Wellness Connection

The Greater New Bedford Community Health Center is dedicated to helping the community achieve a healthy lifestyle through the establishment of its Wellness Connection. A highly trained and qualified staff offers education, support, and reinforcement on weight loss, diabetic self-management, smoking cessation, childhood obesity, and exercise.

Wellness Connection Advantage

The Wellness Connection has the support of the Health Center medical team who make sure that all trainings and support groups are medically sound and beneficial for each client. In addition. our unique medical campus houses a pharmacy, vision center, an urgent care department, and a full functioning laboratory all of which provide services to the Wellness Connection's clients that no other wellness program can.

Meet Our Staff:

Joyce Dupont, Director, MSHA, MLT, ASCP Joyce completed her Bachelors degree in Health Care Services and her Masters of Science degree in Health Administration from the University of Phoenix. Joyce is not only the Director of the Wellness Connection but she also manages the Health Center Laboratory which was the only laboratory in Massachusetts to receive COLA's Laboratory Excellence Award in the 2006-2007 award year.

Nutrition & Weight Management

The Greater New Bedford Community Wellness Connection offers one-on-one counseling and support groups for a variety of nutrition issues. Maybe you want to increase your energy, manage your weight, bring down your cholesterol, and control your blood pressure or blood sugar. For anyone with health issues such as cardio vascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, weight issues, and general wellness issues, healthy nutrition plays an essential role.

Nutrition services include one-on-one counseling and group education and support with a Registered Dietitian who is also a Certified Diabetes Educator. Appointments can be scheduled by calling the office at the Wellness Connection at 508-992-6553. For any information on individual appointments or nutrition groups, you can contact Janet Forfia-Vecchione, RD. directly at 508-992-6553 ext. 157 or through her email: jvecchione@gnbchc.org

Meet Our Nutritionist:

		Janet Vecchione, Nutritionist, RD, CDE Janet is a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Simmons College and her CDE from the American Association of Diabetes Educators. Janet focuses not only on teaching, but also on empowering her clients to be successful in weight management.

Current Groups

• Am I Hungry?^®: This is a non-diet approach to weight management. If you've tried diets many times only to regain the weight you lost, if you're frustrated with the whole "diet" world, this group may be for you. We meet for 8 weeks, and focus on the WHY of eating. We teach you how to eat instinctively, empowering you to relearn how to use your natural ability to eat just the right amount of food, meet your other needs you may use food for, while losing weight. The website for the Am I Hungry?® program is: www.amihungry.com . Workshops are offered by Janet Forfia-Vecchione, RD, CDE, who is a certified Am I Hungry?^® facilitator.
• I'm Not Hungry...What Now?: This is a monthly support group that follows the 8 week Am I Hungry?^® Program. We utilize the information from Am I Hungry?^®, but also explore the destructive patterns, more deeply, that may be sabotaging your weight management.

Diabetes Program at the GNBCHC

Diabetes Program | Symptoms

The Greater New Bedford Community Health Center is proud of the diabetes care we offer. From early on in your diagnosis of diabetes, to living with diabetes for years, we take into account what your needs are.

• Do you want to learn about carbohydrate counting to better control your blood sugars?
• What about a refresher on low fat cooking?
• How much should you be eating?
• Do you need a new glucometer?
• Or what about learning how to use the one you have?
• Are you wondering about how to care for your feet now that you have diabetes?
• What does the test hemoglobin A1C mean?

These and many other questions can be answered here at the Health Center and Wellness Connection by our dedicated staff of nurses, a dietitian, and by the two Certified Diabetes Educators who keep abreast of the many recent changes in diabetes care.

Diabetes Symptoms

Often diabetes goes undiagnosed because many of its symptoms seem so harmless. Recent studies indicate that the early detection of diabetes symptoms and treatment can decrease the chance of developing the complications of diabetes.

Some diabetes symptoms include:

• Frequent urination
• Excessive thirst
• Extreme hunger
• Unusual weight loss
• Increased fatigue
• Irritability
• Blurry vision

If you have one or more of these diabetes symptoms, see your doctor right away. You can also take The American Diabetes Association's Online Diabetes Risk Test to find out if you are at risk for diabetes. To learn more, visit the American Diabetes Association at http://www.diabetes.org

Tobacco Cessation

About Our Program

The Greater New Bedford Community Health Center offers a Tobacco Treatment Program. This program offers individual counseling over eight to ten weeks. It is designed to help individuals quit and stay quit by using self-help measures and support. Quit aid options include Nicotine Replacement Products, Zyban (Wellbutrin SR), and Chantix (Varenicline). Tobacco Treatment Specialists are committed to working with clients, on a weekly basis, throughout their quitting phase. In addition, there are follow-ups offered, every three months, for the first year. These follow-ups support clients through the beginning of their maintenance phase and help prevent relapse.

The use of behavioral counseling and certain quit aids, may require longer treatment. Medication will not be provided until after the initial visit. Most insurances are accepted. If patients' Providers are located outside of the Health Center, referrals may be required. Uninsured patients are also accepted. Ongoing support groups are available to those who have participated in our program.

Meet Our Tobacco Treatment Specialists:

		Daphne Carvalho, BSN, RN, CTTS-M Daphne received her Bachelor degree in Nursing from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and her Certificate as a Master Tobacco Treatment Specialist from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester. She maintains her certificate through continuing education at various institutions including Yale. She has also received training as a Medical Interpreter through the Area Health Education Center of Southeast Massachusetts. For more information call 508-992-6553 Ext. 421.
		Dorothy Cabral, LPN, AAS, CPT, TTS Dorothy graduated from Diman Regional School of Practical Nursing, received her Associate degree in Applied Science from Bristol Community College, and her Certificate as a Tobacco Treatment Specialist from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worchester. She has advanced training and is certified on the coVita piCO+ Smokerlyzer and the Midmark Spirometer. In addition she is a Certified Phlebotomist. For more information call 508-992-6553 Ext. 224.

The coVita piCO+ Smokerlyzer is used in our Smoking Cessation Program. The Smokerlyzer measures the amount of carbon monoxide (CO) in exhaled breath. The more an individual smokes, the higher the CO reading will be. The Smokerlyzer also calculates how much CO is in the blood (the %COHb reading). The testing is a quick and non-invasive. The Smokerlyzer is also used in helping pregnant women stop smoking. It shows, in one breath, the amount of carbon monoxide that is passed on to an unborn baby’s blood as fetal carboxyhemaglobin (%FCOHb).

Benefits to Quitting

After 2 hours: nicotine and carbon monoxide start to clear out of your system

After 6 hours: heart rate and blood pressure decrease (may take up to one month to return back to normal)

After 12 hours: carbon monoxide exits your system, lungs work more efficiently

After 2 days: sense of taste and smell improve, your breath, hair, fingers, and teeth feel cleaner

Within 2 months: energy increase, breathing improves, circulation to hands and feet improves

Within 3 months: cilia (hair-like cleaning system in your lungs) recover and remove mucous

After 1 year: lung cancer risk decreases and heart disease risk decreases to half that of smokers Telephone Help

The Smoker's Quitline: 1 -800-879-8678
Nicotine Anonymous: 1 -800-622-6828
Quit Tips Line: 1-800-943-8284

Healthy Weight Initiative (HWI)
We are now offering clinic appointments for pediatric patients (ages 2-18 years old) who have a BMI > 85%. Eligible patients will have a comprehensive intake visit with our Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Health Center Nutritionist, & HWI Case Manager. Patients will come in for monthly follow up visits to receive support and to evaluate their progress.

Healthy Guide: Click on chart below for full size image.

The Goals of the HWI are:

• Teach a healthy lifestyle to all participants
• Assist in developing strength of habit for exercise activities; by increasing daily & weekly exercise time
• Increase vegetable consumption within their daily meals
• Reduce sweetened drinks consumption
• Cut back on video and Internet time
• Provide support and encouragement for behavior modification to all participants and their parents

This program is structured to achieve results within our overweight pediatric population, to encourage better nutrition skills, to build self-esteem, and to move more while having fun to reach each participant's goal. Partners in this program include Working with Mass in Motion KIDS, New Bedford YMCA, and New Bedford Schools.

Contacts:
Rebecca Levasseur, CHW (508-992-6553, x218
Ruth Rivera, CHW (508-992-6553, x443)