New Hampshire Office of the Child Advocate, Exeter, N.H.-based Connor’s Climb Foundation, Manchester-based Makin’ It Happen and students, who will talk about mental health topics such as self-harm, suicide, substance use and bullying.
Registration for the event — which will be held in auditorium H at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center — is online at dartmouth-hitchcock.org/classes_events/eventdetail/70183491713.
Lori Richer joins Lake Sunapee
Region VNA & Hospice
NEW LONDON — Lake Sunapee Region VNA & Hospice has a new hospice and palliative care medical director.
Dr. Lori Richer, who grew up in Newport, returned to the Upper Valley after earning her medical degree at the University of Utah. She completed her residency with the Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency program and worked as a primary care physician in the New London area from 2006-2018.
Drawn to taking care of patients in the last phase of life, Richer subsequently did a fellowship in hospice and palliative care at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Hospice focuses on physical, emotional and spiritual comfort, so people with life-limiting illnesses can live their last phase of life at home, while palliative care focuses on discussing and navigating serious illness.
“I am really excited to be back in the community caring for people in this capacity,” she said in a news release.
RANDOLPH — Psychiatrist Julie Poulin will be providing outpatient mental health treatment at Gifford Medical Center. Poulin comes to Gifford after serving as medical director of psychiatric services and attending psychiatrist at Rutland (Vt.) Regional Medical Center.
“It is a privilege to be able to know people’s stories, and I know it really helps to have someone listen,” Poulin said in a news release.
Poulin holds doctor of philosophy, medical and master of science degrees from the University of Montreal in Quebec, as well as a bachelor’s degree from Laval University in Quebec City. She completed her residency at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.
She is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and is a member of the American Medical Association, American College of Physician Executives and American Psychiatric Association.
Poulin has taught at Castleton (Vt.) University and Franklin Pierce University in West Lebanon.
BRADFORD, Vt. — Little Rivers Health Care is inviting patients and the public to attend its annual meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 25.
The annual event at the federally qualified health center, which has clinics in Bradford, Corinth and Wells River, is set to take place at Grace United Methodist Church on North Main Street in Bradford. It will begin with a dinner buffet at 5:30 p.m., followed by the meeting at 6 p.m.
For more information, call 802-222-3023 or email communications@littlerivers.org.
LEBANON — Moms in Recovery, a Dartmouth-Hitchcock program which has grown during the past six years in response to the ongoing addiction crisis and the needs of mothers and children, has recently partnered with the White River Junction-based Red Logan Dental Clinic to provide dental care to women in recovery.
Almost all of the Moms in Recovery participants have a need for routine or emergency dental care, according to D-H’s website. More than 27% have been treated in the emergency department for untreated dental pain in the past year, and 30% experience daily dental pain that affects their quality of life and can make it difficult to eat well. Pain can also be a trigger for relapse.
“Mental health and dental health are far too often treated as if they were different or less important than other health care concerns,” said Daisy Goodman, one of the leaders of the Moms in Recovery program, in D-H’s web post. “We need to bridge that gap.”
The effort, funded through a variety of grants and individual donations, aims to provide a free assessment, cleaning and dental care plan for any of the 58 women in the program who don’t have access to dental care.
— Compiled by Nora Doyle-Burr