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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Congressman Neal Talks With Reid Middle School Students

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Congressman Neal answered questions from students as part of their civics projects. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. Rep. Richard Neal answered questions from an eighth-grade class at Reid Middle School on Thursday. 

Students in Susan Mooney's class prepared questions related to their civics projects, ranging from government transparency and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to sports to mental health.  

"Be discerning, be fact-driven, and you know what? As I say to my own children, resist emotional decision making," Neal told the class. 

"You generally will come up with the wrong decision if it's very emotional, and the other part I can give you, an important part of my career: you're always going to give a better answer tomorrow." 

In Massachusetts, eighth-grade students are required to complete a civics project focusing on community issues, research, and action.

Students focusing their project on ICE said they found that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is tasked with protecting citizens. They asked Neal why ICE is controlling DHS when agents "do the opposite." 

"ICE needs to be reformed and restrained, but a lot of it has much to do with the president's position on it," he said, adding that the fundamental job of the federal government is to protect its people. 

"We just need to know who's in the country for a variety of reasons. When the president says he's rooting out the criminals, nobody disagrees with that, but that's not what's happening, is it? It's now people that are just showing up in the courthouse to do what we call 'regularizing their status' that are being apprehended." 

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