Education

Loss & Grief: Some basics in processing personal grief

January 13, 2022

Pemi-Baker Hospice & Home Health is offering a FREE grief and loss support series starting Tuesday, February 15^th running through March 29^th, 2022. Late morning and early evening times will accommodate all schedules and we invite anyone experiencing a personal loss to join us.

Since Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ pioneering work On Death and Dying in 1969, research and study on the very human experiences of grief and loss have come a very long way. The “five stages of grief” entered quickly into the storehouse of wisdom in the popular culture. Many people can tick off “Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance” when asked about the process of grieving. As helpful as these categories can be in opening up discussion, the truth is that “stage theory” has fallen on hard times in psychological studies.

Put simply, life experience is much too dynamic and deeply personal to fall into neat and progressive stages that follow one upon the other in predictable fashion. Kubler-Ross herself did not see her theory as being that way. It took our characteristically American linear way of thinking to do that. Generally speaking, we like things neat, but life is messy. Over the course of almost four decades, other theorists have included additional features in grieving, such as “shock”, “guilt”, “retreating”, “reflection”, “isolation”, and “working through”. There is a lot to consider if we are in the thick of trying to come to terms with a significant loss that has come into our life.

In a practical effort to begin to explore the intricate web of responses and reactions that human beings experience following upon significant life-losses, the Hospice program of Pemi-Baker Hospice & Home Health in Plymouth will be offering a series on “Loss and Grief: Some Basics” as part of its Bereavement services. The series consists of six sessions. Each session will include a brief educational presentation, a reflective exercise to assist participants in focusing on their experience of loss, and a time for sharing, questions, and discussion. Sessions will include such topics as: “My Concept of Loss”, “Evaluating My Loss”, “Coping Skills”, “Manifestations of Grief”, “What Helps and What Hurts?”, “Acceptance”, “My New Reality”, and “Recognizing My Strengths”.

The six week series will be offered on Tuesdays at two different times: a late morning group 11am-12:30pm or an evening group 5:30pm -7pm. In-person participation is limited to five people for each group; there will be hand sanitizer, socially-distanced seating and masks are required. Please pre-register with Guy Tillson, Bereavement Coordinator by email (gtillson@pbhha.org) or by phone (603-536-2232). Pre-registration required by Tuesday, February 8^th, 2022. Ask about possible accommodations virtually via ZOOM.

With over 55 years of experience, serving clients from 29 towns in central and northern New Hampshire, Pemi-Baker Hospice & Home Health is committed to creating healthier communities. Services include at-home healthcare (VNA), hospice and palliative care, and Community Programs including: American Red Cross CPR/AED/FA, Caregiver Support Groups and Grief and Bereavement Support Groups. Providing compassionate care with experienced staff who are trained, certified professionals in the business because of their hearts. In your time of need, we’re right where you need us.

Pemi-Baker is located at 101 Boulder Point Drive, Suite 3, Plymouth, NH. To contact us please call: 603-536-2232 or email: info@pbhha.org Like our Facebook Page: @PBCH4

Jenn Stewart Selected for Mary Ellen LaRoche Scholarship

September 27, 2021

“Jennifer Stewart is a go-getter with excellent clinical skills who cares deeply for her patients and has a commitment to community-based nursing,” says Julie Reynolds, Alliance Board President. Stewart was chosen for the annual Mary Ellen LaRoche Nursing Scholarship.

Stewart has been a licensed practical nurse for seven years and is enrolled at NHTI to become an RN. She serves as her agency’s infection control nurse, teaches wound care skills to RNs, and is actively involved in COVID testing and vaccinating homebound patients.

The Mary Ellen LaRoche Nursing Scholarship supports individuals currently employed in home healthcare or hospice working towards an associate, bachelor’s, or advanced nursing degree. The scholarship honors Mary Ellen LaRoche, the executive director of Carroll County Health & Home Care in Chocorua, until her death in 2009. She was a mentor to paraprofessionals and nursing staff throughout her career.

“The need for highly educated nurses is growing. We are delighted to be able to support New Hampshire nursing students who will bring diverse and valuable perspectives to the field,” said Home Care, Hospice & Palliative Care CEO Gina Balkus.

Applicants for the Mary Ellen LaRoche Nursing Scholarship must be employed by a member agency, be enrolled in an educational program for at least a year, have a GPA of at least 3.0 and be recommended by a supervisor.

The Home Care, Hospice & Palliative Care Alliance membership includes not-for-profit and proprietary agencies serving New Hampshire. Member agencies provide services to thousands of New Hampshire residents of all ages recovering from surgery, injury, or illness, chronic or terminal illnesses, or other conditions needing support at home.

~written by Leslie Hammond

Pemi-Baker Community Health to Resume ‘In-Person’ Caregiver Support Groups

July 9, 2021

Pemi-Baker Community Health is pleased to resume offering its in-person community-based support groups for at-home caregivers. Meeting will be provided at the Boulder Point Conference room of Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth.

Caregivers Support Group:

First Wednesday of every month

Starting: Wednesday, August 4, 2021 (11:00am)

Our monthly Caregivers Support Group will begin its in-person offerings on Wednesday, August 4, 2021, at 11:00am. This group will meet in the Conference Room at the Boulder Point site of Speare Memorial Hospital. The challenges of being an at-home caregiver (or even a long-distance one, as in the case of an adult child coordinating the care of a parent from some distance away) can be overwhelming, daunting, and exhausting. The experience naturally alters one’s freedom for social interaction beyond the home, and this reality was exacerbated as we lived through the height of the current pandemic. Although caregiving is an expression of love and concern, the constant vigilance required from the caregiver can be emotionally draining and the stress of it can have physical ramifications. Consequently, self-care is an important quality for caregivers to cultivate.

Connecting with other caregivers can help to lighten the emotional load imposed by this ever-increasing phenomenon that has become a part of contemporary American life as our population ages. We hope this gathering will allow for opportunities of sharing, brainstorming, problem-solving, and supportive listening.

The group will meet on the first Wednesday of each month at 11:00am. As they become available, relevant handouts and other materials will be offered. Participants for this group are also asked to check in per Speare’s current practice and to bring a mask with them for probable use during the group. The group will end by 12:30pm at the latest, depending on the energy of exchange generated by the participants.

Please pre-register the week prior to the meeting by contacting the facilitator: Guy Tillson, PBCH Hospice Spiritual Counselor and Bereavement Counselor, online via email at gtillson@pbhha.org or by phone at 536-2232, x 318. If you would prefer to participate virtually by ZOOM, please indicate that, and we will attempt to accommodate you. Group size is limited to TEN persons, so registrations will be accepted on a “first come, first served” basis.

Written by Guy Tillson, PBCH Hospice Spiritual Counselor and Bereavement Counselor

Virtual Healthy Aging Series-Hard Topics Made Easy for Seniors and Those Who Care for Them

June 30, 2021

Pemi-Baker Community Health, Mid-State Health Center and Speare Memorial Hospital are collaborating to provide The Healthy Aging Series: Hard Topics Made Easy for Seniors and Those Who Care for Them. The virtual series will be a mix of videos and podcasts designed to educate and assist seniors, caregivers, and the community about topics related to healthy aging.

Each month a new presentation will be available from an expert at Speare, Mid-State, or Pemi-Baker. The series launches July 1^stwith the first episode covering The COVID-19 Vaccine, presented by Mid-State Health Center’s Dr. David Fagan.

Future episodes will cover topics such as Home Funerals and Green Burials, Staying Fit Indoors and Out, Communicating with Your Aging Parent, Advanced Directives and more.

For a complete schedule of events, to learn more about the series, and to subscribe to episode notifications, visit www.virtualhealthseries.com.

Learning About Caring For Dementia

April 16, 2021

When I first came on to Hospice work, my supervisor encouraged me to maintain ongoing self-study about various topics relevant to the work. One day, I pulled a book from the shelf in our office. An observant co-worker noticed and commented that I had grabbed “the Bible for caring for dementia.” The book is THE 36-HOUR DAY: A Family Guide to Caring for People Who Have Alzheimer Disease, Other Dementias, and Memory Loss. The title itself, as does the book, pulls no punches. Providing ongoing care for a person with dementia is time-consuming, emotionally demanding, stressful, and exhausting, so that one’s days feel like they are longer than they are and packed with too much to do and remember.

The task can also be loving and rewarding, especially when the caregivers learn to take care of themselves as well. The book is also what it says it is- a guide to caregiving. The authors are Nancy L. Mace and Peter V. Rabins, both affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the John’s Hopkins University School of Medicine. Don’t think, though, that it is written with sophisticated terminology or an excess of medical jargon, making it heavy and dense. To its credit, the style is easily understandable and presented in a conversational, caring, and concerned tone directly to the reader who may already feel overwhelmed when first facing the challenge of caring for a spouse, a parent or grandparent, a sibling, or another acquaintance living with dementia. Above all, it is a practical volume, with all sorts of advice when confronting the many challenges of this type of care. Since its appearance in 1981, the book has been revised and edited six times to keep up with new information as it emerges. Over three million copies have been sold worldwide as of the publication of the 2017 edition.

The reader/caregiver is immediately immersed into the experience as the first chapter opens with the case history of a woman who begins to notice her memory is slipping and moves along as her limitations compound. The focus is first on her. What is she experiencing? What is she feeling? What can she do? Woven through this are brief accounts of her family members’ attempts to care for her and their experiences and feelings as their involvement becomes more complex. It recounts a loss of skills around self-care and social interaction, moving us all the way through her journey which ultimately end with her admission to a long-term care facility when her family arrives at the point of no longer being able to care for her.

In this introductory section, there is a brief presentation raising the question “What Is Dementia?” The book is careful to explore all sides of the challenges of caring for someone with dementia. The authors really walk alongside the readers/caregivers in taking the first steps toward assuming the responsibility of caregiving. Having read the book, I am hard-pressed to discover any stone that has been left unturned. Let me be quick to say that not all dementia patients end up in nursing homes. Caregiving story endings vary from case to case, very much the result of the many factors both patients and caregivers bring to their own unique circumstances.

The practicality of the book is manifest in addressing particular experiences from both positive and negative perspectives. This is done throughout the book as it anticipates a wide variety of responses and reactions from patients and caregivers alike. It progresses from dealing with initial manifestations of the disease through its more serious and complex concerns and on to end-of-life care. The development of this style moves from what to do about things like home safety, nutritional needs, medical needs, and personal hygiene on to “sun downing” (worsening behavior as a day moves toward its end) and “shadowing” (a clinging trailing after the caregiver) and on to more serious behaviors as wandering, combativeness, and inappropriate sexual behavior. These are only a smattering of the features presented throughout the book. The work is chock-full of all sorts of valuable information. A very simplified example of considering various sides of a problem might go something like this: “If your father is doing X, try redirecting him toward trying Y. If it works, and you can keep reinforcing it, all well and good. If he is unsuccessful or refuses to try Y, try Z. If the problem persists and remains unresolved, you may have to learn to tolerate X to avoid frustrating and angering the both of you.” (Not a direct quote)

What comes through quite clearly is that the caregiver/s must make changes in themselves as their loved ones become less and less the persons we knew them to be. Our intervention helps to support them and compensate for what they have lost. This is not easy. It is emotionally costly. It becomes the nub for the necessity of self-care for the caregiver/s. There is a whole chapter on “Getting Outside Help”. The authors draw on a tremendous fund of knowledge and experience in their offerings of factual knowledge about dementia and practical suggestions pertinent to caregiving. In many places, there are “Who to call or contact” directives regarding particular concerns. Of course, readers/caregivers will need to locate those types of resources available in their own area.

The chapter entitled “Special Arrangements If You Become Ill” and its subsection “In the Event of Your Death” both contain practical information for anyone whether or not they are currently in a caregiving role. The COVID pandemic has served to heighten our awareness for the need of preparedness in the possibility of emergency. It is to be hoped that it also has brought home to us the preciousness of our loving connections so that we do not over-burden our loved ones through our lack of practical foresight. There is another whole chapter “Caring for Yourself”. There is also a chapter regarding the needs of children and teenagers who may be living in a home setting where caregiving is being done. There are also sections and chapters on end-of-life care, financial and legal issues, and considerations about relocating care outside the home.

It is not until Chapter 17 (“Preventing and Delaying Cognitive Decline”) that the book returns to a more specifically medical and scientific consideration of dementia and its causes (Chapter 18) and research about dementia (Chapter 19).

Click here and learn more about our PBCH support groups!

In drafting this review, it was challenging for me to try to choose items that might grab a reader’s/caregiver’s attention in order to reveal the book’s appeal. I do hope I have done it enough justice so that you might consider borrowing a copy through the library you patronize or purchasing a copy for yourself. I have seen copies of the book on the shelves of our independent bookstores (Innisfree Bookshop in Meredith, Bayswater Books in Center Harbor, and Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord). Of course, it is readily available through Amazon and Books A Million. Quite simply, it is a superb guide, and I recommend it most highly.

~Written by Guy Tillson, MDiv, MA, Hospice Chaplain

March is National Nutrition Month- Are you programming your biology for health or disease?

March 1, 2021

March is National Nutrition Month and Pemi-Baker Community Health’s newest Community Partner, Denise Poudrier Normandin, founder, and CEO of Enlighten Nutrition & Wellness wants us to make every bite count. In December, the updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 were released, and the aim is to promote health and prevent disease. With over two decades of experience as a Registered/Licensed Dietitian and Health Education, Denise helps make sense of the new findings.

Choosing a healthy lifestyle is key to promoting, maintaining and/or regaining health. Therefore, it is important to consider if your lifestyle choices are programming your biology for health or disease. One of the most significant ways we impact our biology is by the food choices we make on a regular basis. Food can be healing or harmful to our bodies. That is why it is important to choose whole, real foods, the way they are intended from nature. “Let Food Be Thy Medicine and Medicine Be Thy Food” – Hippocrates. Hippocrates of Kos was a Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is often referred to as the “Father of Medicine.”

Just about everyone, no matter their health status, can benefit from shifting food and beverage choices to better support health.

The review of the scientific evidence on diet and health that informs the Dietary Guidelines is representative of the U.S. population—it includes people who are healthy, people at risk for diet-related chronic conditions and diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity, and some people who are living with one or more of these diet-related chronic diseases.

The Dietary Guidelines is not intended to contain clinical guidelines for treating chronic diseases. Chronic diseases result from a complex mix of genetic, biological, behavioral, socioeconomic, and environmental factors, and people with these conditions have unique health care requirements that require careful oversight by a health professional. These largely preventable chronic diseases put people at a greater risk for illness, including COVID-19.

Are you ready to make every bite count and start programming your biology for HEALTH?

Here are a few tips for the dietary guidelines to get you started:

Follow a healthy dietary pattern at every life stage.
Customize and enjoy nutrient-dense food and beverage choices to reflect personal preferences, cultural traditions, and budgetary considerations.
Focus on meeting food group needs with nutrient-dense foods and beverages and stay within calorie limits.
Limit foods and beverages higher in added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium, and limit alcoholic beverages.

A healthy dietary pattern consists of nutrient-dense forms of foods and beverages across all food groups, in recommended amounts, and within calorie limits.

The core elements that make up a healthy dietary pattern include:

Vegetables of all types—dark green; red and orange; beans, peas, and lentils; starchy; and other vegetables
Fruits, especially whole fruit
Grains, at least half of which are whole grain
Dairy, including fat-free or low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese, and/or plant-based
sources
Protein foods, including high quality proteins; beans, peas, and lentils; lean meats,
poultry, and eggs; and nuts, seeds, and soy products
Oils, including vegetable oils and oils in food, such as seafood and nuts

Denise is accepting new patients and is a preferred provider of Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) and is available to meet one-on-one to create a healthy eating plan that works for YOU! She is committed to building stronger, healthier individuals, families and communities through face-to-face individual and group nutrition consultations, telehealth, corporate training workshops, wellness retreats, health, and lifestyle coaching, and speaking engagements. Most recently, she became a board-certified diplomat in Lifestyle Medicine by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine. “My passion is to inspire healthy living practices to improve health and transform lives!” Private insurance and Medicare accepted. To learn more email Denise or visit her website: denise@enlightenlivewell.com or enlightenlivewell.com

With over 50 years of experience, serving clients from 22 towns in central and northern New Hampshire, Pemi-Baker Community Health is committed to creating healthier communities. Services include at-home healthcare (VNA), hospice and palliative care, on-site physical and occupational therapy, and aquatic therapy in their 90-degree therapy pool.

PBCH is located at 101 Boulder Point Drive, Plymouth, NH. To contact us please call: 603-536-2232 or email: info@pbhha.org

Advance Care Planning-An important home health service you shouldn’t overlook

January 14, 2021

FREE Zoom Workshops to help you ‘FILL OUT YOUR FORMS’, hosted by Pemi-Baker Community Health, in Plymouth, NH.

Have you wondered how to talk to your loved ones about what medical care you would or wouldn’t want in a medical crisis? Does your health care provider want you to have these conversations and fill out your end of life wishes? Would your wishes change if it was COVID-19 related? Pemi-Baker Community Health can help with all your advance care planning needs.

Advance care planning (ACP) is a process of understanding, reflecting on and discussing your experiences, values and beliefs in an effort to identify how you want to live if faced with a serious or life-limiting illness. It may include identifying the care you would want at the end of your life or the care you would want if you were too injured or ill to speak.

Download a Conversation Starter Guide

It is also important to choose someone to speak on your behalf if you are unable to make your own decisions, and take comfort in knowing that person will convey your wishes. This person is called a Health Care Proxy, in NH it is termed Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare. It could be your partner, a sibling or a close friend.

Download a Guide to Choosing a Health Care Proxy/Durable Power of Attorney

Once you decide what care you want and who to help voice your opinions, you will be ready to complete an ACP document, often referred to as an advance directive. This is the legal form from your state that puts your wishes on paper and legalizes them with witness signatures. When this form is complete, you will want to give it to and communicate your wishes to your family, friends, clergy, other advisors, physicians and other health care professionals to help ensure that your wishes are honored.

Download the New Hampshire Advance Directive

Take time to plan ahead now so future healthcare challenges don’t create difficult questions and unnecessary worry for family caregivers and decision makers. Pemi-Baker Community Health offers free monthly Zoom workshops to help you ‘FILL OUT YOUR FORMS’. Download the advance directive form from our website, poor a cup of coffee and join us for a group Zoom meeting to walk you through the form and answer any questions you might have.

Couple attending zoom workshop — Couple filling out advance directive forms with help from zoom workshop

Pemi-Baker’s Social Workers will be neutral guides helping you reflect on and identify the values, beliefs and goals that shape the way you make health care decisions. As experienced facilitators, they will explain how important sharing this information is to others so that decisions can be made for you if you ever cannot speak for yourself.

~written by Anna Swanson

Soothing Seasonal Sadness

December 14, 2020

In my years working as a clinical mental health counselor, I could always count on having a few clients who suffered with Seasonal Affective Disorder. That’s psychiatric lingo for mood disturbances worsened by seasonal changes. Appropriately, its acronym is SAD. Particularly as we lose daylight hours, especially when we turn the clocks back as the fall moves into becoming winter, some people get in a sad and funky mood. At the mental health center I worked for, we purchased a device called a light box which patients could borrow for short spaces of time. The light box radiates light which helps the patients in elevating their mood so that the sadness would not be so pervasive or overwhelming.

Currently, we are experiencing stretches of time besides this season of fall turning into winter. It is the holiday season. It is a season of caution and care as we try to safeguard ourselves against the coronavirus. It also an ongoing season of grief and mourning for those whose loved ones have died, whether from COVID19 or other causes. So, perhaps, we are enduring multiple seasons of compounded sadness in varying degrees of intensity. Sorry to say, there are no easy remedies to “the blahs” that may befall us at the present time, though there may be some temporary relief to turn our awareness from it all so that we do not become overshadowed by a moody cloud. Here, I will suggest some short, simple practices.

First of all, fresh air and physical movement are valuable. Naturally, as the weather gets colder, we need to moderate our exposure to the outside air. A brief walk around your yard or on your porch or deck for ten or fifteen minutes, breathing normally, with some movement of your limbs will help to “clear house” and “keep the motor going”.

Secondly, the simple act of washing your face two or three times a day can be very refreshing. You can experiment with what seems to work best for you- water temperature that is hot, lukewarm, or cold and a facecloth that is thin or plush. The temperature of the water and the texture of the fabric revitalizes our pores, wakening up our complexion.

Following on this, there are the practices of hand and head massages. Start by rubbing your hands together as you would if you were washing your hands at your sink. Allow each hand to move over its partner, gently rubbing over the back of the hand, then the palm, and moving through the fingers. Starting at the wrist of one hand, let your thumb and fingers of the other hand softly massage the wrist, and then move across the back of the hand, and continue to gently massage each knuckle and joint of each finger. As you finish, use your fingertips to move in a circle in your palm. Then attend to the other hand. You may also want to lightly rub your palms together or even to softly clap your hands. To massage your head, gently let your fingertips move through your hair (or what you have left of it!). Do this a few times. Then gently tap your fingertips throughout and across your whole scalp, not forgetting the areas around your ears or at the base of your skull down to your neck. This also stimulates the movement of energy in our cranial area.

I began this sharing by mentioning the use of a light box, so I will close with a suggestion that is more meditative and reflective. The winter holidays of this time of year (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Hanukkah, and the Winter Solstice) all focus on the element of light, hoping for its return and emergence from the darkness. Most craft supply stores and even some pharmacies sell small LED light battery-powered candles of various sizes. Some even have flickering flames. Though there is a lot to be said for actual candles, these are a bit safer to use. For the purpose of focusing and directing your attention, only one is necessary. Use it as the daylight is ending. Simply direct your attention to the light, bringing to mind thoughts of past good times and the joy of affection shared with loved ones. The length of time you do this for does not matter too much, but respect the rhythm of your ability to concentrate easily. This isn’t supposed to be a chore or an assignment! It seems to be more profitable to do this in a quiet time without the distraction of other noise. This can be settling to the soul and bring your day to a peaceful end.

As I indicated earlier, these are not “cures” for seasonal sadness- only suggestions for momentary relief that may help the next stretch be more tolerable and bearable. As always, take care of yourself, respecting both your own strengths and limits.

Regretfully, we are still unable to gather for our Bereavement groups due to COVID19 restrictions but Guy Tillson can meet with you one on one via ZOOM or in person following CDC guidelines for safety. To contact Guy please email him at gtillson@pbhha.org. Please visit our website for other monthly ZOOM meetings: Coffee with Caregivers and Fill Out Your Forms.

~Guy Tillson, MDiv, MA, PBCH Hospice Chaplain and Bereavement Counselor

Chaplains and the Role of Spiritual Care in Healthcare

October 26, 2020

In celebration of National Pastoral/Spiritual Care Week, Pemi-Baker Community Health would like to acknowledge and thank Guy Tillson, MDiv, MA for being our Hospice Chaplain, an integral part of our hospice team. This year’s theme is ‘Collaborative Health Care: Chaplains Complete the Picture.’ By collaborating to provide holistic interdisciplinary care, our patients and families directly benefit from his presence and spiritual care services.

What a Home Care Chaplain Does A home care chaplain is a professionally trained clergy member who supports patients and staff with spiritual and religious concerns. He or she is clinically trained to help navigate the healthcare experience. Chaplains have similar skill sets to social workers, but are specially trained to support belief systems across faiths and cultures. In order to better meet the needs of patients, chaplains receive more than 1,600 hours of training focused specifically in healthcare settings.

Chaplains act not only as spiritual counselors, but as advocates for patients and staff. Dedicated chaplains influence better decisions about care, improve clinical outcomes, and enhance staff morale. The trust they establish with patients transfers to other members of the care team, leading to better care and better outcomes.

Expert guidance during serious illness (Palliative Care) A serious illness in your family includes coping with symptoms, stress and uncertainty. The experienced team from PBCH Palliative Care provides guidance and support focused on relieving physical, emotional and spiritual suffering of the patient as well as their entire family – so patients and families can enjoy life to the fullest despite the illness.

Expert guidance during life’s final months (Hospice Care) The final months of life can be more fulfilling if you or a loved one can focus on goals and wishes. The experienced team from PBCH Hospice Care will guide you with receiving expert medical care, as well as emotional and spiritual support.

Because chaplains are unbiased and part of the care team, they are valuable in providing a safe harbor and bridging difficult conversations. Guy Tillson, Chaplain at Pemi-Baker Community Health says, “Our most fundamental human condition is when we come face-to-face with our own mortality. As chaplains, we walk into some dark places and help bring in light.”

If you have more questions about Palliative Care, Hospice Care or what a home health Chaplain can do for you and your family, please call Pemi-Baker Community Health for more information today.

~Anna Swanson

Pemi-Baker Community Health Helping Breast Cancer Survivors

October 16, 2020

October is National Physical Therapy month as well as Breast Cancer Awareness month and the physical therapists at Pemi-Baker Community Health (PBCH) can assist patients with breast cancer to live a more functional life. Often there is a missing link once a person is diagnosed with breast cancer. A patient can go through the whole diagnosis, yet have many questions about how to return to their prior level of function or how to progress themselves into strength training or exercises.

After a person undergoes surgery, there can be significant scar tissue, which causes limitations of everyday movement. If a person is feeling tightness, pain, loss of range of motion or strength, or feel like their posture is being impaired, these can be signs identifying the need for physical therapy. Treatment for breast cancer is saving lives. Let us help you with these side effects of breast cancer treatment so you can regain your health in motion!

Together, through physical therapy, we can:

Restore your mobility and posture
Decrease or eliminate your pain
Rebuild your strength and endurance
Return you to work and play
Boost your energy
Prevent or combat the effects of lymphedema

Research shows that physical exercise and activity are key factors in breast cancer survivors regaining vitality and returning to optimal health. While medical treatment for breast cancer is saving more lives, the disease may leave patients with significant limitations.

Breast cancer rehabilitation can help patients with:

Post lumpectomy or mastectomy
Breast reconstruction
Scar tissue restrictions
Lymphedema
Lymphatic cording or “Axillary Web Syndrome”
Shoulder, neck, or back pain
Side effects from chemotherapy and radiation
Treatment induced fatigue

Our team of physical therapy specialists are your partners in this journey back to health and enjoying the activities you love. At Pemi-Baker Community Health, you will benefit from a combination of advanced exercise prescription and manual therapy intervention to restore your range of motion, decrease swelling, and reduce pain. We are ready to help you move better and feel better, while regaining strength and energy.

Call today to learn more about our home care and outpatient, expert providers.

With over 50 years of experience, serving clients from 22 towns in central and northern New Hampshire, Pemi-Baker Community Health is committed to creating healthier communities. Services include at-home healthcare (VNA), hospice and palliative care, on-site physical and occupational therapy and aquatic therapy in their 90-degree therapy pool.

~Anna Swanson