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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Pittsfield Schools See Better Building Utilization, Continued Choice Outs

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Students return to school in two weeks; Pittsfield will have one less elementary school and around 100 fewer students. 

The School Committee was updated on enrollment for the 2026-2027 academic year during last week's regular meeting. 

At this time, the Pittsfield Public Schools had 4,586 students, compared to 4,682 at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. Superintendent Latifah Phillips said this has been the district's trend for years and is not surprising. 

"Across all of these grade levels, we have a decrease. I believe of about 80-90 students. I think it's at eighth grade that we're going to look into and make sure that our data is accurate," she said to the School Committee last week. 

"But otherwise, the enrollment is following the trends that we have expected in probably the last decade." 

With this school year comes the closure of Morningside Community School and the middle school restructuring that sends Grades 5-6 to Herberg Middle School and Grades 7-8 to Reid Middle School. 

Fifth grade enrollment was subtracted from last year's elementary enrollment, and these reflect the reassignment of Morningside students to Allendale, Capeless, Egremont, and Williams. 

Phillips pointed out that this process has increased the use of school buildings, as underutilized buildings were one of the concerns that led to institutional changes. 

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