WEST LEBANON — The Public Health Council of the Upper Valley is holding an advocacy training session in from 5-8 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, at the Kilton Public Library.
Pedro Altagracia, community engagement coordinator of New Futures in New Hampshire, and Helen LaBun, Vermont public policy director for the Bi-State Primary Care Association, will facilitate the session.
They will provide an overview of how a bill becomes a law in both states and when and how to get involved in that process, including best practices for engaging with legislators, as well as how and why to bring a personal story into an advocacy message. Practical advocacy skills including testifying at a public hearing, calling legislators and writing a letter to the editor will also be covered.
To register, visit https://bit.ly/2Hq0lIA. For more information, contact alice.ely@uvpublichealth.org or 603-523-7100.
NEWPORT — A free class for family members of people with mental illness will run for eight weeks in Newport, beginning on March 4, from 6 to 8:30 p.m.
The Family to Family class, run by the National Alliance on Mental Illness covers the biology of mental illness, treatment, communication and coping skills.
For more information, contact Pat Whitney at 603-763-5054 or patwhitney00@gmail.com, or Kelly Burch at 603-454-8449 or burchcreative@gmail.com.
NEW LONDON — New London Hospital will host a course that aims to teach participants how to identify warning signs of suicide and how to intervene when a person at risk.
The course, which is scheduled from 1-4 p.m. Tuesday, March 17, also will teach participants to work across systems to build a safety net for those at risk of suicide.
Snacks and refreshments will be provided during the course, which will be held at the Helm Conference Room in the second floor of the Annex Building at New London Hospital.
To register, email Wellness.Connection@NewLondonHosptial.org or call 603-526-5083.
LEBANON — The Aging in Community Forum next month will focus on the topic of how communities can adapt to better accommodate people with dementia, according to an email from the Public Health Council of the Upper Valley.
The Wednesday, March 25, event will take place from 1-3 p.m. at the Upper Valley Senior Center in Lebanon and will include a presentation by Melissa Grenier, New Hampshire’s regional manager for the Alzheimer’s Association MA/NH Chapter.
Grenier will provide an overview of the communication, behavioral and physical changes that occur during a person’s journey with memory loss, which will set the stage for a discussion of how to adapt Upper Valley communities to allow people with memory loss to thrive and remain as independent as possible for as long as possible.
Grenier and Alice Ely, the Public Health Council’s executive director, will engage participants in a discussion of how volunteer-based groups and supporting organizations can help build more dementia-friendly communities throughout the region.
LEBANON — The Public Health Council of the Upper Valley appointed two new members and elected officers at its annual meeting in November, according to a news release.
The two new members are Dr. Rudolph (Rudy) Fedrizzi and Roberta Berner. Fedrizzi — who was elected to be the board’s chairman at the organization’s Nov. 16 annual meeting — is the public health services district director for the White River Junction District Office of the Vermont Department of Health.
He previously practiced obstetrics and gynecology for 16 years and holds medical licenses in Vermont and New Hampshire. He served as director of clinical integration in the Center for Population Health at Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock in Keene, N.H., from 2010-18.
Roberta Berner recently retired after 20 years with the Grafton County Senior Citizens Council, including more than 15 years as executive director. She is a gubernatorial appointee to the newly formed New Hampshire state Commission on Aging.
The council’s annual meeting also included a keynote address, “Changing the Conversation Around Aging: Telling a New Story,” delivered by Kelly Laflamme, of the New Hampshire Endowment for Health, and Jennifer Rabalais, of the University of New Hampshire’s Center on Aging and Community Living and Institute on Disability.
NEW LONDON — New London Hospital’s chief information officer recently completed a certification designed exclusively for CIOs in health information technology, according to a hospital news release.
Since joining NLHA in 2001, Dave Foss, New London Hospital’s CIO, has navigated helped the organization through several major health care information system implementations, including the current Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health system integration.
“In the ever-changing field of information technology, and specifically within healthcare IT, it is imperative to maintain focus on evolving technological trends that improve overall patient care, and to then drive adoption of these advancements within our healthcare organizations,” Foss said in the release.
Foss’s recent certification through the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives Certified Healthcare CIO program makes him one of only about 500 healthcare CIOs in 23 countries who have earned the designation.
— Compiled by
Nora Doyle-Burr