In January we featured a blog post on Clark and Caleb, two members of the Hennepin EMS Paramedic Training Program. The program started in mid-December and the group has been on a rigorous path to become official paramedics. (more…)
Robert “Bob” Nepple has been on the run since he was 12 years old – and had no plans to slow down until a recent illness brought him to Hennepin Healthcare.
“I like to run,” he said. “I would run to school. It was about a mile.” Not including those unofficial miles back and forth to school, the 83-year-old has run at least 1,000 miles in his life, including to the top of Pike’s Peak and back, which is 26 miles. (more…)
A reflection from Amy Mensch, RN, Program Manager, Outpatient Psychiatry for Mental Health Awareness Month
Every year, May is identified as Mental Health Awareness month. I don’t know if there has ever been another year when it feels more relevant and significant to stop for a moment and consider mental health and what that means. The past year has been extremely difficult. Challenges at work, struggles at home, confusion, divisiveness, isolation, and fear have visited us daily. For those of us working in mental health, we’ve seen a magnification of all the things we knew were already a problem for the patients we serve, as well as ourselves and our family members; increase in suicide rates, increase in acuity of psychiatric symptoms, increase in substance use, and increase demand for services. (more…)
EMS is coordinating a drive to collect feminine hygiene products for women and girls in need. They are collecting pads, tampons, and new underwear to support women’s shelters, homeless shelters, and other community programs.
Facts:
This is a question I hear almost daily in my work at Hennepin. And it’s a great question because right now Integrative PT is an emerging but nationally undefined specialty. Here at Hennepin we have four fabulous physical therapists who specialize in an integrative and holistic approach to healing and our team recently brainstormed on what distinguishes our work from that of a more traditional physical therapy approach. (more…)
Are you ready, in the case of a traumatic life-ending event, to donate parts of your body to save someone’s life, if your own life was at an end?
April is Donate Life month. Donate Life month serves to create awareness about how registering to be a donor is an incredible act of kindness and bravery. Donate Life month also honors those who saved and enhanced lives through the selfless act of donation. (more…)
“Mutating viruses” sounds like a punk-rock band from the 1980s or the subject of a sci-fi movie. But it describes the very nature of viruses, also known as obligate intracellular parasites (which really does sound like an alien life form).
Viruses don’t thrive when they stay the same, so they will change to improve their chances for survival within their cellular host. This occurs with Influenza and that’s why we need new flu vaccines every year to cover new strains, and it’s why not surprisingly, we’re now seeing variants (mutated or new strains) of the COVID-19 virus popping up around the globe. (more…)
In 2018, two million people in the US suffered from an opioid use disorder and more than 130 people died every day from opioid-related drug overdoses. This remains an ongoing problem and as a result, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced a plan to combat the opioid crisis. This plan focuses on prioritizing the advancement of better practices for pain management and improving access to these therapies and services. (more…)
