Dr. Mark Pettus Joins Primary Care Team At Hillcrest Family Health

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. - Berkshire Health Systems announces the appointment of Mark C. Pettus, MD, a board certified Internal Medicine physician with over 20 years of experience to the physician staff of Hillcrest Family Health. Dr. Pettus is providing integrative holistic primary care, or what's called personalized medicine, and is teamed at Hillcrest Family Health with Christopher Trancynger, MD, Rebecca Caine, MD, and Muhammad Gul, MD.

"Personalized medicine is a young but rapidly advancing field of healthcare that is informed by each person's unique clinical, genomic, and environmental information," said Dr. Pettus. "Because these factors are different for every person, the nature of diseases-including their onset, their course, and how they might respond to drugs or other interventions-is as individual as the people who have them."

Dr. Pettus has a long history of service in the Berkshires, dating to 1988 when he first joined the medical staff of Berkshire Medical Center. He has previously served as Chief of Staff, associate chair of the Department of Medicine and director of ambulatory medical education for the Internal Medicine Residency program at BMC.

Dr. Pettus received his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and completed his residency training at Harvard Medical School. He was fellowship trained in Nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is the author of two books, The Savvy Patient: The Ultimate Advocate for Quality Health Care and It's All in Your Head: Change Your Mind, Change Your Health.

For an appointment with Dr. Pettus or one of his colleagues at Hillcrest Family Health, call 413-499-2051.
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New Camp Is Safe Place for Children Suffering Loss to Addiction

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

Last year's Happy Campers courtesy of Max Tabakin.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A new camp is offering a safe place for children who have lost a parent or guardian to addiction. 
 
Director Gayle Saks founded the nonprofit "Camp Happy Place" last year. The first camp was held in June with 14 children.
 
Saks is a licensed drug and alcohol counselor who works at the Brien Center. One of her final projects when studying was how to involve youth, and a camp came to mind. Camp had been her "happy place" growing up, and it became her dream to open her own.
 
"I keep a bucket list in my wallet, and it's right on here on this list, and I cross off things that I've accomplished," she said. "But it is the one thing on here that I knew I had to do."
 
The overnight co-ed camp is held at a summer camp in Winsted, Conn., where Saks spent her summers as a child. It is four nights and five days and completely free. Transportation is included as are many of the items needed for camping. The camp takes up to 30 children.
 
"I really don't think there's any place that exists specifically for this population. I think it's important to know, we've said this, but that it is not a therapeutic camp," Saks said.
 
She said the focus is on fun for the children, though they are able to talk to any of the volunteer and trained staff. The staff all have experience in social work, addiction and counseling, and working with children.
 
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