Category: Q&A

Brad Greenland

Genealogist

Brad Greenland is a Manchester-based genealogist and founder of Greenland Genealogy, providing family history research and record retrieval services.

Explain your job and what it entails.

I work with clients who want to know about their family story, get details about their family tree or get something [about their family history] confirmed. I do the research for them [by] searching online records and sometimes contacting archives around the region or country to track down physical copies of records. Then, I write up a report and present it [to the client].

How long have you had this job?

I started about four years ago.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

It’s something I’ve always been really passionate about. … I first got into genealogy when I was in high school. One day, my family realized that we didn’t really know anything about our family tree, so we started looking into it, and I was hooked from there. … In college, I thought a lot about doing genealogy [as a career]. I wanted to be able to shed some light on other people’s family trees. After college, I started doing it and absolutely loved it. I’ve been doing it ever since.

What kind of education or training did you need?

A lot of it is self-taught. I did a lot of online webinars … and talked to other genealogists about how to go about certain things. … I also have a bachelor’s degree in international relations and have always been interested in history, so [genealogy] is a good way to tie that [education] in.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

I usually do my correspondence with clients over email or over the phone, so I can dress casual.

How has your job changed over the last year?

It’s definitely been harder to get hard copies of records. A lot of the archives had to be shut down due to Covid, and they didn’t have staff because their job couldn’t really be done remotely, since they work with the physical records. I just had to hope that the records I needed were digitized and available to access online.

What do you wish you’d known at the beginning of your career?

When I originally started, I had no idea that so many records weren’t digitized. There are a lot that I have to physically go to a historical society or library or archive to find.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

People are surprised when they find out that I’m only in my 20s. Genealogy is often associated with an older crowd, but it’s really something that can be interesting and appealing to everybody.

What was the first job you ever had?

I was an umpire for my local baseball league as a teenager.

What’s the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

Everyone has a different starting point with their genealogy. Some people know a ton about their family history, and some people just don’t have a lot of information for various reasons. You have to understand where people are coming from and be able to work with them and the information they have to get the job done.

Five favorites
Favorite book: The Great Gatsby
Favorite movie: When Harry Met Sally
Favorite music: I like an eclectic mix — everything from Frank Sinatra to today’s music.
Favorite food: Italian
Favorite thing about NH: You can go to the beach, or hike the mountains, or visit a historical town; there’s such a wide variety of things to do.

Featured photo: Brad Greenland

VNA merger expands home health, hospice services

Visiting nurse associations Concord Regional VNA and Central New Hampshire VNA & Hospice have merged to form what is now the Granite VNA, providing certified home health care and hospice care to 82 communities throughout the greater Concord area and central New Hampshire. President and CEO Beth Slepian, formerly the president and CEO of Concord Regional VNA, discussed the merger.

Why was Granite VNA formed?

Industry-wide, [VNA] organizations have been looking at how to be sustainable for the long term. … Over the last five years, and even longer than that, home care and hospice has become challenging because of Medicare payment cuts; our fees are reduced. … We provide over $5 million in community benefits, which is unreimbursed … and we’re seeing our reimbursements declining. We’re also seeing [an increase] in patients to care for. Our biggest costs are labor wages and benefits; how will we be able to continue to both support our workforce and provide those community benefits? … Both Concord Regional VNA and Central VNA & Hospice were very strong financially; neither had to embark on this journey now, but we were looking toward the future to make sure that we could leverage scale and volume to meet the needs of the entity in the long term.

How will the merger improve health care in the state?

In the Lakes Region, Central New Hampshire VNA did not have IV-certified nurses, and that’s something we’re looking to bring to that area. We have more wound care nurses and certified lymphedema therapists in the Capital region that [were part of] Concord Regional VNA, so we’ll be able to spread them throughout our entire service area. We’re expanding the maternal child health services that we provide in the Lakes Region. [Central VNA] had a program, but it was small, so we’re staffing that to address the pediatric and maternal health needs of mothers and babies. … Finally, we’ll be able to spread our community education programs [like] Powerful Tools for Caregivers [and] Better Choices Better Health throughout the communities we serve, based on an assessment [of their needs].

Who will benefit most from these expanded health care services?

More people are receiving care in their homes now than ever before. … We have an aging population in New Hampshire, and an expanding group of people requiring care, [including] patients who have chronic illnesses like diabetes and congestive heart failure, have had joint replacements or an accident, or need IV therapy. We’ll also be able to give patients in the remoter areas of New Hampshire greater access to visiting nurses and home care and specialty care.

How is Granite VNA operating as of now?

The main office is located in Concord, with two branches in Laconia and Wolfeboro. … We now have five home care teams, two hospice teams and a hospice house. We’re currently still operating on two different electronic health records, and once we’re on one, we’ll be able to really resource all 82 towns that we serve with one workforce.

Did the pandemic impact the merger process?

It was hard, as we went through the pandemic, continuing to care for our communities while also working toward this big project … but we persevered … and methodically worked our way through the process to integration. … Discussions [about the merger] had been happening for a year prior [to the pandemic], and they were very collaborative discussions; we were working closely together to create this new entity, so [by the time the pandemic happened] we had already formed a relationship and could support each other and share knowledge and processes on how to handle the new [pandemic] rules.

How has Granite VNA taken care of its staff throughout the merger?

Mergers are not successful when not enough work is done on creating a new [workplace] culture. That’s why we created a new name, instead of keeping either [organization’s] name, and a new identity. It’s really important to us that as we go through this integration it’s a shared experience and a shared new culture for everyone. … We actually [have a] consultant who is working with both organizations to bring them together … and [help them] acknowledge what each is feeling and really understand each other.

What do you anticipate will be the biggest challenge for Granite VNA?

Workforce, workforce, workforce. [Health care organizations] are all competing for the same people [to employ]. We would hire as many nurses as we could find right now, but it’s really hard. We’re doing what we can … and we’re trying to get creative. We have a nurse graduate program so that we can train nurse graduates … and that’s a slow but steady build of our workforce.

Featured photo: Beth Slepian

Health director commended for pandemic leadership

Manchester Public Health Director Anna Thomas is the recipient of the Greater Manchester Chamber’s Citizen of the Year award, which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated leadership, vision and civic pride while making significant contributions toward the betterment of the Manchester community.

How did it feel, being named Citizen of the Year?

I’m honored and humbled, but there are so many people in the community who should be recognized for their contributions; [the recognition] really can’t go to just one person. I see it as more of a ‘citizenry of the year’ than a ‘citizen of the year’ award, because everyone has sacrificed and done their part to be part of the solution during this pandemic.

What did you find to be the most successful or effective part of your approach to the pandemic?

Throughout Covid, our decision-making has been very data-driven and evidence-based. We monitor the data on a daily basis and use science and the best research we have available to be very strategic about what we do. … Another [successful approach] has been pooling resources and collaborating to solve community issues. Our individual programs are excellent, but we know we can make a bigger impact by leveraging the strength of multiple programs working together.

Is there anything that you learned or that surprised you about public health over the last year?

I’ve learned how much politics can enter the world of public health. When you’re making decisions dealing with [protecting] human life, sometimes you’re stepping on people’s individual choice or civil liberty. A lot of people don’t want to be told what to do by the government; they want to be informed and then left to make their own decisions. I respect everyone’s individual choice, but unfortunately, during a pandemic or any kind of public health emergency where one person’s choice can impact the health and well-being of others, executive orders have to be made. … It’s certainly not the first time I’ve seen how public health issues can tug on people’s ideologies and philosophies, but in this pandemic, I’ve seen it played out much more significantly.

How would you describe your leadership style?

It’s very team-based. I don’t believe in being the dictator at the top saying, ‘This is the way it’s going to be.’ No one is an expert on everything; everyone has different skill sets. Innovation and creativity comes from having multiple perspectives. … Working on a large population level, we have to have perspectives from all sides to give us a bigger picture for how to inform our process and make the most well-rounded decisions that we can so we can serve the entire community.

What is the biggest challenge you face in your position?

One of the challenges is the sheer magnitude of people we’re trying to reach. … Manchester is the largest city north of Boston; it’s an urban center, and the work we do really falls under the umbrella of urban health, which comes with an entirely different level of priorities … than the suburban and rural communities that [make up] the majority of New Hampshire. … That’s why we have a division focused on family and neighborhood health. Different neighborhoods have different needs and different strengths, so just like the state [narrows down] public health to a community level, we as a city look at how we can tailor our services to meet the needs in specific neighborhoods.

What is your focus right now for Manchester’s public health?

It changes day to day, sometimes even minute to minute. It’s still all about Covid, for the most part. … We’ve moved away from the community-based testing that we’ve been doing throughout the pandemic, and now we’re heavily focused on getting people vaccinated and back on their feet. … We’re also trying to get back to [addressing] more of the basic public health [issues] that we did prior to the pandemic … [such as] school health; … refugee health; … infectious diseases other than Covid, like HIV, STDs and TB; … environmental health, [like] testing mosquitoes for Triple E and West Nile virus; water sampling; … septic inspections; … assessments of [buildings with] lead, mold or bed bugs; … community dental care; …home visits with expectant mothers; [and] opioids and addiction. … We’re also doing a lot of work in the arena of mental and behavioral health, and we actually have a behavioral health specialist on staff now.

What should people know about the current public health situation?

They can be optimistic and hopeful about the future. We’re at a better place now. Things are definitely taking a turn for the better, and there’s a lot to look forward to.

Featured photo: Anna Thomas