From St. Johnsbury to Lyndonville, state and federal officials visit flood-ravaged communities to discuss health and mental health challenges
VTDigger
In a region hit with multiple bouts of flooding last month, workers at Northern Counties Health Care have struggled to reach vulnerable residents — from those who were marooned at home to those who couldn’t get their prescriptions or had to reschedule surgeries.
As hard-hit communities continue to dig out after the latest round of devastating floods last week, a variety of health care workers met with state and federal leaders Monday in St. Johnsbury to outline their ongoing plight.
Home health professionals continue to triage every day to prioritize who they can help from among the 400 patients they serve in the Northeast Kingdom, said Treny Burgess, director of home health and hospice at Northern Counties Health Care. To do so, they have to navigate longer routes to get to patients who can’t go out, which takes time and leads to a backlog of folks not receiving care, as well as worker fatigue.
Burgess and others addressed Admiral Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who was visiting Vermont in the aftermath of the latest disaster.