Infants and preschoolers are now able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and appointments can be scheduled for children in this age group (ages 6 months to 5 years) at several of The Wright Center for Community Health’s primary care practices in Northeast Pennsylvania.
The littlest children became eligible for the vaccines last week, after federal regulators granted approval to using mini-doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna products that have proven to be so effective in protecting older children and adults.
The approval means that about 18 million additional American children can become vaccinated against the very contagious and potentially deadly virus. All children, including children who have already had COVID-19, should get vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Parents and caregivers with concerns about the safety or effectiveness of the vaccines in young children should contact their health care provider to have a fact-based, non-judgmental conversation,” said Dr. Jignesh Sheth, chief medical officer of The Wright Center for Community Health. “At The Wright Center, we want our patients to make informed decisions about the care that they and their children receive.”
Appointments for preschoolers to receive the vaccine can be made at any of these Wright Center primary care clinics:
Mid Valley Practice, 5 S. Washington Ave., Jermyn: 570.230.0019
Scranton Practice, 501 S. Washington Ave., Scranton: 570.941.0630
Pfizer’s vaccine has been approved for youngsters ages 6 months through 4 years. Its shots for this age group are only one-tenth its adult dosage and will be given in a three-shot series.
Moderna’s vaccine is intended for youngsters ages 6 months through 5 years. Its shots for this age group contain one-quarter the dose of the company’s adult vaccine. It will be administered in a two-dose series, and the company expects to later offer a booster.
Pharmacists in Pennsylvania are allowed to provide COVID-19 vaccines only to children ages 3 and up, according to the state Department of Health. Parents and guardians seeking appointments for children under 3 years old should contact a pediatrician, family doctor or other qualified physician.
For more information about The Wright Center’s services, including its COVID-19 vaccination, testing and treatment services, call 570.230.0019 or visitTheWrightCenter.org.
Scranton, Pa. (Nov. 3, 2021) – The Wright Center for Community Health began scheduling and administering kid-sized doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11 on Wednesday, Nov. 3at four regional primary care practices in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties after the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended the vaccines for the pediatric age group.
The unanimous decision by the CDC on Nov. 2 enables this new age group to receive 10-micrograms of the Pfizer vaccine – a third of the amount given to teens and adults. With parental consent, eligible children will receive two shots, three weeks apart. The Food and Drug Administration gave emergency use authorization of the vaccine on Oct. 29.
“Approval of the pediatric vaccine by the CDC is an important development as we work together to end the global pandemic through vaccinations, masking and social distancing,” said Dr. Jignesh Y. Sheth, chief medical officer and senior vice president at The Wright Center for Community Health. “The vaccine will offer a high level of protection for children ages 5-11 and slow the spread of the virus among others in our community, especially during the upcoming holiday season. It is also another step closer to normalcy for society and helping our school-aged children to remain in school for in-person learning.”
Due to the CDC’s recommendation, about 28 million children in the new age group will be eligible to receive a vaccination. The CDC recommended vaccinations for children, ages 12-15, in May.
“We will continue to encourage all Pennsylvanians to get their COVID-19 vaccine, and we are very excited that we can now include children ages 5 and over in that effort,” Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said in a state Department of Health press release. “To fellow parents I say: If you have a child between 5 and 11, get them vaccinated and give your child the power to safely learn, play and be a kid.”
Appointments to receive the pediatric vaccine may be made at the following Wright Center for Community Health clinics: Scranton Practice, 501 S. Washington Ave.; Mid Valley Practice, 5 S. Washington Ave., Jermyn; South Franklin Street Practice, 335 S. Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre, and West Scranton Intermediate School-Based Health, 1401 Fellows St., Scranton. To make an appointment, visit TheWrightCenter.org or call 570-230-0019.
The Wright Center for Community Health has been administering third doses and booster shots of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to eligible age groups as per CDC guidelines. People should talk to their health care provider about their medical condition and whether or not getting an additional dose or booster is appropriate for them.
Scranton, Pa. (Oct. 14, 2021) – The Wright Center for Community Health is partnering with Keystone Mission to provide on-site COVID-19 testing, well-check services, and COVID-19 and flu vaccinations to residents of the mission and surrounding North Scranton neighborhood from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 19 at 8-12 W. Olive St., Scranton.
The regional health care provider will utilize its 34-foot mobile medical clinic, Driving Better Health, to provide services in conjunction with its community partner. Keystone Mission is an award-winning, regional faith-based, nonprofit organization that transforms the lives of homeless men and women in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton.
“Keystone Mission works hand in glove with regional community social service agencies to provide support to people in our homeless communities in Northeast Pennsylvania,” said Justin V. Behrens, L.S.W., CEO and executive director of Keystone Mission. “I believe I am speaking for everyone at Keystone Mission when I say we are extremely grateful for the medical attention The Wright Center is providing to the people we serve. Together, we are working to provide them with healthy minds, bodies and spirits.”
The Wright Center for Community Health will administer the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which was approved in August by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for individuals 12 and older. Although the health care screening and vaccinations are primarily for residents of Keystone Mission, walk-up appointments also are welcome throughout the day.
To make an appointment call 570-343-2382 or go online at TheWrightCenter.org. The Wright Center will never deny health care services based on a patient’s inability to pay.
“The Wright Center for Community Health works collaboratively with community agencies to make outreach to underserved communities in Northeast Pennsylvania,” said Robin Rosencrans, practice manager for Driving Better Health. “Our mobile clinic makes vaccinations and well-check services accessible for people who otherwise might not have necessary transportation for appointments with primary care providers.”
Driving Better Health features two fully equipped examination operatories. It is a way to bring health care to the region’s most vulnerable, underserved populations. It is staffed by a multidisciplinary, bilingual primary care team of clinicians who will deliver primary health care to those most in need.
A Virtual Series that Addresses Innovative Health Care for Underserved Populations
Scranton, Pa. (Oct. 8, 2021) – The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education is offering the nine-week video series, “Innovations in Community Care: A Virtual Series,” on The Wright Center for Community Health’s YouTube channel.
The informative series includes brief talks about topics in community medicine and how faculty and residents in a family medicine residency program provide innovative, high-quality care to underserved populations in communities they serve. The series’ playlist can be found here.
The series was produced under the guidance of Lawrence LeBeau, D.O., national family medicine residency program director at The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education. The presentation and discussion series was organized by faculty in The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s National Family Medicine Residency Program’s affiliated community health center partners: El Rio Health, Tucson, Arizona; Unity Health Care, Washington, D.C.; HealthSource of Ohio, Hillsboro, Ohio, and HealthPoint, Auburn, Washington.
The topics include:
“Value of POCUS in Low-Resource Settings,” with Andrew Will Dixon, M.D., and James Huang, M.D.;
“Innovative Approaches to Refugee Health Care in the FQHC Setting,” presented by Dr. Shoshana Aleinikoff,M.D.;
“FQHC-Hospital Partnership,” with Tara Simpson, M.D.;
“Lifestyle Management through Group Visits,” presented by Darlene Lawrence, M.D.:
“Asylum Evaluations,” with Andrew Will Dixon, M.D., and Catherine Njiru-Sewer, D.O.;
“Low Barrier Care Model for People with Substance Use Disorders,” presented by Nathan Kittle, M.D., and Cara Dalbey, Psy.D.;
“Medicine for the Incarcerated,” with Eleni O’Donovan, M.D., and Khalid Ebrahim, M.D.;
“Medicine for the Unhoused,” presented by Andrew Will Dixon, M.D., and Anam Whyne, D.O.;
“Osteopathic Practice in the FQHC Setting,” with Gayatri Menon, D.O.
Newspaper guest column written by William Dempsey, M.D., Deputy Chief Medical Officer at The Wright Center for Community Health – The opioid crisis continues to take a terrible toll on Pennsylvania, stealing lives and inflicting suffering on affected families as well as entire communities, including rural and urban areas in our region. Overdose deaths in the state increased last year by 14 percent over the prior year, according to recently released preliminary data.
The spike in overdoses during 2020 can be pinned, in part, on fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, which spawned job losses, higher anxiety, greater isolation and, in some instances, reluctance to seek proper care.
Today is Opioid Misuse Prevention Day. It’s important for area residents to consider how pervasive the opioid problem has become and how each of us has a critical role to play in preventing addiction and shattering stigma. After all, we all have some sort of addiction in our lives.
All too often, outdated notions about addiction and the stigma surrounding substance use disorder continue to be major barriers to wider implementation of effective interventions — such as medication-assisted treatment — that enable recovery while preventing overdoses and deaths.
Addiction is a lifelong disease, and no two paths of recovery are the same. But through team-based, whole-person care, the energy of addiction can be rerouted to make long-term recovery possible. Patients in pain and patients with a substance use disorder need comprehensive treatment, not judgment. The key to lasting recovery is compassionate support.
For example, individuals currently undergoing treatment and living in recovery need opportunities to join — or rejoin — the workforce. For employers in the region, adopting hiring practices that consider people in recovery is one way of expanding the applicant pool during these challenging recruitment times. Plus, people living in recovery often prove to be especially loyal, motivated and hardworking employees if given the chance.
The Wright Center’s Opioid Use Disorder Center of Excellence is proud to be a part of the larger effort to address the crisis and to assist area residents on their recovery journeys. Our certified addiction medicine specialists, case workers and therapists all offer hope and proven solutions.
Please consider how your words and actions can also help to lessen the severity of the opioid crisis in our region. Together, we can make Northeast Pennsylvania a more supportive, recovery-oriented community.
Scranton artist Allison LaRussa will offer purposeful projects to promote healing and prevent physician burnout
Baring a bit of her left shoulder, Allison LaRussa reveals a tattooed typewriter that pays homage to one of her inspirations.
“That’s my Sylvia Plath arm,” she says, gently laughing. “Plath is one of my favorite writers. She struggled with mental illness and was very vocal about it, so I can relate a lot to her poetry.”
Beyond mere body art, this image and others inked onto Allison’s arms and neck reveal more about her mindset and life purpose than any LinkedIn profile.
The Scranton native is foremost a creative soul. She is an artist/singer who knows firsthand the healing capacity of personal expression, whether through paints, clay, clothes, music, the written word or other outlets. She also is someone who copes with mental health illnesses and dares to talk openly about them so that others can be helped. And now, as of mid-2021, Allison is The Wright Center for Community Health’s recently hired Director of Health Humanities.
In the newly created role, Allison, 34, will promote wellness among The Wright Center’s employees, its patients and members of the broader community by engaging them in creative activities.
“No other health center that I know of has a position quite like this,” she says. “It’s such a progressive, amazing thing to have the creative arts in a medical facility.”
Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, President and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, calls Allison “a valued member of our team.”
“She will nurture positivity and resiliency within individuals and at the organizational level, which is particularly relevant as we collectively emerge from the pandemic experience,” Dr. Thomas said.
Allison’s art sessions will blend some Bob Ross-style instruction – for example, on painting murals or making a mixed-media collage – with a relaxed, therapy-like atmosphere. She expects to frequently engage with physicians and other healthcare providers, exercising their ability to balance the scientific regions of their brains with the parts that spark when deciding whether to dab a pencil-thin paintbrush in, say, ultramarine blue or magenta.
These medical residents and fellows, like their counterparts in programs across the country, deal with the dual pressures of delivering top-notch care to patients and simultaneously completing rigorous graduate medical education requirements. Add in the stresses from their personal lives, plus the complications and uncertainty of dealing with COVID-19, and it’s a recipe for sky-high anxiety.
“Our art activities at The Wright Center will be designed to decrease a lot of stress and burnout,” says Allison. “The projects will allow people to be more mindful, to process more, so that they are better able to handle their work.”
A 2010 Marywood University graduate, Allison has long been active in the region’s arts scene.
She previously performed with Doghouse Charlie, a folk-indie-alternative band to which she contributed vocals. She’s been a fixture for many years with First Friday Scranton, watching it grow from a fringe activity to a popular monthly draw in the heart of the downtown. She’s even led art activities for children at Scranton’s McDade Park.
During one of her sessions at The Wright Center’s Scranton Practice, which was geared toward a more mature group of learners, Allison guided about 14 medical residents through a mask-painting exercise. The activity was intended to help them explore the concept of professional identity formation. Each participant received a paper mache-like mask and was asked to paint the outside depicting how they typically present themselves to the world. On the mask’s interior, they were encouraged to paint aspects of themselves that they are less prone to share with others but wish could be seen.
Allison’s purposeful projects in many ways complement The Wright Center’s emergingLifestyle Medicine program. (So, too, do the classes she leads in the community as a certified Pilates instructor.)
A prevention-focused program, Lifestyle Medicine inspires people to take a proactive approach to their healthcare by controlling factors such as the foods they eat and how they manage stress. As she sees it, art can be a central part of this holistic way of achieving well-being and happiness.
“When we’re creating art, we are able to be mindful through the process,” Allison says. “Obviously when we’re more mindful, when we’re more present, we have less anxiety. In turn, we’re less susceptible to the negative mental and physical consequences of stress.”
Art activities will be offered at The Wright Center’sprimary care practices in Northeastern Pennsylvania, as well as other sites, and reach all types of audiences: homeless individuals, school-age students, veterans, and seniors, some of whom might be socially isolated and susceptible to depression.
Allison has a particular calling to assist people grappling with drug-and-alcohol and mental health issues. In her life, she has been diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
Trained as a Certified Peer Specialist nearly six years ago, she fully appreciates the power of sharing one’s personal story of recovery with people who are currently ensnared by substance abuse and/or mental health challenges. “Hearing other people’s stories has helped me,” she says. “If they hadn’t been so open and vulnerable, I don’t know where I’d be at this point.”
To pay it forward, Allison seems to keep both sides of her own “mask” on perpetual display, relating her past internal struggles via informal conversations and more planned forums, including an occasional podcast. As a teenager, she never imagined that she would one day inject illegal drugs or spend time in jail. But, during this survivor’s journey, she has dealt with distress, a sports injury, a sometimes overpowering emotional pain, and an addiction that stemmed in large part from attempts to numb the hurt.
“I completely lost myself,” she once wrote. “I made many mistakes. … Lied endlessly to the ones I loved and hurt anyone in my path. My moral compass was completely nonexistent.”
Allison largely credits her family’s involvement for saving her; they dropped her at the doorstep of a treatment center where she got the right assistance at the right time. Art therapy became not only a source of personal consolation and inspiration but also a career path. In the years since, the Dunmore High School alumna worked at recovery centers in Carbondale and Waymart, offering clients the artistic tools and safe, supportive environments necessary to soothe, restore, and possibly even reshape themselves.
“A lot of healing happens through the arts,” she says. “Sometimes people don’t want to discuss what they’re feeling during traditional talk therapy. So, to have an opportunity to paint or write about it makes it easier for people to process what they’re going through.”
Consider, for example, the rush on art supplies during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of us apparently were compelled to visit the art store aisles because we had the urge to draw, paint, and otherwise release our own mixed-up feelings – and fears – in a way that didn’t require speaking.
“The creative arts allow each of us to dive into that expression,” she says, “and to explore who we are as a person.”
With Allison’s assistance, many of The Wright Center’s employees and patients will be given opportunities to make those self-discoveries, sharing bits of themselves in artwork that is inwardly significant and outwardly beautiful.
