community health

Upcoming Events

Just “Walk with a Doc” on June 9 in Troy

May 24, 2018 Corporate Communications Staff

Please join us in Troy on Saturday, June 9, for “Walk With a Doc!” “Walk with A Doc” is a heart-healthy program featuring a walk with an area cardiologist. Offered every month by Samaritan Hospital and St. Mary’s Hospital, “Walk With A Doc” provides an opportunity for people to get moving, be active, and think about heart health. A cardiologist leads the walk, enabling participants to ask medical questions in an informal, relaxed atmosphere. Walkers may walk any distance they choose, at their own pace, and are joined by a cardiologist and nursing staff. “Walk With A Doc” is free and open to the public. Registration opens at 7:30 a.m., at the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market. Walkers will meet near the Uncle Sam Statue and proceed to walk through Riverfront Park. Participants will need to sign a liability waiver form prior to walking. The walk begins at 8 a.m. “Walk with a Doc” is a national program, that aims to encourage healthy physical activity in people of all ages, and reverse the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle, in order to improve the health and well-being of the […]

SPHP in the News

Times Union: Opioids – The Epidemic that Won’t Slow Down

April 19, 2018 Robert Webster Jr.

The Times Union published a new story as part of its continuing coverage on the growing opioid epidemic in the Capital Region. Dr. Melissa Weimer, Chief of Behavioral Health and Addiction Medicine at St. Peter’s Hospital, was interviewed as part of the story: The newest medical approach may be at St. Peter’s Health Partners, where drug users addicted to heroin, fentanyl and other opioids can now walk into outpatient locations in Albany, Troy and Cohoes or emergency departments at Samaritan, Albany Memorial and St. Peter’s hospitals and promptly be evaluated to get buprenorphine to help them through withdrawal, or more intense detox services if needed. The program has served more than 300 people since it opened last September. “When the person feels, I am able to change in this moment, we are ready to treat them in this moment,” said Dr. Melissa Weimer, medical director of the SPHP Addiction Recovery Center. “We’re trying to make it so there’s no closed door.” To view the article, which also includes a video of Dr. Weimer discussing the […]