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Pittsfield NH News

December 28, 2016

The Suncook Valley Sun News Archive is Maintained by Modern Concepts. We are NOT affliated in any way with the Suncook Valley Sun Newspaper.



 

REMINDER

 

The Pittsfield Historical Society will hold its annual meeting on January 10, 2017 at the Society headquarters at 13 Elm St. The meeting will start at 7:00 PM.

 


 

REMINDER

 

Casting call for 40th and final year of the Dove Singers.  Singers, techies and musicians, among other roles, are needed.  First rehearsal is at Emmanuel Baptist Church, 14 Mammoth Road, Manchester, on Monday, January 9th at 7 p.m.  Open to all, just bring yourself.  www.dovesingers.org

 


 

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the January meeting for the American Legion Peterson-Cram Post 75 is cancelled.  The next scheduled meeting will be on February 6, 2017 at 7:30 pm in the Post Home, 3 Loudon Rd.  More information for the meeting will be plans for the upcoming year.

 

If you are new to the area and looking to join our organization, you can still do so.  If you have any questions, please, feel free to contact me the Post First Vice Commander at 603-344-0264.

 


 

Concord Regional VNA Seeks Hospice Volunteers

 

Concord Regional VNA is seeking volunteers to offer companionship and support to hospice patients. The next eight-week training session starts on Thursday, February 9 from 12 to 2 p.m. at 30 Pillsbury Street in Concord.

 

Hospice volunteers assist with:

• Providing companionship to hospice patients

• Reading to hospice patients

• Holding a hand and lending a listening ear

• Running errands for hospice patients

• Cooking meals at the Hospice House

• Providing pet therapy, music therapy, and therapeutic arts

• Giving Reiki, Massage, or Therapeutic Touch

• Assisting staff with office work (e.g. filings, mailings)

• Facilitating grief support groups

• Connecting as a veteran volunteer with patients who are also veterans

 

Please call (603) 224-4093 or (800) 924-8620, ext. 2826 or e-mail [email protected] by Friday, January 13 to learn more.

 


 

TOPS News

Pittsfield TOPS.jpg

Recently the Pittsfield TOPS chapter had its annual Christmas dinner and party.  A wonderful meal was prepared by the Berakah staff and enjoyed by everyone.  There was a fun gift exchange and even a surprise visit from Santa.  

 

As always, members encourage one another in the challenges of losing and/or maintaining weight.  The real challenge this time of year is to enjoy the family and friend get-togethers and yet make good food and portion choices.

 

Our chapter meets on Tuesdays 6:30 at Berakah on Fairview Rd. if you would like to visit.  Call Pat- 435-5333 or Beth- 435-7397 if you have questions.

 


 

VA Study Finds EEG Can Help Tell Apart PTSD & Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Submitted Via Merrill Vaughan

 

A recent VA study points to a possible breakthrough in differentiating between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), otherwise known as a concussion.

 

The two disorders often carry similar symptoms, such as irritability, restlessness, hypersensitivity to stimulation, memory loss, fatigue and dizziness. Scientists have tried to distinguish between mTBI and PTSD in hopes of improving treatment options for Veterans, but many symptom-based studies have been inconclusive because the chronic effects of the two conditions are so similar. If someone is rating high on an mTBI scale, for example, that person may also rate high for PTSD symptoms.

 

The researchers used electroencephalogram, or EEG, a test that measures electrical activity in the brain. The size and direction of the brain waves can signal abnormalities.

 

Analyzing a large set of EEGs given to military personnel from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the researchers saw patterns of activity at different locations on the scalp for mTBI and PTSD. They saw brain waves moving slowly in opposite directions, likely coming from separate places in the brain.

 

The researchers emphasize that these effects don’t pinpoint a region in the brain where the disorders differ. Rather, they show a pattern that distinguishes the disorders when the EEG results are averaged among a large group.

 

“When you’re looking at an EEG, you can’t easily tell where in the brain signals associated with TBI and PTSD are coming from,” said Laura Manning Franke, Ph.D., the study’s lead researcher and research psychologist at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia. “You get kind of a coarse measure – left, right, anterior, posterior. We had a different distribution, which suggests that different parts of the brain are involved. In order to determine what patterns are tracking their TBI and PTSD, you need an average to do that,” Franke added.

 

The study linked mTBI with increases in low-frequency waves, especially in the prefrontal and right temporal regions of the brain, and PTSD with decreases in low-frequency waves, notably in the right temporoparietal region.

 

The differences in the levels of the waves may explain some of the symptoms of the two disorders, suggesting a decline in responsiveness for someone with mTBI, for example, and more anxiety for someone with PTSD.

 

Franke also noted that more low-frequency power has also been linked to cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and less low-frequency power to problems such as drug addiction. Additionally, spotting distinct patterns of mTBI and PTSD in separate parts of the brain is key for two reasons: the possibility these conditions can be confused with each other is reduced. That can help improve diagnosis and treatment and the patterns show that electrical activity appears to be affected long after combat-related mTBI, suggesting long-term changes in neural communication, the signaling between cells in the nervous system. “That could help, in part, explain the reason for persistent problems.”

 

The study included 147 active-duty service members or Veterans who had been exposed to blasts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of those, 115 had mTBI, which accounts for nearly 80 percent of all traumatic brain injuries. Forty of the participants had PTSD, and 35 had both conditions.

 

Despite the new findings, Franke and her team believe more work is needed to better explain the differences in the patterns of both conditions in the brain’s electrical activity. Researchers need to analyze the differences in scans from larger numbers of patients.

 

Meanwhile, though, she said she hopes the research will play a role in helping medical professionals better diagnose someone’s condition through an individual EEG—whether that person has PTSD, a brain injury, or a combination of the two.

 

“That’s the holy grail,” said Franke. “We want to use the EEG to differentiate the problems, but also to predict recovery and be able to measure how people are doing in a more biological way than just measuring symptoms, although those are still relevant. But symptoms are also problematic because they’re influenced by so many things that aren’t the disease that we’re interested in.”

 

For more information about VA research on PTSD and TBI, visit Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. Information about Franke’s study may be found at the International Journal of Psychophysiology

 


 

Loudon American Legion Post #88 New

Submitted By Shawn Jones

Pittsfield Post 88 Craft Fair 1.jpg

 

Pittsfield Post 88 Craft Fair 2.jpg

 

Pittsfield MIM - Marco Island Vets.jpg

Many of a Christmas gift or tasty treat could be found in the newly completed Legion post.

 

Loudon American Legion Post #88 Historian Mike Moffett was a featured speaker at a special veterans event in Marco Island, Florida, on Dec. 19 where he spoke of his experiences in the Persian Gulf as well as Afghanistan in addition to talking about life in the Granite State. (l-r) American Legion Commander Lee Rubenstein, Lt. Col. Mike Moffett, Marc Island activist Steve Stefanides, and VFW Commander Tom Meeker.

 

On December 7th on the 75th Anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor we lost one of our WWII Marine Corp veterans Fred Osgood. He served in the South Pacific during World War II. Fred served as our post Chaplain for many years before retiring to the NH Veteran’s Home. Fred’s picture has graced many newspapers and he attended a number of note worthy veteran events over the years. I’ve been told there will be services held for Fred sometime 2017. He will be missed by many of us. Semper Fi Fred. 

 

Thanks to those post members who came out to the post on December 3rd to our first Christmas Craft fair. Some members stopped by for the first time to tour the post. I want to thank the public who stopped in to see the new post and who shopped around for a unique holiday gift. Your comments where very positive on how well the post renovations turned out. Your Commander sold a hot dog lunch and popcorn to raise money for the post. 

 

We continue to make small improvements to the post such as installing hand made window curtains. They where hung up last month and recently Kenneth Ward attached the military branch patches. Stan Prescott and Alfred Page installed an outside LED exterior light on the back side of the building. Ken has offered to install a solar LED exterior light that I donated. The additional light will illuminate the area outside the front door after the outside lights are turned off. I added a POW/MIA flag to the flag pole just below the American flag. 

 

As I write this we only need one more member to make 100% for 2017, if we can reach this goal by the end of December we might be the first post in District Five to achieve this goal for 2017. Thanks to all the post members who renewed before January and those new members or transfers to our post for helping us to get very close to 100 percent. I hope to be able to share with you in my next post news article that we did make 100 percent or more before December 21st. 

 

I came across this article that may be of interest to some of our readers.

 

NGAUS Applauds Congressional Action On Guard And Reserve Veteran Status 

 

WASHINGTON (Dec. 12, 2016) — All retired National Guardsmen and Reservists are now only a presidential signature away from finally being recognized as veterans.

 

Congress approved legislation late last week that expands the legal definition of a veteran to include Guardsmen and Reservists that honorably serve 20 years. It will now go to the White House as part of a package of veterans bills.

 

The current definition requires a Guardsman or Reservist to have spent more than 179 days on federal active duty for other than training to be considered a veteran, regardless of how many years they served. 

 

“The current definition has long been out of date,” said retired Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett, the NGAUS president. “It fails to recognize the deterrence value of training and readiness to our national security. Many of those affected underwent arduous, even dangerous, training. They helped win the Cold War. Others worked in direct support of those who did deploy. Yet our nation tells them that they aren’t veterans.

 

“That’s wrong,” he added, “but we’re on the cusp of righting that wrong.”

 

NGAUS has been pushing the change for six years. It easily passed in the House in every session only to be halted in the Senate by fears that an expansion of the definition would raise the cost of veteran entitlement programs. 

 

“This has never been about money for us,” Hargett said. “It took a while, but we finally convinced everyone in the Senate that Guard retirees weren’t looking for more benefits. They just wanted the honor of their nation calling them veterans.”

 

The House and Senate actually approved the change last year, but the language was not identical. This forced the two chambers to come up with a compromise provision, which they did last week. 

 

Hargett credited Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Sen. Johnny Isakson, R- Ga., Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Rep. Timothy J. Walz, D-Minn., for the final push in their respective chambers to bring the matter to a vote before Congress adjourned for the year Friday. 

 

- See more at: http://www.ngaus.org/newsroom/news/ngaus-applauds-congressional-action-guard-and-reserve-veteran-status#sthash.hZIOBOSZ.dpuf

 

In my civilian job this past year I’ve had the opportunity to be involved with a couple of veteran related service committees. The first one is with the NH Division of Child Support Services and our new outreach program we are standing up. We will be able to offer some assistance to members of the military and their families as well as veterans with their child support order needs. The second committee is the Justice Involved Veteran’s Task Force. This is a work group that brings state, county and non profit partners together to find ways on how veterans can reach out to and be assisted by many agencies including the NH State Police, NH Judicial Court system, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Easter Seals, NH DCSS, Military Officers Association of America(MOAA), among many other non for profit agencies. 

 

As I close I think of how truly blessed I am to have served as your commander over the past year. We have accomplished much over the past year with moving into our new post, the Memorial Day Parade, Sponsoring the State High School Oratorical Winner, the donations we made to community non profits, supporting one another and listening to each other’s views on post matters. We continue to come together and serve our members and the town of Loudon. I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish in the coming year. 

 

I wish everyone a Healthy and Happy New Year.

 


 


 

 











 

 

 

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