CHCB is delighted to welcome Noma B. Anderson, PhD to our Board of Directors! Dr. Anderson is the dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Vermont.  Prior to joining UVM, she served as special advisor to the University of Tennessee System President on Diversity and Inclusion and as former professor in the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology in the College of Health Professions at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), where she also served as dean of the College of Health Professions.  Prior to arriving to the University of Tennessee, she was a professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Florida International University (FIU) and former dean of the School of Health Sciences.  Dr. Anderson was on the faculty in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and chaired that department for ten years. She has also been on the faculty at Hampton University. She received her B.A. degree from Hampton Institute (VA), her M.S. degree from Emerson College (Boston MA), and her Ph.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh (PA).  She began her clinical career at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and was also employed as Supervisor for Speech, Language and Hearing for Pittsburgh Head Start.  Dr. Anderson’s professional areas of expertise are in multicultural aspects of communication sciences and disorders, health and educational disparities, language acquisition, and childhood language disorders.

CHCB is pleased to welcome Mourning Fox, LCMHC as our new Director of Mental Health Services! Fox began his career in mental health more than 25 years ago as a psychiatric emergency services clinician. Since then, Fox has run mobile crisis teams and psychiatric/forensic residential programs. He developed the counseling program at Earlham College in Richmond, IN and directed the maximum-security inpatient forensic unit at Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts.  Fox has also been the director of a private nonprofit inpatient psychiatric unit and a 40 bed detox/treatment unit for court ordered substance use treatment for women in MA. He was class president and graduated from the Massachusetts Police Academy and was trained by the FBI in hostage/crisis negotiations. He was the first non-correctional officer to be a member of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections Crisis Negotiation Team. More recently, Mourning Fox has been the Deputy Commissioner for the Vermont Department of Mental Health for the past four years.  While at DMH, Fox lead the work on the design and implementation of a secure recovery residence for adults with substantial mental health needs who require significant supports. He also helped create the Embedded Mental Health Crisis Worker program within the Vermont State Police and was the architect for state legislation that looks to create a forensic system of care for Vermont.

Fox has been certified as a NAPPI (Non-Abusive Psychological and Physical Interventions) instructor, a CPI (Crisis Prevention Institute) trainer, and a mental health first aid trainer. He has provided Violence Prevention and De-escalation training and consultation to many law enforcement agencies throughout New England, as well as to a myriad of social service providers, educators and others. Fox helped create the Team Two curriculum and remains a member of the Team Two Steering Committee. He was also appointed by the governor as the Co-Chair of the Vermont Community Violence Prevention Task Force in 2019. Fox has been an active member of the Mental Health Crisis Response Commission which reviews interactions between law enforcement and people with mental health issues that resulted in either injury or death. Mourning Fox also was the creator of a well-received nationally used webinar training for college and university police/security personnel.

As of Tuesday, July 6, a third party service, Night Nurse, will be triaging after hours patient calls. Our Riverside, South End, Safe Harbor, Champlain Islands and Pearl Street Youth Health Centers will be the first to transition, with GoodHEALTH and Winooski Family Health continuing to utilize their existing on-call services for a few more months. Please continue to call your specific health center location when you need to reach someone outside of our regular business hours, and you will be connected to a Registered Nurse licensed in Vermont and experienced working with Federally Qualified Health Centers like CHCB. They will help assess your situation to streamline the best next steps to meet your needs from there.

All CHCB locations will be closed on Monday, July 5, in observance of Independence Day. Our on-call nurse/provider will be available for any urgent needs by calling your specific health center location. Have a safe and healthy holiday weekend!

Here are a few key takeaways:

• If you are pregnant, breastfeeding or considering getting pregnant it is important to think about getting the COVID-19 vaccine! Many women who are pregnant or breastfeeding are choosing to get the COVID-19 vaccine to protect themselves and their families.
• People who are pregnant and get COVID-19 infection have a higher chance of severe illness and complications than a person who is not pregnant. For this reason, medical providers and public health agencies like the CDC and Vermont Department of Health feel it is important for all pregnant women to be offered the COVID-19 vaccine. You should talk with your CHCB medical provider about getting vaccinated and if this decision is right for you.
• What does the research say? Pregnant women were not included in the original COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, but the CDC and other researchers have been observing data from women who have been vaccinated during pregnancy and breastfeeding since December 2020. To date no safety concerns have been identified. Medical providers have routinely and safely given pregnant women other types of vaccinations in pregnancy for a long time, we recommend the flu shot every year to protect against influenza and TDAP (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis) in pregnancy. Both of these vaccines protect mom and baby from infections.
  The current research on COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy reports that after the mother gets the vaccine the body makes antibodies to protect again COVID infection. Researchers have seen that these protective antibodies are passed to baby during pregnancy and while breastfeeding which may help protect the newborn from COVID infection.
• At this time, there have been no adverse effects noted to mothers or babies during their pregnancy who have received the COVID-19 vaccine. We do not know of any risks to the pregnancy, baby or a person’s fertility from the COVID-19 vaccine. None of the COVID-19 vaccines available under the emergency use authorization in the US cause infertility.

If you would like more information please talk with your CHCB medical/OB provider.

Here is more information from trusted sources!

COVID Vaccine Fact Sheet from MotherToBaby

CDC Information on COVID-19 Vaccines While Pregnant or Breastfeeding

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Conversation Guide for Clinicians

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Key Recommendations Sheet