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 Mercy Earns Stroke Achievement Award for Eighth Straight Year
 SPRINGFIELD — For the eighth year in a row, Mercy Medical Center has re- ceived the American Heart Assoc. (AHA) Gold Plus Get with the Guidelines – Stroke Quality Achievement Award for its commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines.
Stroke is not only the fifth-leading cause of death, it is also a leading cause of adult disability in the U.S. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 sec- onds, and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year. Early stroke detection and treatment are key to improving survival, minimizing disability, and speeding recovery times.
Get with the Guidelines – Stroke was developed to assist healthcare profes- sionals to provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines for treating stroke patients. Each year, program par- ticipants apply for the award recognition by demonstrating how their organization has committed to providing quality care
Members of the Mercy Medical Center stroke committee, from left: Fletcher Nehring, Jeremy Kele, Melissa Ancelli, Catherine Day, Patti Henault, Matthew Cauchon, Jack Jury, and Sheryl Moriarty.
Heart Association’s Get with the Guide- lines – Stroke initiative clearly aligns with Mercy Medical Center’s dedication to the delivery of high-quality stroke care and our culture of continuous improvement,” said Dr. Robert Roose, chief medical officer at Mercy Medical Center. “As a proud recipient of the association’s Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award for the past eight years, we have additional confirmation of Mercy’s long-standing and ongoing commitment to excellence in patient care through a comprehensive approach.”
Mercy Medical Center also received the AHA’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite award. To qualify for this recognition, hospitals must meet quality measures developed to reduce the time between
the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment with the clot-buster tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat ischemic stroke.
 for stroke patients. In addition to follow- ing treatment guidelines, participants also provide education to patients to help them
manage their health and rehabilitation once at home.
“Implementation of the American
 Partnership Brings CHD Clinical Services to HCC Campus
HOLYOKE — Holyoke Community College (HCC) is partnering with the Springfield-based nonprofit Center for Human Development (CHD) on a new, grant-funded venture that will allow HCC students to access a wide range of mental-health and other support services on campus and in the community as they pursue their education.
Building upon HCC’s existing student- support systems, the partnership will help embed CHD services on campus to help support students as they face both academic and personal challenges. In addition to ensuring mental-health coun- seling services are available to students on campus and through telehealth, the partnership will connect students with other critical supports through CHD for a range of needs, including substance-use
and addiction recovery services, as well as housing, hunger, and family support.
“Mental-health supports, I believe, are integral for students to complete their education because, as students, they are voluntarily taking on more stress in ser- vice of their future success,” said Elizabeth Barron, CHD’s Adult Community Clinical Services clinic director. “Any time we in- crease our stress, we also need to increase our support system in order to manage that stress.”
The partnership was born out of
an HCC initiative with JED Campus launched in October 2020 to help the college evaluate and strengthen its mental- health, substance-misuse, and suicide-pre- vention programs to ensure the strongest possible safety nets for students.
In November 2020, 611 HCC students
responded to the Healthy Minds Study conducted by the University of Michi- gan for the JED Foundation, and 86% of those surveyed said emotional or mental difficulties had negatively affected their academic performance.
“Through this partnership with CHD and with the support and guidance from the JED Foundation, HCC will help students develop the life skills necessary to decrease the negative consequences
of mental-health distress, leading to increased perseverance and degree attain- ment,” said Renee Tastad, assistant vice president of Student Affairs and dean of Enrollment Management. “HCC is known for its strong network of support services for students. This is one more way that
we have dedicated ourselves to providing the support necessary to help students
overcome barriers to success.”
The partnership will support the place-
ment of two full-time licensed counselor positions, one to serve as a clinical coor- dinator and the other as a clinician, who will provide services and care coordina- tion on campus and also collaborate with key HCC staff to create systems of care, reporting, and service delivery.
The clinician position will support
the development and implementation
of on-campus clinical services and will provide much of the face-to-face care on campus. The clinician will accept referrals from HCC staff and provide triage assess- ments in order to respond effectively and quickly to students experiencing distress so they can be connected to therapy, HCC resources, or other community resources based on their assessment.
 Elks Grant Helps YMCA Offer Movement-disorder Fitness Program
WILBRAHAM — The Ludlow Elks awarded the Scantic Valley YMCA a $3,500 Beacon Grant from the Elks National Foundation to help the Y launch MOVE2Function, a movement-disorder fitness program.
When people think of a movement dis- order, Parkinson’s disease comes to mind. While this is a movement disorder, there
are others in which a supported functional exercise program can have positive results aimed at improving quality of life for those affected.
Movement disorders may include Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, Guillain-Barre syndrome, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, muscular dys- trophym, and stroke.
The MOVE2Function trainers, health and fitness professionals backed by the clinical expertise of the staff at Alternatives in Physical Therapy, will offer MOVE- 2Function at the Scantic Valley branch
of the YMCA of Greater Springfield. A maximum of eight people will be enrolled for a 10-week session for a total of 20 one- hour classes. Caregivers are encouraged to
attend. The focus will be on transfers and flexibility, balance and muscle endurance, and cardiovascular endurance
For more information or to register, call Dawn Lapierre, Healthy Living director
at the Scantic Valley YMCA, at (413) 596- 2749, ext. 3107.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
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