Wellness series

Wellness series

SALEM

As part of the Salem Public Library’s Wellness Wednesday series, Reiki master teacher Michelle Huffman offers a workshop on Reiki techniques and benefits to health at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 11 in the library’s Quaker Room. The program is free.

Reiki is a technique for stress reduction and relaxation that can generate feelings of peace and well-being. It is a safe and natural method of spiritual healing that everyone can use, Huffman said.

Registration is required through the library’s website at www.salem.lib.oh.us. For information or assistance with registration, call 330-332-0042.

Veterans legislation

WASHINGTON

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, said bipartisan legislation aimed at improving mental health care and suicide prevention resources for America’s veterans received unanimous committee passage.

According to an August 2014 dispatch by the Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 8,000 veterans each year take their own lives, an average of 667 per month, 154 per week and 22 per day. More than half of those veterans are under 50.

Brown said this marks an important step forward toward final passage of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans (SAV) Act that is named in honor of Clay Hunt, a Marine veteran who committed suicide in May 2011 at age 28. Hunt was honorably discharged in 2009 and suffered from post-traumatic stress for several years before taking his own life.

The act would require an independent, systemwide assessment of VA mental health programs to better determine areas for improvement and consolidation. The legislation would create a pilot loan repayment program to help recruit additional VA psychiatrists while strengthening relationships between the VA and nonprofit mental health organizations as a way to better serve veterans.

Brown encouraged any veterans, service member or their families who are in crisis to seek help and assistance by calling the Veterans Crisis Line, a confidential resource that connects veterans, their family, or friends, with qualified VA responders, at 1-800-273-8255.

Kidney transplants

ERIE, PA.

For the first time, UPMC will perform kidney transplants at a hospital outside of Pittsburgh, UPMC Hamot in Erie, where UPMC officials expect to begin performing surgeries with organs from living and deceased donors this summer.

The private organization that manages the nation’s organ-sharing network, the United Network for Organ Sharing, has given approval for UPMC surgeons to perform kidney transplants at UPMC Hamot.

The decision means kidney recipients in northwestern Pennsylvania will have access to the same world-class care offered at UPMC hospitals in Pittsburgh.

Officials estimate about 250 patients who are currently being evaluated for transplants are on the waiting list, or are post-transplant, and will have their care transferred from Pittsburgh to Hamot.

The transplant team at Hamot is currently being assembled and will consist of individuals based at Hamot as well as individuals from the transplant program at Pittsburgh, allowing for a close partnership with the University of Pittsburgh’s Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute.