NARH Adds Tobacco Treatment Counselor

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Corinne Case
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Corinne Case, a licensed mental health counselor, will take on the role of  tobacco treatment counselor at North Adams Regional Hospital.
 
Case is available for one-on-one counseling for those who wish to quit smoking or using tobacco products. She can be reached at 413-664-5567.
 
Case completed her training as a tobacco treatment counselor at the University of Massachusetts Center for Tobacco Treatment.
 
Case provides out-patient counseling using NARH's 5A Model of brief intervention. The five interventions are "ask, advise, assess, assist and arrange for follow-up." Corinne provides tobacco treatment offering individual counseling, recommendations for nicotine replacement therapy and pharmacological treatment working with an individual's physician.
 
"Insurance companies know the value of tobacco use cessation and most provide coverage for treatment," Case said. "MassHealth covers individual counseling, group counseling, pharmacological treatment and nicotine replacement therapies at no charge. Research shows that using these methods, a person is two to three times more likely to quit for good."
 
Case worked in Foxborough, providing community mental health counseling, before moving to western Massachusetts. She and her husband, Tim, a biology teacher, have been raising their three children in Northern Berkshire.
 
Working with many groups and types of people, Corinne has taught in the public schools, is teaching at the Northern Berkshire Adult Basic Education Program at MCLA, is connected with the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition as a strategy team leader of nb21 ("Not Before 21; Not in Northern Berkshire"), a team of volunteers working to reduce underage drinking and prevent substance abuse.
 
Case is the Spiritual Counselor and Bereavement Support Facilitator for the VNA & Hospice of Northern Berkshire. She is also a volunteer and steering committee member of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative.
 
In addition to working with the VNA & Hospice, Corinne has been the NARH Stroke Support Facilitator for several years.
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Fitch, Barrett Meet in Debate for State Representative Seat

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The two candidates for the Democratic nomination to represent the First Berkshire District on Beacon Hill found a lot of common ground Thursday on some issues but differed on what is needed to get things done in their only scheduled debate leading up to the Sept. 1 primary election.
 
The incumbent, John Barrett III, and Andrew Fitch, a North Adams city councilor, met in a theater at Williams College's Paresky Center in a forum sponsored by the town's chapter of the League of Women Voters, fielding questions submitted by the public and posed by moderator Jennifer Howlett for just less than an hour.
 
The pair agreed at least in part on issues ranging from same-day voter registration to assisted suicide to the statewide ballot initiative to repeal the legalization of cannabis in the commonwealth.
 
But they parted ways when asked whether they would support efforts to institute a single ballot primary and whether the current Legislature has been responsive enough to respond to a 2024 ballot initiative to have the state auditor audit the House and Senate.
 
Barrett argued that the Legislature already conducts audits and puts the results on the state's website. He further pointed to a lawsuit brought by Auditor Diana DiZoglio over the issue.
 
"She went to court, and the court asked her, are these the four things you wanted [from an audit], and she said yes," Barrett said. "We gave her legislation that gave her the four things she wanted."
 
Calling himself a "big fan of audits," Barrett argued that he participated in them as mayor of North Adams for 26 years. He called efforts to have the state auditor conduct the audit of the Legislature a "Republican thing" and a "sad game."
 
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