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Portsmouth Activists Plan Accessible Black ...

A Black Lives Matter protest more accessible to those in the disabled community is being organized for next Friday in Portsmouth.

Portsmouth Activists Plan Accessible Black Lives Matter Protest

COVID-19

Out & About: Keeping productivity worries in check

By LIZ SAUCHELLI

Valley News Staff Writer

The best representation of my inability to be productive during the COVID-19 pandemic is best illustrated by the stack of large picture frames leaning against my bureau.

They began accumulating there a couple weeks after my boyfriend and I received our instructions to begin working from home. With all our evenings and weekends suddenly free, we thought it would be a great time to finish decorating our apartment. We made a plan on what would go where: His (what I believe to be quite scary) framed Goosebumps puzzles would hang in the hallways while the blank wall in our bedroom would be reserved for nature-themed illustrations and prints.

It was successful at first. We navigated the mild frustrations of measuring walls and making sure frames were evenly spaced. It wasn’t perfect, but it was work we could be proud of. It was a physical accomplishment we could point to and say, “look what we did this weekend.”

Then the weeks went on and the malaise of staying at home began to set in. The remaining pictures were moved against the bureau instead of hung on the wall, and every time I needed to open a lower drawer in my bureau, I’d move them. “Tomorrow, after we’re done working from home for the day” became “this weekend, when our minds aren’t on work.” And then we stopped commenting on the frames altogether and moving them just became another part of a new stay-at-home routine.

Read the full article.

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org. 

‘It’s something we’ve never seen before’: In-home care providers are on the COVID-19 front lines

By TIM GOODWIN

Monadnock Ledger-Transcript

Home Healthcare, Hospice and Community Services nurse Kristina McGuirk visits patients who have returned from the hospital after battling COVID-19. Staff photo by Ben Conant

Home Healthcare, Hospice and Community Services nurse Kristina McGuirk visits patients who have returned from the hospital after battling COVID-19. Staff photo by Ben Conant

When patients infected with coronavirus first made an appearance on Kristina McGuirk’s case load, it was hard not to be concerned.

As a nurse with Home Healthcare, Hospice and Community Services, McGuirk’s job is to go into people’s homes to provide care for those dealing with a variety of conditions and medical concerns. But the addition of COVID-19 brought on that question of “what if?”

“You have to assume everyone has it and that’s really the best way,” McGuirk said. “I obviously don’t know what I was expecting. It’s something we’ve never seen before.”

She’s worried about being infected herself or bringing it home to her fiance. For those on her weekly caseload who had contracted coronavirus, her visits have so far come after the patient returned home from hospitalization.

Read the full article.

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org. 

No easy answers for NH’s homeless during pandemic

No easy answers for NH’s homeless during pandemic

For a highly contagious virus, a homeless shelter with dozens of beds, sometimes less than two feet apart, is extremely vulnerable.

While people who have housing can actively choose whether to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s social distancing guidelines, those facing homelessness are living in “matchboxes,” as one advocate described it.

Students on the Frontlines of Pandemic Struggle Balancing School and Work

When Marti Milan, of Claremont, finishes her weekend shifts working as a nursing assistant at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, she’s exhausted. She’s been in the job for two years, but these days there are constantly new policies to learn and an ever-present worry about being exposed to coronavirus. All of that makes it difficult for Milan, 21, to shift back into student mode come Monday and do her coursework from Colby-Sawyer College, where she studies nursing.

Coronavirus presents unique concerns for those with developmental disabilities

The call for social-isolation, major disruptions to routines, higher risk for people with compromised health issues, coupled with the need for hands-on everyday self-care, makes this situation incredibly challenging, anxious and dangerous.