Cooley Dickinson Hospital honored for LGBTQ care

NORTHAMPTON — Cooley Dickinson Hospital recently announced its “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader” designation from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC). The designation was awarded in the 16th iteration of HRC’s Healthcare Equality Index (HEI).

Cooley Dickinson is the only hospital in western Massachusetts — and one of 12 in the state — to earn the LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader designation, with 2024 marking the sixth year it has earned the designation.

According to the HRC, a record 1,065 health care facilities participated in the HEI 2024 survey and scoring process. Of those participants, 384 received the top score of 100, earning the “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader” designation.

“We are here for all patients no matter who they love, what they believe or where they come from,” Cooley Dickinson Hospital President and Chief Operating Officer Dr. Lynnette Watkins said in a statement. “I am so proud of our teams at Cooley Dickinson who put equitable, inclusive and affirming care at the center of the services we provide here. They are to be commended for doing this critical work every day, and earning this designation yet again from the Human Rights Campaign validates their efforts.”

Examples of how Cooley Dickinson provides LGBTQ-equitable care include:

■Cooley Dickinson-affiliated primary care clinicians and specialists complete continuing education training to better understand and serve LGBTQ patients.

■Medical practices, such as Oxbow Primary Care, offer routine screening and health maintenance, including hormone therapy and other gender-affirming medical care. Northampton Plastic Surgery provides top surgery or gender-affirming mastectomy and chest contouring for transmasculine patients.

■Vocal coaching is offered through Cooley Dickinson Rehabilitation Services.

A Positive Place of Cooley Dickinson, a grant-funded, community-based program, has been providing health care, housing and other health-related services for more than 30 years to gay, bisexual and transgender people living with HIV, among other clients; gender-affirming health and social services navigation for all transgender/nonbinary individuals; testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections; and harm reduction and education for people who use drugs and are at risk of HIV/HCV/STIs.

Within the Mass General Brigham system, Cooley Dickinson partners with specialists for local patients to receive other gender-affirming surgeries in Boston. The Mass General Brigham system also implements a gender-affirming inpatient rooming policy.

Dakin Humane Society receives $124K grant

SPRINGFIELD — Dakin Humane Society has been awarded a $124,000 grant from the John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation, a supporting organization of the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation.

The Programmatic Sustainability and Capacity Building grant will fund three key initiatives during the next year at Dakin: spay-neuter surgery for the most vulnerable cats and kittens in the community, consulting support for the development of Dakin’s next three-year strategic plan and equipment for The Pet Health Center that will build program capacity.

According to Dakin’s Executive Director Meg Talbert, “The John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation has been a longtime, generous supporter of Dakin. The foundation’s grants have allowed us to introduce and expand programs and services that our community needs most to care for their beloved pets. We appreciate the foundation’s thoughtful approach to grantmaking and their commitment to animal welfare. This grant will support Dakin’s sustainability and help us to continue to have a meaningful and positive impact on pets and their families for years to come.”

Leslie Harris, chair of the trustees of the John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation, stated, “The foundation trustees are delighted to invest in organizations like Dakin Humane Society whose impact on the people and animals in their community is profound. We have long admired Dakin’s innovative programming, commitment to sustaining the human-animal bond and solid organizational governance.”

Peace Development Fund awards $92K in grants

AMHERST — The Peace Development Fund has awarded a total of $92,000 in grants to 23 social justice organizations in every region of the United States, as well as Haiti and Mexico.

Several of the grants are renewals, reflecting the Peace Development Fund’s commitment to investing in the ongoing work of transformative grassroots organizing. The grant award decisions are made by the Peace Development Fund’s volunteer board of directors.

Four of these grants came through the Western Massachusetts Transformation Fund, which provides funding to organizations based in Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden and Berkshire counties. The recipients are: Decarcerate Western Mass Bailout Project of Easthampton, Western Mass Asylum Support Network of Amherst, Great Falls Books Through Bars of Turners Falls and Whose Corner Is It Anyway? of Holyoke.

The Peace Development Fund gave funding to organizations working on a range of issues, including environmental justice, economic inequity, labor rights, racial justice, Indigenous rights, LGBTQ rights and women’s issues. The largest focus was on racial justice, followed by environmental justice and climate.

“PDF grants are often the seed grants for organizations, serving as a catalyst for additional support,” Jessa McCormack, program manager, said in a statement. “This year we prioritized groups working in states working on critical issues emerging this election year.”

Funeral Consumers Alliance releases 2024 Price Report

GREENFIELD — As part of its effort to provide easily accessible pricing information to people seeking funeral services, the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts has released its 2024 Price Report.

Consumers can visit funeralconsumerswmass.org and click on the “Pricing” menu to find an easily sortable table with pricing for immediate burial and direct cremation with some other basic costs for funeral homes in western Massachusetts.

The Funeral Consumers Alliance of Western Massachusetts is a volunteer-run nonprofit that is independent of the funeral industry. The organization compiles this pricing every two years as one of its projects to promote, protect and defend a consumer’s right to choose meaningful, dignified and affordable final arrangements. The alliance provides consumer-focused information on final arrangements, and advocates for consumer rights and options at the state and federal level in partnership with the national Funeral Consumers Alliance.

In addition to the pricing comparison table, the alliance’s website has additional information on final arrangements, disposition options, consumer rights, home funerals, Massachusetts funeral and cemetery laws, and complaint procedures.

Child Protection Unit deputy chief earns prosecutors’ honor

Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Anne Yereniuk, deputy chief of the Child Protection Unit, was honored last month with the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association’s Spotlight Award at an annual prosecutors’ conference in Boston. She was one of 11 ADAs across the state to receive the award.

Yereniuk has worked at the Northwestern DA’s office since 2013 in various capacities, including prosecuting felony cases, serving as an attorney in charge of a district court team, and heading up the Elders and Persons with Disabilities Unit. Prior to joining the Northwestern DA’s office, she worked in the Hampden County DA’s office from 2007 to 2013. She graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 2005.

Northwestern First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne presented Yereniuk with the award at an April 25 ceremony where he noted her expertise in cybercrimes and her pursuit of online perpetrators who disseminate child sexual abuse material. He also applauded her efforts to educate the courts, lawyers and the general public that what was formerly described as “child pornography” is in fact child exploitation and abuse, and is not a victimless crime.

In bestowing the award, Gagne described Yereniuk as “one of the hardest working, most dedicated and highly organized prosecutors I’ve ever known.”

“She is as compassionate with her child victims as she is tenacious in her prosecution of those who would abuse and exploit them,” he said.

The Massachusetts District Attorneys Association is an independent state agency that supports the state’s 11 elected district attorneys and the 785 prosecutors and 260 victim witness advocates who work in those offices. It holds an annual conference at which each DA’s office selects one prosecutor for the Spotlight Award bestowed to prosecutors for outstanding service, spirit and professionalism.

Entrance to hospital ER shifts amid construction

NORTHAMPTON — To begin construction in a new section of Cooley Dickinson Hospital’s Emergency Department, the entrance has moved to the northeast side.

This is a temporary entrance that will be used for the duration of the project. A new entrance will be opened once the project is completed. The Emergency Department remains fully open and operational throughout the duration of the construction project.

To help direct patients to the temporary entrance, large signs have been placed in the hospital parking lots, and arrows and lettering have been painted on the sidewalks.

The hospital’s Emergency Department is undergoing a $26 million upgrade that will increase its size by 40%. The work is expected to be completed in the fall of 2025.