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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Healey Administration Visits Pittsfield to Talk Green Energy Siting

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass.— Massachusetts energy officials visited Pittsfield to talk about clean energy infrastructure siting as the state works to cut greenhouse gas emissions. 

On Wednesday, Sept. 30, the Healey-Driscoll Administration hosted a listening session at the Berkshire Innovation Center.  Representatives from Berkshire communities and organizations heard about solar arrays, battery storage, and more.  

The 2024 clean energy bill aims for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.  As part of it, municipalities must begin accepting single consolidated local permit applications for small clean energy projects this month. 

"We have new regulations coming into place, and just want to make sure we are hearing from people because we know it's not always easy. We have a lot of commitments on clean energy and climate that are really important, and they help us on our energy affordability, but we know there's also often tension with our land preservation values," Deputy Climate Chief Aladdine Joroff said. 

"We want to preserve rural character. We have to protect critical forests and ecosystems for habitat and water supply. We're thinking about how we balance those different goals." 

She explained that large clean energy systems, in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, have public health benefits and are more affordable. 

Since 2008, more than 200,000 solar arrays have been installed statewide, surpassing a 4,500 megawatt milestone.  Roughly 98 percent of those installations are residential scale, sized between five and ten kilowatts, and solar is the second largest source of generation capacity in the state, as well as in New England. 

Undersecretary of Energy Michael Judge explained that solar has shifted peaks into the evening by reducing demand in the middle of the day, largely contributing to the retirement of some fossil fuel generation facilities and lowering wholesale energy prices.

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