Jason Turner has found new life as a corrections officer as the security director of the Aquaponics Lab at the Berkshire County Jail and House of Correction.
Jason Cuyler is the executive director of 2nd Street Second Chances, a program that provide services to the formerly incarcerated with the goal of keeping them from returning to jail.
Berkshire Community College has received a state grant to start a program to support formerly incarcerated people in hopes of reducing rates of recidivism.
NORTH ADAMS â The dread of going back to school. The fear of losing the time for therapy, once offices open up again. The anxiety of renewed socialization.
These are just some of the issues that the clinicians at 413 Theraworks have been helping their clients through, via remote therapy sessions, as the end of the coronavirus pandemic becomes a possibility and its aftereffects threaten to reverberate for years.
The practice has grown fivefold since Candace Wall opened its doors just ahead of the pandemic, in August 2019. Wall made her first hire that winter and brought on three more employees during the crisis, to deal with widespread anxiety, depression, grief and trauma brought on by COVID-19, in addition to the stressors of ordinary life.
A sore arm, identical to the aftereffect of a typical flu shot.
Taylor Hoffstedt, a certified nursing assistant, was overwhelmed with emotion before her first dose last month, even tearing up. Physically, though, she was almost entirely unaffected.
âI didnât have any side effects,â she said. âOther than a slightly sore arm.â
As county health care workers receive their second dose or draw closer to the scheduled date for it, many told The Eagle they have experienced few or none of the vaccineâs more common side effects.
Among more than 2,000 employees vaccinated at Berkshire Health Systems, the vast majority reported no side effects at all, according to spokesperson Michael Leary.