ON THE CALENDAR – JULY 2018

July 21: The Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center will present “Leadership and Institutional Integrity,” a one-day conference that examines current leadership pressures in major institutions of education, arts, government, and healthcare. Dr. Jane Tillman, conference director, and Evelyn Stefansson Nef, director of the Erikson Institute for Education and Research at the Austen Riggs Center, noted that “leadership and institutional integrity are timely topics in our culture and in our society today as we think about the purpose of institutions, how they carry out their missions, and how leaders can help.”The cost is $150, includes breakfast, lunch, and conference reception. To register, visit www.austenriggs.org/leadership or call the Erikson Institute education coordinator at (413) 931-5230. Continuing education credits (7.0) are offered to MDs, PhDs, PsyDs, and social workers. Nursing contact hours (7.0) are offered to nurses.

 

July 23: More than 200 golfers are expected to participate in the 38th annual Brightside Golf Classic at Springfield Country Club in West Springfield.

Two tee times are available. Registration and breakfast for the morning session will begin at 6:45 a.m. with a shotgun start at 7:30 a.m. Lunch and registration for the afternoon session will begin at 11:30 a.m. with a 1 p.m. shotgun start. The evening reception will be held immediately following the tournament from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Prices include green fees, golf cart, breakfast and/or lunch, a gift and swag bag, and reception featuring cocktails, food stations, auction, networking, and live entertainment. On-course food and beverages will be provided throughout the day. Golfers will also be eligible to win prizes and participate in raffles.

The 2018 Golf Classic chairs are John Kendzierski, founder and director, Professional Dry Wall Construction Inc.; Matt Sosik, president and CEO, Easthampton Savings Bank; Hank Downey, vice president, commercial loan officer, Florence Savings Bank; and Dan Moriarty, senior vice president, chief financial officer, Monson Savings Bank.

Brightside for Families and Children provides in-home counseling and family support to more than 650 children and their families throughout Western Mass. Services include resource coordination, parenting-skills development, behavioral-technique instruction, community support programs, and other programs tailored to prevent hospitalization from occurring. Specialized assessments such as neuropsychological evaluations and testing are also available. Each year, the Brightside Golf Classic attracts more than 200 business leaders from the Greater Springfield area who support the work and mission of Brightside.

For more information on sponsorships, donations, and attending the event, contact Suzanne Boniface at (413) 748-9935 or suzanne.boniface@sphs.com. Information is also available at www.mercycares.com/brightside-golf-classic.

 

July 25: Glenmeadow will hold its first monthly Memory Café for people with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia and their caregivers from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Caregivers are invited to bring a loved one to the program to enjoy relaxed conversation with others. Light refreshments will be offered. Future Memory Cafés at Glenmeadow, at 24 Tabor Crossing in Longmeadow, will be held at the same time on the fourth Wednesday of the month. Laura Lavoie, director of life enrichment at the life-plan community, said an organized activity — such as yoga, a drumming circle, or creating a gratitude journal — will be offered. The program is free and open to those in Greater Springfield. For more information or to RSVP, contact Lavoie at (413) 355-5905 or llavoie@glenmeadow.org. Lavoie said Memory Cafés are offered across the globe; in this region, they are provided through many senior centers or councils on aging. She said the Glenmeadow program will not offer a support-group atmosphere, and its focus will not be on medical care. “It’s a place for people to go with their care partner,” she said. “It’s a place for people to enjoy themselves, reconnect in a supportive atmosphere with one another, and also meet others who are experiencing the same thing.” 

 

Sept. 20 to Dec. 20: Registration is now open for the next Emergency Medical Technician training program at Holyoke Community College.

The fall HCC EMT Training Program consists of 13 weeks (170 hours) of in-class lectures and additional online study, training, field trips, and workshops designed to prepare students for the state certification exam. The training takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 to 10 p.m. and select Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at HCC’s Center for Health Education, home to the college’s Nursing and Radiologic Technology programs.

The course, taught by local EMT Mike Marafuga, covers all aspects of emergency care, including patient handling, extrication, and communication, and makes extensive use of the medical simulation labs in HCC’s Center for Health Education on Jarvis Avenue in Holyoke.

For more information or to register, contact Ken White at (413) 552-2324 or kwhite@hcc.edu, or visit www.hcc.edu/workforce.

 

Sept. 28-30: The Austen Riggs Center announced the winners of its 2018 Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media: Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, and NPR’s Hidden Brain, hosted by social-science correspondent Shankar Vedantam.

The Austen Riggs Center Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media recognizes a select group of professional journalists, writers, and media professionals who create exemplary work that contributes to the public’s understanding of mental-health issues. Each prize carries an award of $3,000 and is presented at the center’s annual Fall Conference held in Stockbridge. This year’s conference, “Duality’s End: Computational Psychiatry and the Cognitive Science of Representation,” will be held on Sept. 28-30.

John Green is the award-winning, bestselling author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, Will Grayson, Will Grayson(with David Levithan), and The Fault in Our Stars. He is a recipient of the Printz Medal, a Printz Honor, and the Edgar Award, and was selected by Timemagazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. In his book Turtles All the Way Down, 16-year-old Aza confronts her roles as daughter, friend, and student while also living with her own troubling thoughts.

NPR’s Hidden Brain uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior. Hidden Brain began in 2012 as a regular series on NPR’s Morning Edition before launching as a podcast in 2015, then as a radio program in 2017. The show is now the number-one science podcast in the nation, and is heard on more than 200 public radio stations across the U.S.

Throughout his career, host Vedantam has been recognized with many journalism honors, including awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors, the South Asian Journalists Assoc., the Asian American Journalists Assoc., the Pennsylvania Newspaper Assoc., and the American Public Health Assoc.

 

Oct. 25: The second annual class of Healthcare Heroes will be honored at the Starting Gate at GreatHorse in Hampden.

Healthcare Heroes, a recognition program involving the Western Mass. healthcare sector, was launched last spring by HCN and BusinessWest. The program was created to shed a light on the outstanding work being done across the broad spectrum of health and wellness services, and the institutions and people providing that care.

Individuals and organizations were nominated in categories including ‘Lifetime Achievement,’ ‘Emerging Leader,’ ‘Patient/Resident/Client Care Provider,’ ‘Innovation in Health/Wellness,’ ‘Health/Wellness Administrator,’ and ‘Collaboration in Healthcare.’ They will be profiled in both magazines in September and feted at the Oct. 25 gala.

Healthcare Heroes sponsors include American International College (presenting sponsor), National Grid (partner), and supporting sponsors Renew.Calm, the Elms College MBA program, and Mercy Medical Center/Trinity Health Of New England.