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Betty Sacco got all dressed up to take glamour shots with her fellow residents on Wednesday.
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Mount Greylock Care Residents Get Dolled Up For Glamour Shots

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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The residents were treated to makeup and their hair styled. 
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Betty Sacco doesn't get all dolled up much anymore.
 
The senior citizen lives at Mount Greylock Extended Care Facility and doesn't get her hair and makeup done very often.
 
But on Wednesday, she was styling.
 
Sacco is one of two dozen residents who got all dressed up to take "glamour shots." 
 
"I love it because it is dressing up, you don't do this every day," Sacco said. "They do a good job. They really know what they are doing. There are no complaints here."
 
Sacco had just sat down with Pam Ellis, who carefully applied makeup. And then she moved to Hope Fontaine, who did her hair. And finally, with a prop rose in her hand and a jaunty hat, she posed as Shavonn Melendez took a number of photos.
 
Melendez will edit the pictures, provide copies to Sacco's family, and create a display in the nursing home hallway.
 
"You're in a nursing home and you don't like getting your photo taken. You don't always feel glamorous. This just gives them a chance to feel beautiful and get individual attention," Melendez, director of admissions and marketing, said.
 
The glamour shots are just one of the activities Mount Greylock provides for its residents. Fontaine, the activities director, said it stemmed from an activities council meeting in which one of the residents brought in glamour shots she had taken in the 1980s. And the council thought it would be a fun idea.
 
"We try to provide activities for the residents that are fun, dignified, person-centered care," Fontaine said.
 
And it has been well received. For hours on Wednesday, the residents came to a common area for the event. And Fontaine expects families to be asking for the photos by the end of the day.
 
"The families love it. They'll start emailing me by the end of the day saying 'can I have my copy?'" Fontaine said.
 
Fontaine said the program, which has been done three times, has quickly become one of the most popular among the women at Mount Greylock. The residents keep coming back — Sacco hasn't missed one yet — and there are always new faces. 

Tags: good news,   nursing home,   

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North Adams Regional Reopens With Ribbon-Cutting Celebration

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz welcomes the gathering to the celebration of the hospital's reopening 10 years to the day it closed. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The joyful celebration on Thursday at North Adams Regional Hospital was a far cry from the scene 10 years ago when protests and tears marked the facility's closing
 
Hospital officials, local leaders, medical staff, residents and elected officials gathered under a tent on the campus to mark the efforts over the past decade to restore NARH and cut the ribbon officially reopening the 136-year-old medical center. 
 
"This hospital under previous ownership closed its doors. It was a day that was full of tears, anger and fear in the Northern Berkshire community about where and how residents would be able to receive what should be a fundamental right for everyone — access to health care," said Darlene Rodowicz, president and CEO of Berkshire Health Systems. 
 
"Today the historic opportunity to enhance the health and wellness of Northern Berkshire community is here. And we've been waiting for this moment for 10 years. It is the key to keeping in line with our strategic plan which is to increase access and support coordinated county wide system of care." 
 
Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, under the BHS umbrella, purchased the campus and affiliated systems when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy and closed on March 28, 2014. NBH had been beset by falling admissions, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and investments that had gone sour leaving it more than $30 million in debt. 
 
BMC was able to reopen the ER as an emergency satellite facility and slowly restored and enhanced medical services including outpatient surgery, imaging, dialysis, pharmacy and physician services. 
 
But it would take a slight tweak in the U.S. Health and Human Services' regulations — thank to U.S. Rep. Richie Neal — to bring back inpatient beds and resurrect North Adams Regional Hospital 
 
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