Provider Profile – Suzanne Childs, BHS Occupational Therapist

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Across the country, there are nearly 135,000 Occupational Therapists, and Suzanne Childs, who provides this specialized care at the Center for Rehabilitation at BMC, says OT goes beyond helping someone regain their functions for work.
 
"We promote functional independence for people and help restore not only vocational skills, but also homemaking and daily living skills," said Childs. "Occupational Therapy covers the full range of activities people of all ages do to live functional, meaningful lives."
 
Suzanne has been with BMC since 1994 and has served as an Occupational Therapist in the Berkshires for nearly 30 years, most of that time in the outpatient setting. She came to the Berkshires after providing OT services in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and later New York state.
 
"Occupational Therapists often work together with Physical Therapists, but our roles are quite unique. PT focuses on improving the patient's ability to move their body, whereas I concentrate on improving my patient's ability to perform activities of daily living. We help our patients to do things beyond their PT care, such as brushing their teeth, getting dressed, making meals and all of their other everyday tasks that may have been impeded by an illness or injury."
 
Suzanne is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University and completed her clinical education at Toledo Mental Health in Ohio and Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia. Over the years, she has provided care for spinal cord injury, stroke, post-acute rehabilitation for children and young adults and general rehabilitation.
 
If you need Occupational Therapy or any kind of rehabilitative care, ask your primary care provider for a referral or call the Center for Rehabilitation at BMC at 413-447-2234.




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Kratom Products Pulled From Pittsfield, Statewide Shelves

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires.com Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass.— The state has put an emergency yearlong order on kratom products, and Pittsfield is working with retailers to remove the product from shelves. 

Last week, Director of Public Health Andy Cambi delivered an update on the emergency order that went into effect on August 28.  Also known by its chemical name and marketed with the term "7-OH," Massachusetts temporarily designated kratom as a Schedule I drug, greatly restricting sales. 

The formerly unregulated product has resulted in emergency room visits, poison control calls, and deaths.  

"Dependency and the opioid-like withdrawal symptoms are the major key health concerns," Cambi explained. "Liver toxicity, seizures, just a greater overdose risk when combined with other substances, and then the main thing is that this is not regulated."

He said that throughout the years, retail shops have reached out to the Health Department looking for guidance on kratom products and were notified that it is unregulated. 

"And for the most part, when they hear that, they don't sell the product," he added. 

Kratom is a leafy plant native to Southeast Asia containing naturally occurring substances, including mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH).  It is marketed to relieve pain and can produce stimulating or sedating effects, depending on the amount taken and potency. Newer products contain highly concentrated or laboratory-modified compounds that can have significantly stronger opioid-like effects. 

Kratom products have been widely sold in smoke shops, convenience stores, and gas stations as powders, tablets, capsules, gummies, dissolvable strips, and in other forms.

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