Health Notes - Centreville Spy

For All Seasons partners with Santé Eastern Shore to offer Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST)

March 19, 2025 by For All Seasons, Inc. Leave a Comment

For All Seasons’ Center for Learning is partnering with Santé Eastern Shore to offer LivingWorks ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) on April 7 and 8, 2025, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day at Anchor Church in Easton.

This two-day in-person workshop includes interactive learning, hands-on practice, and real-world application exercises to learn the skills to provide a suicide first-aid intervention for someone who has thoughts of suicide. The workshop is designed for all caregivers (anyone over age 15 in a position of trust), including mental health professionals, nurses, physicians, pharmacists, teachers, counselors, youth workers, police and correctional staff, school support staff, clergy, and community volunteers.

Participants will learn how to recognize when someone may be thinking about suicide and take steps to support them; to develop a safety plan to keep someone safe for now and connect them with further help; talk openly about personal and community attitudes and suicide; build confidence and capacity in providing suicide first-aid; understand how attitudes about suicide influence intervention approaches; and gain insights into community resources and support networks to sustain long-term suicide prevention efforts.

The training will include breakfast, lunch, and snacks each day, as well as all the necessary materials. Participating clinicians will receive 12 Category I CEUs issued by For All Seasons, Inc., an approved continuing education provider for Maryland Social Workers and Professional Counselors.

The registration fee of $350 is due at the time of enrollment. All registrations are due no later than March 31, 2025, at https://forallseasonsinc.lpages.co/asist-training-2025/. For questions, contact Kelsey Trumbull-Meyers at [email protected]. Because this training is grant-funded, For All Seasons is required to report program outcomes. Participants will be asked to complete multiple-choice surveys before the training begins and after the training’s completion.

For All Seasons Partners with Santé Eastern Shore to Offer Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST)For All Seasons provides the highest quality mental health and victim services to children, adults, and families across the Mid-Shore and throughout Maryland. Services are offered in both English and Spanish and include therapy, psychiatry, victim advocacy, 24-hour crisis hotlines, outreach, and community education. For information about For All Seasons walk-in hours, contact For All Seasons at 410-822-1018 or visit ForAllSeasonsInc.org.

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UM SRH Health welcomes Ali Tabatabai, MD, as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer

March 19, 2025 by UM Shore Regional Health Leave a Comment

Ali Tabatabai, MD, MBA, has joined the senior leadership team of University of Maryland Shore Regional Health (UM SRH) as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. UM SRH is a member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS).

Dr. Tabatabai’s responsibilities will include providing medical and clinical leadership to the senior leadership team, medical staff and clinical team members as well as liaising with medical staff affairs and patient care services, and strategic planning. He also will work closely with UMMS clinical leaders to help drive the System’s journey to becoming a High Reliability Organization.

Employed with UMMS since 2009, Dr. Tabatabai has served as Medical Director, University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Group (UM SJMG) and also as Attending Staff in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at both University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center (UM SJMC) and University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) since February 2023.

As Medical Director of UM SJMG, Dr. Tabatabai focused on promoting clinical excellence, supporting provider wellness and strengthening compliance, as well as supporting provider recruitment to help ensure all new hires reflected UM SJMC’s standards of clinical excellence and compassionate care. During his time with UMMC, Dr. Tabatabai served in various leadership roles, including Director of the Lung Rescue Unit and Director of Physician Education for the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. In 2020, he led the Biocontainment Team at UMMC, which played an essential role in caring for COVID-19 patients, especially those needing life support. Throughout his career with UMMS, Dr. Tabatabai has participated in key administrative committees and initiatives.

“As a born and raised Marylander, I am proud to continue to serve the citizens of this great state as a member of the University of Maryland Medical System,” said Dr. Tabatabai. “I am excited to join the team at University of Maryland Shore Regional Health as Chief Medical Officer, and I look forward to becoming a member of the Eastern Shore community!”

Dr. Tabatabai earned his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at UMMC, where he subsequently completed fellowships in Trauma and Surgical Critical Care and Medical Critical Care. Board certified in Internal Medicine, Medical Critical Care and Neurocritical Care, Dr. Tabatabai has served as an adjunct professor for UM SOM, teaching medical students as well as residents and fellows in emergency care and critical care.

Throughout his career with UMMS, Dr. Tabatabai has published widely in peer-reviewed medical journals and lectured at national and internal medical conferences. In 2023, he served as medical advisor to the NBC network television drama Chicago Med.

“We are excited that Dr. Tabatabai is leading our medical care teams,” said Ken Kozel, President and CEO of UM SRH. “His leadership experience with improving patient outcomes and patient care will be instrumental at Shore as we progress on our high reliability journey. Likewise, his work with physicians in training will be a significant asset as we expand our training programs to improve provider recruitment on the Eastern Shore.”

About University of Maryland Shore Regional Health

A member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health (UM SRH) is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of five counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore: Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot. UM SRH consists of approximately 2,000 team members, including more than 600 health care providers on the Medical Staff, who work with community partners to advance the values that are foundational to our mission: Compassion, Discovery, Excellence, Diversity and Integrity. For more information, visit https://www.umms.org/shore.

About the University of Maryland Medical System

The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is an academic private health system, focused on delivering compassionate, high quality care and putting discovery and innovation into practice at the bedside. Partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore who educate the state’s future health care professionals, UMMS is an integrated network of care, delivering 25 percent of all hospital care in urban, suburban and rural communities across the state of Maryland. UMMS puts academic medicine within reach through primary and specialty care delivered at 11 hospitals, including the flagship University of Maryland Medical Center, the System’s anchor institution in downtown Baltimore, as well as through a network of University of Maryland Urgent Care centers and more than 150 other locations in 13 counties. For more information, visit www.umms.org.

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Hummingbird Inn to host A Mother’s Rest, for extra needs moms & caregivers

March 18, 2025 by The Spy Desk Leave a Comment

The Hummingbird Inn is hosting a 3-night respite/wellness retreat March 21-24 for moms of children with special needs. This beautiful, historic B&B in Easton is the perfect getaway for our caregiving families in the DC/MD/VA area.

This retreat is one of nearly (300) scheduled throughout 2025 that A Mother’s Rest (AMR) coordinates, providing families across the country with essential time away from caregiving responsibilities. The necessity (and benefit) of proactive self-care has been long overlooked in the special needs community. Acknowledging the emotional and physical strains parents and caregivers face is imperative in ensuring the best long term care to their children. The mission of AMR is to strengthen America’s special needs parents & caregivers through frequent, low-cost, year-round, in-person respite and therapeutic fellowship opportunities. We achieve this through partnerships with B&B inns across the country like the Hummingbird Inn (our Porch Partner Program).

A Mother’s Rest is the nation’s first and only non-profit network of year-round wellness inns, exclusively for the benefit of special needs parents & full-time family caregivers. The Hummingbird Inn will be hosting (1) respite-focused retreat with donated/discounted lodging in 2025. AMR “Porch Partners” and generous private donors make these retreats accessible and affordable (even free) to parents & other caregivers.

For more information on this and other retreats and programs for AMR, visit www.amothersrest.org.

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Keys to Treating Stress By Lisa J. Gotto

March 13, 2025 by Spy Desk Leave a Comment

Do you find yourself doing a lot of numbing out lately? If you’re not familiar, “numbing out” is a practical term used in the wellness community to describe a practice that we all probably do from time to time as a way of coping with every-day life stressors.

A typical example of “numbing out” says Jamie Frees Miller, a local Fertility and Family Wellness Coach at A Nourishing Path, is when we’re stressed from the day’s events and attempt to practice self-care by clicking on Netflix and escaping into a program that serves as a diversion or escape from the “real world”.

Frees Miller

While self-care is definitely encouraged as a positive modality for the modern world, Frees Miller says the diversional approach does nothing beneficial for us in return, and offered some insights for and alternatives to the stressors that seem to be coming at us from every direction right now.

Frees Miller’s background and education in anthropology and cultural studies provides a solid foundation and primer for her work as a fertility and wellness coach, as she sees the biological connection between nature and how humans evolved as key to understanding how to treat today’s threats to health and well-being.

“I think there’s a real disconnect between our modern environment and how we biologically evolved. That’s the anthropology part of my perspective of health coaching,” Frees Miller explains. “So, when I’m coaching someone, I’m really looking at how do we get back to the basics of what it means to be human and how do we handle the modern stressors of our daily lives? Stress for me is about 50 percent of healing. If you don’t address the stress part, it’s probably not going to be possible to fully heal.”

She notes that there are three key aspects of our physiology, which include our limbic system, our parasympathetic nervous system, and the function of our vagal nerve, that can be most impacted by stress.

The upside, or good news, says Frees Miller, is found in our human ability to adapt.

“The brain is really neuroplastic. It can be retrained. You can rewire neurons. I like to tell people when we get in those negative spirals of stress, anxiety, depression—that’s the part that we want to retrain. We want to be able to help our bodies become aware of what’s happening.”

This, she says, is one piece of the larger physiological puzzle, associated with the body’s limbic system, or the part of our brain that regulates behavior and emotional responses.

This is where the practice of mindfulness or taking that moment to be present and check in with the self is so beneficial, so we can be more aware of what’s actually going on internally when we’re in these patterns.

In turn, this practice, says Frees Miller, enhances our ability to choose and create the life that we actually desire. So, if we’re stressed and just numbing out to the TV, we’re missing the opportunity to create longer lasting and better outcomes for ourselves.

Stress can also impact the optimal health of our parasympathetic nervous systems. When we are in stress mode, we are compromising this part of our nervous system which is responsible for our bodies maintaining homeostasis and regulating various bodily functions, including digestion, heart rate and blood pressure, immune responses, mood, and more.

“Most people have heard of fight or flight, that’s the sympathetic response,” she explains. “Then there’s the parasympathetic response, which is the rest and digest. In order to actually digest our food and get true restorative rest that the body needs to heal, we need to be able to get back into parasympathetic response.”

In addition to working with a wellness coach to ensure that your body and mind is adapting to stress as it should, Frees Miller recommends healthy doses of physical activities and mindful practices that you don’t need an appointment for. Easily accessible literature and information on topics and practices, she says, can be found on apps such as Calm and Insight Timer, which are great sources for guided meditation practices, and websites such as the Primal Trust Academy & Community at primaltrust.org, that provide guidance for limbic system work.

Most often in this space, yoga and meditation are among the first practices that are mentioned and recommended with annals of cited beneficial data to back up both, but Frees Miller says there’s so much more out there.

In her own life, she says, there was a time when she found yoga to be the most beneficial and practical activity for helping to maintain optimal health. She says she tried meditation, as well, but struggled, as many do, to achieve the meditative state. She says you need not engage in just the most popular practices to experience results and encouraged other modalities.

Currently, Frees Miller, gains substantive benefit from a series of breathing exercises she practices regularly.

“I find that my brain doesn’t shut off enough for me to feel like I’m in a meditative state. Whereas the breath work program I’m going through is more along the lines of you don’t have to shut off your brain,” says Frees Miller.

“All you do is you sit with your thoughts and acknowledge them, and you set an intention before you breathe. And so, when thoughts come up, you think along the lines of how does this thought relate to my intention? So ( in this practice) there’s intention-setting, a 15-minute breath session, and then a debrief.”

This particular breathwork program, she says, involves a deep level of unwinding of nervous system stress responses and is best done under the guidance of a breathwork practitioner or coach.

“I often work with a coach who can help me reflect and go deeper on how it relates to my intention,” she says of the practice which she learned from a program called The Reconnected Parenting Course. The “debriefing” for her involves journaling to reflect on what thoughts and physical sensations occurred during her session.

“But I often work with a coach who can help me reflect and go deeper on how it relates to my intention.”

She also pointed to practices such as forest bathing and therapeutic massage that can add depth and variety to your plan to address stress.

“When I think about nervous system work, it’s really about thinking of safety. How do we make our body feel the most safe? And going back to the anthropology piece and how we evolved in nature.”

Frees Miller often reminds people that just spending time in nature is beneficial and a way of going back to our roots as humans.

Mary Hardcastle, a local forest therapist and novelist with an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts, agrees. Like Frees Miller, Hardcastle is a member of the broader Chestertown Wellness Collective.

Mary Hardcastle

“Mental distress can often make us feel overwhelmed and isolated because our perspective becomes limited to our own thoughts and we lose touch with a broader view of the world,” says Hardcastle. Forest bathing, she adds, does two very important things for us.

“It allows us to access our five senses, breathe in beneficial plant biochemicals, and practice mindfulness in a peaceful environment.”

She explains that these effects not only help us relieve stressful thoughts, but being in nature reassures us that there is a wide world beyond ourselves, beyond the human-made world, where life goes on as plants are growing, birds are flying, and we can see the vast sky above us.

“We can connect to this bigger flow of life because we are nature, too.”

The physical piece of any nervous system work, Frees Miller says, is grounded in the function of our vagus nerve. The vagus, or cranial nerve, also regulates many essential physical functions including our breathing, the muscles involved in our ability to speak, the way our body reacts to inflammation, our taste transmitters, and so much more.

There are a variety of vagal toning techniques such as deep breathing exercises, cold water immersion therapies, meditation, and even singing and humming, that can be employed to stimulate the vagus nerve.

Massage therapy has also be identified as a therapeutic approach to vagal toning. In addition to the calming, immediate effects a good massage has on the body and mind, benefits are also gleaned from incorporating the practice on a regular basis to temper stress.

For those who suffer from stress-induced sleep issues, sessions with a certified massage therapist can help in obvious and even some not so obvious ways.

“The body is always attempting to heal itself through the process of sleep,” says John Hudson, a licensed massage therapist based in Chestertown.

“A good massage can be comparable to getting two nights of good sleep.”

Hudson says he works regularly with clients who feel that therapeutic massage is an essential part of their overall approach to addressing the effects that stress and everyday life has on them. Oftentimes the practice results in improved sleep, which is important for healing.

“Most people who haven’t had one, don’t understand the value of having a massage,” says Hudson. However, once committed to the practice as part of their health and wellness approach, many clients say they can’t imagine not doing it.

“While you’re having the massage, you’re really having the opportunity to check in with yourself,” says Amy Brown, a greater Chestertown resident and client of Hudson’s.

“It may be relaxing or something like that, but it may also be that you’ve got this kink here or there.”

For Brown, who owns and works on an organic farm with her husband, this practice which she has been participating in for at least 20 years, has been a part of what she sees as an invaluable aspect of her approach to good health.

A long-time practitioner of Pilates, Brown feels massage was a way to get more deeply into her indispensable muscles and joints on the therapeutic side.

“But the other thing I know, is that it really does relax me. It really does loosen up where I tighten up because of my anatomy. I deal with stress in different ways than some people do, but it does get manifested in my body.”

Brown feels, in her life, massage is the most efficient way to release that stress.

A good read on the matter, says Frees Miller, is “Assessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve” by Stanley Rosenberg.

“There’s a bunch of exercises in the back of that book. So, it’s a relatively affordable way people can start working on their nervous system on a structural and vagal toning level.”

Whatever specific therapies you choose, Frees Miller says, its wise not to wait until you’re actually feeling stressed out to treat it.

“Carve out a space in your everyday life for stress relief, because it’s not necessarily like when your stressed there’s something you need to fix, and you can just whip a tool out of a bag and fix it on the spot. With a careful, mindful daily approach, our entire being benefits as the daily stressors occur.”

She adds we should take heart in the fact that there are many options out there and that the best ones are going to be different from person to person. The key is to choose something that you know that you will be able to do only a daily basis, but one that does not involve “numbing out”.

“I don’t look at health as a destination. It’s going to be a continuous journey. So, there’s always room to continue to improve your health.”

For more about Chestertown Wellness Collective, go here.

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Aging & Wellness Symposium set for April 12 at Heron Point

March 6, 2025 by UM Shore Regional Health Leave a Comment

Maintaining cardiac health will be the focus of the Aging & Wellness Symposium set for Friday, April 12, 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Wesley Hall, Heron Point in Chestertown.

Offered as a collaborative effort by the University of Maryland Shore Regional Health (UM SRH), the Shore Community Outreach Team – Kent County, Heron Point of Chestertown and the Kent County Health Department, the symposium will offer a roster of expert speakers who will provide valuable heart health resources designed for older adults. UM SRH is a member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System.

“This free symposium will be a great opportunity to learn about preventive strategies to maintain heart health as we age,” said Sandra Wilson-Hypes, Health Educator, UM SRH.

The symposium will begin with a continental breakfast and registration at 8 a.m., followed by presentations beginning at 8:30 a.m. Topics will include Medications for the Geriatric Population – A Focus on Cardiac Health; Know Your Numbers! How to Use the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 to Improve Your Health; and Heart Attack and Stroke – When to Call 911. In addition, a CPR survivor will share her story of survival and recovery.

The Aging & Wellness Symposium is open to the public at no charge; however, advance registration is required. Interested parties may register by calling 667-343-3151 or by going online to umshoreregional.org/health-education.

About University of Maryland Shore Regional Health

About the University of Maryland Medical System

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An internationally-recognized expert on aging to speak in Easton, Chestertown

March 5, 2025 by Upper Shore Aging Leave a Comment

Renowned physician, scientist, and gerontologist, Mark Lachs, MD, MPH, will discuss “The Changing Face of Aging – High Tech Meets High Touch” in two free talks on Wednesday, April 9 at the Ebenezer Theater in Easton and Thursday, April 10 at the Garfield Center for the Arts in Chestertown.both from 7 to 8 p.m. Brought to the Shore by Upper Shore Aging (USA), a nonprofit serving Talbot, Caroline, and Kent Counties, both talks are free and open to the public. Dr. Lachs is a dynamic speaker who has appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered, The Today Show and Good Morning America, and written pieces on aging for the Wall Street Journal and other lay publications.

A resident of Connecticut, Dr. Lachs is the Irene F. and I. Roy Psaty Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, Co-Chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, and Director of Geriatrics for the New York Presbyterian Health System. His major area of interest is the disenfranchised elderly, and he has published widely in the areas of elder abuse and neglect, the epidemiology and neuroscience of financial vulnerability of older adults, and the assessment of decision-making ability as people age. He has lectured internationally on these topics.

“USA is hosting these seminars because we are the voice for seniors in the communities we serve. We hope seniors, their family caregivers, and those who work with seniors will join us to learn about the new technologies available to help seniors age in place, remain safe in their homes, and thrive in their communities,” comments Herb Cain, Executive Director of USA.

“USA operates five senior centers on the Mid-Shore. During the pandemic, videoconferencing helped seniors become more comfortable with new technology to stay connected. In the “High Touch” component of his lecture, Dr. Lachs will point out that new technologies for seniors allow things like monitoring chronic medical conditions in a home environment and do not replace the need for human interaction. Social isolation and loneliness remain critical issues that the elderly face today.”

Dr. Lachs is the founder and Medical Director of the New York City Elder Abuse Center (www.nyceac.org), a WCM community-academic partnership of senior centers, adult protective service professionals, law enforcement providers, governmental agencies, and others that seek to protect the rights and dignity of elder abuse victims through direct service, advocacy, case coordination, and research. His book, Treat Me, Not My Age, (Viking Penguin) was named among the best consumer health books of 2010.

“With the number of seniors growing in Maryland and our counties on the Eastern Shore, we have an obligation to address some of the key issues facing seniors today. We are thrilled that Dr. Lachs is coming to share his research and groundbreaking work throughout the country,” adds Kay Brodie, President of the USA Board of Directors.

The event is sponsored by The Grayce B. Kerr Fund. To register for the events, visit https://crm.nonprofiteasy.com//12012/Pages/Events/#/.

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For All Seasons offers suicide bereavement support goup facilitator training

February 26, 2025 by For All Seasons, Inc. Leave a Comment

For All Seasons is partnering with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) Maryland to offer Suicide Bereavement Support Group Facilitator training on March 12 and 13, 2025 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. at Anchor Church, located at 620 Goldsborough Street in Easton.

This training, which offers CEUs, is for mental health professionals and survivors of suicide loss who want to start a support group and current group facilitators who want to strengthen their skills, stay up to date on the latest practices, and explore issues they have encountered while facilitating. It is recommended for participation that survivors of suicide loss have waited at least two years after experiencing a suicide loss and non-clinicians have at least one year of experience participating in a support group.

By the end of this training, participants will understand: the unique needs of suicide loss survivors; develop skills to facilitate a safe and supportive group environment; apply effective communication and active listening techniques; recognize and respond to crisis situations within a support group setting; and utilize AFSP resources and best practices for group facilitation.

“This is an excellent opportunity for the Center for Learning at For All Seasons to help create a community-based support network around suicide bereavement. We have seen this issue impact our community in significant ways over the last several years. This is an effort to help address those needs,” comments Lauren Weber, Vice President of Strategy & Development at For All Seasons.

The training will be led by two professional trainers. Dr. Pamela Gabbay is part of the training corps of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and travels throughout the country conducting training on their behalf. She is on the Advisory Board for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). Wendy M. Resnick, R.N., M.S., C.S., works as a Nurse Practitioner in Psychiatry. She has worked as a psychiatric nurse in inpatient psychiatry and chemical dependency centers. She co-founded The Depression and Related Affective Disorders Association (DRADA), a non-profit organization in collaboration with The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She developed a network of mutual-help support groups across the Mid-Atlantic area and a one-to-one peer support program serving individuals nationwide.

This two-day training includes lecture, interactive discussion, and role-playing, and participating clinicians will receive 14 Category I CEUs, issued by For All Seasons, Inc., an approved continuing education provider for Maryland Social Workers and Professional Counselors. The cost for the two-day training is $175 and includes breakfast, lunch, snacks, and all needed materials for both days. For more information or to register, visit the training website at bit.ly/SupportGroupFacilitatorTraining.

For All Seasons provides the highest quality mental health and victim services to children, adults, and families across the Mid-Shore and throughout the state of Maryland. Services are offered in both English and Spanish and include therapy, psychiatry, victim advocacy, 24-hour crisis hotlines, outreach, and community education. For information about For All Seasons walk-in hours, contact For All Seasons at 410-822-1018 or visit ForAllSeasonsInc.org.

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Choptank Health welcomes Rachel Lange, PNP, to pediatric practice

February 25, 2025 by Choptank Community Health Leave a Comment

Choptank Community Health System recently welcomed primary pediatric care provider Rachel Lange, PNP, to its school-based health care team at Easton Elementary and Easton High Schools.

She also supports Choptank Health’s pediatric medical practice at Choptank Health’s Denton and Easton Health Centers.

Lange brings extensive expertise in pediatric primary and neonatal intensive care, including specialized experience as a transport nurse for critically ill newborns.

She graduated cum laude with a bachelor of science in nursing from Palm Beach Atlantic University. She earned a master of science in nursing as an Advanced Practitioner of Nursing: Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Lange is a licensed nurse practitioner with an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse certification in Maryland and is certified through the Pediatric Nurse Certification Board.

Choptank Health’s school-based health centers and a mobile health unit reach more than 8,000 students each year, providing dental services in Dorchester County; medical, dental, nutrition, and behavioral health services in Caroline and Talbot Counties; and medical and dental services in Queen Anne’s and Kent Counties.

The school-based health centers are a partnership between Choptank Health, Maryland Department of Health, county health departments, and each county’s public school system, with care coordinated with each enrolled student’s primary care provider and/or primary dentist.

Services include in-person, virtual, curbside, well, and urgent care during the school year and over the summer. Students can receive diagnosis and treatment of illnesses, behavioral health, nutrition, and educational services.

School-based dental programs include dental screenings and sealants, polishing/cleanings, oral health education, fluoride treatments, and dental emergency referrals.

Student enrollment forms and more about Choptank Community Health System’s school-based health programs are at www.choptankhealth.org/schoolbased.

Choptank Community Health System provides medical and dental services in Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties to more than 30,000 adults and children, including school-based health in all five counties—with a mission to provide access to exceptional, comprehensive, and integrated healthcare for all, with more at www.choptankhealth.org.

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Developmental Disability budget cuts delayed for now, but still loom for next year

February 21, 2025 by Maryland Matters Leave a Comment

State officials said Thursday that they have been able to juggle the budget to delay Developmental Disabilities Administration cuts that had been scheduled to take effect in April — but cuts still loom on July 1.

The news left advocates grateful for the breathing space, but “concerned” about what the future holds for the state services that help their loved ones.

“It is a huge relief to us that the leaders … came together and restored that [cut for fiscal 2025],” said Laura Howell, CEO with Maryland Association of Community Services. “Now we have to tackle FY ’26.”

The joint statement Thursday by the Moore administration and legislative budget leaders said they had agreed to “reprioritize” about $76 million in proposed DDA cuts that would have taken effect on April 1. Once federal matching dollars are included, the funding will “restore” about 94% of cuts that had been scheduled to hit this spring.

The announcement follows weeks in which members of the developmental disability community came out in droves to rally opposition to the cuts.

“I think the grassroots advocacy had a big impact,” Howell said.

DDA Deputy Secretary Marlana Hutchinson told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Social Services that the “disability community has stepped up and made their voices heard.”

“The Maryland Department of Health fully recognizes that the proposed reduction to the DDA budget has real consequences for the people who rely on those services,” Hutchinson said. “We are actively working to explore alternative approaches to protect essential programs while balancing fiscal realities together.”

Howell noted that there is still fear and concern about what will happen in the fiscal year that starts July 1, and how any budget changes could impact people with developmental disabilities. There is still some $235 million in DDA cuts slated for fiscal 2026 on the line.

In January, members of the developmental disabilities community were alarmed to learn that Gov. Wes Moore’s budget proposed $200 million in cuts to the DDA beginning this year and extending into fiscal 2026.

State officials said Thursday’s announcement buys time for budget officials to look at their options as they try to pull together a fiscal 2026 budget in the face of a $3 billion shortfall.

Meanwhile, the cuts scheduled to take effect July 1 still include a variety of services and programs, many of which would reduce pay for care providers that help people with developmental disabilities in their day-to-day lives. Advocates fear the cuts will lead to an exodus of providers and staff, leading to lower quality of care for people who depend on those services.

Emotions occasionally ran high at Thursday’s subcommittee hearing, as advocates and people with developmental disabilities pleaded with lawmakers to protect the DDA funding.

Jessica Gallatin of Cecil County has a twin sister, Jennifer, who has developmental disabilities. She told the subcommittee that the significant cuts will “undoubtedly change” Jennifer’s life.

“But more importantly, I fear it will threaten her life,” Gallatin said.

Fighting back tears, she told the committee that due to the death of their parents, she became the primary caretaker of Jessica through the state’s self-direction services program. She fear her sister’s services are at risk unless state leaders reconsider the proposed budget cuts.

“Sustainability is not achieved by rushed and careless, blanketed approaches,” Gallatin said. “Tough decisions will be made – we know the budget. But they should be made with mature calculation, sophistication and empathy.”

Jennifer Drucker, also fighting back tears, told the subcommittee that the proposed cuts are already affecting her 25-year-old daughter’s access to services, even without an official budget in place.

“Our main caregiver just left because of the instability the DDA is causing,” Drucker said. “If you pass these cuts, you’re not just balancing a budget, you’re breaking families.

“We depend on these services. Without them, we’ll fall into crisis,” she said. “Protect these services, because with out them, we will not make it.

“My daughter’s care is not a line item. It’s her life and my life,” Drucker said.

Rachel London, executive director for the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council, told the subcommittee that she appreciates the temporary delay in cuts, but “we have a lot of work ahead.”

“Everyone, regardless of service model, gets serviced based on their assessed needs … everyone has different needs at different points in our lives,” London said Thursday. “Our system has to be flexible enough to meet those needs as they change and in the way people need them.”

by Danielle J. Brown, Maryland Matters
February 21, 2025

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For All Seasons announces staff appointments

February 20, 2025 by For All Seasons, Inc. Leave a Comment

For All Seasons has recently promoted two staff members to new positions in the agency. Erica Batson of Federalsburg has been promoted to Director of Administration and Grants Management and Carmeshia Williams, MSHRM, MBA, of Easton has been appointed to Associate Director of Human Resources.

Batson, who previously served as Director of Administration and IT at For All Seasons, has worked at the agency since 2017 as an Executive Assistant and IT Specialist. Before this position, she worked as the facilitator for the Healthy Talbot program and as a Communications Specialist at Mid Shore Behavioral Health. She completed an associate’s degree in business management technology from Chesapeake College and is a graduate of Easton High School. She received the Service with Distinction Award from Maryland Nonprofits and the Extraordinary Contributor Award from MENTOR Maryland.

“I’m thrilled to step into this new role, where I can bring my passion for the organization and my leadership skills to managing the agency’s grants process. Grants empower nonprofits to turn vision into action and fuel transformative work in our communities. I’m excited to contribute to this critical process,” Batson states.

Williams, who previously served as Executive Clinical Assistant at For All Seasons, formerly worked as Finance and Attendance Secretary at St. Michaels Elementary School and Deputy Director of the Neighborhood Service Center, Inc. She completed her Master of Business Administration – MBA, Human Resources Management and Services from Strayer University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Strayer University.

“As the Associate Director of Human Resources, I am committed to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment that promotes employee growth and organizational success. I hope my support will empower our employees and continue strengthening our agency’s culture,” Williams shares.

According to Beth Anne Dorman, President and CEO of For All Seasons, “We are so proud of the investment of these women in our agency and the fine work they have done to advance our mission and values. We are thrilled with the new roles they will fill and look forward to the contributions they will make to the agency’s future.”

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