U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan named Brielle Paquette, a high school senior from Salem, October’s “Granite Stater of the Month,” a title that recognizes New Hampshire citizens who are working to make a difference in their communities. Paquette has been using her platform as Miss Londonderry and her filmmaking talents to confront the stigma surrounding mental illness. In 2019, at a competition held by New Hampshire Futures, an organization focused on promoting health and wellness in the state, she received the People’s Choice Award for a PSA video she made about mental illness. Paquette talked about the video and why she is passionate about the issue of mental health.
How long have you been making videos?
I grew up around a very artistic family. A lot of them are photographers and videographers themselves, so I grew up always having a camera in my face. Eventually, when I got older, I was like, ‘This looks fun,’ and me and my cousins started making little plays. Ever since then I’ve been like, ‘This is what I want to do.’ It wasn’t until I got older that I started using it for more serious topics. Instead of making music videos, I started making videos about mental health and stuff that I feel really passionate about. I’ve actually created three mental health videos.
What sparked your interest in mental health and mental illness?
I grew up with both of my parents who struggled with mental illness. My dad used to be an alcoholic, and my mom had extreme anxiety. Growing up around that was very difficult and very hard on my mental health, especially being such a young child. Me and my brother both developed really bad anxiety and went through times where we were very depressed, but luckily we were able to get the help we needed and go to therapy and everything and get through it.
Tell me about the PSA you made.
I made a sign that said “20 – 50 percent of adolescents struggle with mental illness. Hug to show support for people who are struggling.” I went to Boston with my mom, and I went to a subway station. I blindfolded myself and stood there and let random people hug me. All these normal people are going about their day — we don’t know what their names are or what they’ve been through — and they go up to me and hug me to show support and show that maybe they’re going through mental illness. … I guess the whole purpose of that video was to spark conversation. I wanted to get the message across that there are so many people out there who are going through this, and it shouldn’t be looked down upon. It should be something that we should be able to talk about, and I wanted to make people feel safe to talk about what they’re going through.
What kind of response did you get?
I got so much feedback — way more than I was expecting, which was the most amazing thing. Within five minutes of uploading the video, one of my friends who I went to school with called me hysterically crying, and her first words were ‘thank you.’ She just thanked me and said it was so hard for her to be able to watch that, but it made her feel so safe and comfortable, and it made her feel like she wasn’t alone. There were so many other people who reached out to me saying that it really touched them or really moved them, and that they’re showing [the video to] their parents and their friends, and that a lot of people could relate to it. … There were even people from across the country reaching out to me.
Why is breaking down the stigma around mental illness important?
I remember when I was a little girl, I would sit in my room, feeling all alone, feeling like, ‘I shouldn’t be feeling like this because this is bad, and I can’t let anyone know how I’m feeling because people will make fun of me or judge me or just won’t understand.’ That was just such a terrible feeling, and if I had known that [mental illness] wasn’t bad and that I wasn’t alone, then maybe I would have been able to reach out and get help sooner. I’m very lucky for the family and the support that I have, but I know that not everyone is that fortunate. I want to be able to advocate for those people who are afraid to speak up and let them know that it’s OK, that they can talk about it and that they aren’t alone.
Do you know what you want to do after graduation and beyond?
I’ll definitely be going to college … and I’ll definitely be majoring in film production and directing. I would love to go to school in Boston or New York and be able to start working with production companies there. My end goal is to be a director for movies. I would also love to produce and direct commercials … and music videos.
Information from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services
Covid-19 news
Several state chief medical and nursing officers issued a joint statement with the New Hampshire Hospital Association on Nov. 10, urging people to continue to adhere to the guidance from state health officials to prevent the spread of Covid-19. “We ask that you … wear a mask, stay at least six feet apart, avoid crowds, wash your hands frequently, cover your mouth when you cough and stay home if you are experiencing any respiratory or unexplained symptoms,” the statement reads.
State health officials reported 462 new positive tests of Covid-19 in New Hampshire on Nov. 13, the most recorded in a single day since the start of the pandemic in March, and an increase of more than 100 from the previous record set just the day before (323 new positive tests on Nov. 12). “In the last week, we have now averaged about 240 new infections per day statewide, which is up from where we were last week,” state epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan said in a Nov. 12 press conference. “This … virus is now widespread in our state. The number of infections are increasing. The hospitalizations are increasing. The test-positivity rate is increasing, and the number of people dying from Covid-19 is also increasing.”
Chan also announced that, due to the rapidly increasing rates of community transmission, the state Department of Health & Human Services will no longer be conducting contact tracing investigations for those who test positive. “Instead, we will be prioritizing who we investigate and targeting our public health resources to those individuals in those situations most at need and most at risk for [the] spread of Covid-19,” Chan said.
As of Nov. 12, 64 people in New Hampshire were being hospitalized for Covid-19, but Gov. Chris Sununu said he expects that number will rise “very aggressively,” which may prompt the need to open more temporary “surge hospitals” in the state. “Hospitals are open and they’re performing services, [and] they have a lot of testing capability,” he said. “That means we have less available bed capacity today than we did [in March and April] … and so the need to open a surge or flex hospital would probably come much sooner.”
Later during the same press conference, DHHS Commissioner Lori Shibinette reported four instances of potential community exposures of Covid-19 at polling locations on Election Day (Nov. 3) — at Souhegan High School in Amherst, Pembroke Academy, Belmont High School and Newfields Elementary School. “These were all people that identified in the last couple of days of having positive Covid-19 tests and reported being in line and not being able to six-foot socially distance,” Shibinette said, noting that anyone who was at any of those polling stations should monitor for symptoms.
Sununu also announced that New Hampshire, along with each of the five New England states and New Jersey, has suspended all interstate hockey competitions for public and private schools, and for youth hockey, from Nov. 14 through Dec. 31. “This doesn’t pause hockey,” he said. “It pauses crossing the border for games.” Sununu added that college, professional or national team hockey activities are not impacted by the suspension.
With the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday just one week away, Sununu announced the state has updated its travel guidance for residents who travel outside of New England. “Currently, when you come back, we’re having folks quarantine for 14 days,” he said. “We’re augmenting that to allow a seven-day quarantine with a test. So if you get a test, after seven days, you don’t have to do the 14. You could do the 14 without a test, or you can quarantine for seven days with a test. … “Obviously, we’re not going to tell people that they can’t have a family gathering at Thanksgiving. But what we can do is manage our controls, expectations, the elevated message, and especially the data that we’re seeing out there.”
On Nov. 14, Sununu issued Emergency Order No. 72, an order extending Emergency Order No. 52, which had been issued on June 15. Emergency Order No. 52 is an order regarding public health guidance for business operations and advising Granite Staters they are safer at home. Emergency Order No. 72 extends that advisory through Jan. 15.
On Nov. 16, Sununu reactivated the state’s Long Term Care Stabilization Program, offering stipends to frontline health care workers at Medicaid facilities until Dec. 31.
Details of all of Sununu’s Emergency Orders, Executive Orders and other announcements can be found at governor.nh.gov.
Child Advocate report
Released last week, the Office of the Child Advocate’s Annual Report cited the pandemic as the “dominating factor of the year” for children, according to a press release. The Division for Children, Youth and Families received praise from Child Advocate Moira O’Neill for the support it provided to families to help prevent abuse or neglect that stemmed from pandemic restrictions. The report identified pandemic-related concerns, such as less access to school personnel, who usually monitor for signs of abuse and neglect. The Office of the Child Advocate is working toward implementation of an expanded community-based system of care, which it identifies as the most critical response to child and family needs, the press release said. Also in the report is a look at the number of complaints about state services for children that the office has received from Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2020, as well as reports of incidents that involve kids in state care during that same time frame. “We received, reviewed and monitored outcomes of 2,183 incident reports,” O’Neill said in the report. “That is an increase of three times what we saw in the year before.” However, those numbers reflect DCYF coming into compliance with the mandate to report and not necessarily an increase in incidents, according to the release.
School lunches
Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig sent a letter last week to the New Hampshire congressional delegation regarding the concern that the city’s school district, as well as districts throughout the state, is in danger of losing funding due to a reduction in the number of families who have filled out paperwork to be eligible for free or reduced lunches. That number helps determine school funding needs, but because all students have been able to get free school lunches during the pandemic without filling out forms, the current number does not reflect the actual need, the letter says. In Manchester, prior to the pandemic, about 49.5 percent of students in the district were eligible for free lunch; as of Oct. 31, that number dropped to 39.99 percent. “This decrease in enrollment does not reflect the needs of our community, however, and if this continues, the Differentiated Aid under the Adequacy formula that is tied to the number of students receiving free and reduced lunch will be approximately $3.6 million lower than this year,” Craig wrote in the letter. “This is an unintended consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic that could have detrimental impacts on school district budgets across the state.”
Sports betting
Since it debuted on Dec. 30 last year, the New Hampshire Lottery has surpassed $200 million in total sports wagering, with more than 52,000 registered customers in New Hampshire making over 6 million bets that totaled more than $205.1 million as of Nov. 9, according to a press release. Since Dec. 30, New Hampshire Lottery and DraftKings have launched mobile sports betting in New Hampshire and have opened two retail sportsbook locations for in-person betting, at DraftKings Sportsbook at The Brook in Seabrook and DraftKings Sportsbook at Manchester at the Filotimo Casino & Restaurant. “The success of sports betting in New Hampshire represents success for our entire state, as revenue from sports betting directly benefits education in New Hampshire,” Gov. Chris Sununu said in the release.
The 1914 Colonial Theatre complex in Laconia has been named to the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and its role as a center of entertainment and commerce into the 21st century. According to a press release, its most prominent feature is a 1930s marquee.
The Concord Regional Visiting Nurse Association recently honored Director of Donor Relations Melissa Howard with its peer-nominated “Living Our Values” award. According to a press release, Howard has been with the VNA for almost five years, and the colleagues who nominated her said she “is a wonderful leader, a pleasure to work with and a true role model.”
The Department of Athletics at UNH in Durham announced last week that its athletic programs, including hockey and basketball, will begin play for the 2020-21 season. According to a press release, spectators will not be allowed at Wildcats home events, though hockey games will be televised on NESN.
The Brookside Congregational Church Complex in Manchester has been named to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places, according to a press release. The complex includes a 1908 neo-Classical estate house, a 1960 brick Georgian Revival church, a circa 1908 carriage house and a caretaker’s cottage.
Make no mistake about it, Donald Trump lost this election and the passion on both sides was either for or against Donald Trump. While many were hopeful of a blue Democratic wave, it didn’t happen. It looks likely that the Republicans will hold onto the Senate and gain House seats. And, although New Hampshire voted for Joe Biden, Republicans fared very well in other elections around the state. It is my belief that this election was less about whether Trump did a good job with his presidential policies and more about the style in which he carried off his duties.
This style leaves a list of “don’ts” for future presidents. These should have been no-brainers for virtually anyone elected to that office and had Trump avoided these things he probably would have been re-elected.
1. Don’t call the scientist idiots — and wear a mask.
2. Don’t make fun of people with disabilities.
3. Don’t disparage prisoners of war (this alone probably cost Trump Arizona).
4. Don’t stereotype people.
5. Don’t anger our allies. We need them.
6. Release your tax returns. Everybody else seeking that office seems to have no problem releasing theirs. It looks like you have something to hide.
7. Don’t trash all of your predecessors. It makes you look small.
8. Have an actual health care plan. (Trump had four years!)
9. Don’t call people names. Schools across the country teach students that this is bullying.
10. Clearly denounce white supremacists. (I know that when pressed on the issue Trump denounced them but it never seemed genuine.)
11. Don’t separate parents from their kids.
None of the above are hard to understand. Anyone else in the president’s position would have followed these. So many who were inclined to support many of Trump’s policies were turned off by actions like these. I believe that Trump could have still been that quirky commander in chief that so many seem to love and still not made so many of these obvious errors. Obviously, my advice is too late.
Fred Bramante is a past chairman and memtber of the New Hampshire State Board of Education. He speaks and consults on education redesign to regional, state and national organizations.
