Staff from the section of occupational and environmental medicine at Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center recently received an award from the federal government in recognition of a program they developed for the state of Vermont. The team, led by Karen L. Huyck, MD, PhD, MPH, were given the Resilient Workplace Innovation Award by the United States Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Disability Employment Policy for their work with the Vermont Retaining Employment and Talent After Injury/Illness Network (VT RETAIN).
DOL recognized Huyck and her colleagues for developing VT RETAIN’s Resilient Workplace Certification program, to support workers with mental health conditions, recognizing gaps in available resources and addressing them. The project, currently in its final year, was funded by a $22 million grant to the state of Vermont and subaward to Dartmouth Health. The VT RETAIN Program helps workers with work-limiting physical and mental health conditions stay in the workforce.
Vermont was one of five states chosen by DOL to receive funding to create a RETAIN program. RETAIN projects include a combination of medical provider services, stay-at-work/return-to-work (SAW/RTW) coordination services, and other SAW/RTW services.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.