 Hello, I am Jan Reardon and I am representing the Jennifer Reardon Foundation and I have a guest with me today that I will tell you a little bit about in a minute. Just wanted to let you know that the foundation has been formed for my sister-in-law Jennifer Reardon who we lost to a tragic accident a few years back and my brother has formed this fabulous foundation that has pillars to represent the areas that were such a focus of GENs and that would be women's empowerment, community vitality, early childhood education and financial literacy and along with that in the foundation GENs mantra was to be kind, loving, caring and sharing and that's what it's all about. Every act has been a true act of kindness. We have a huge announcement to make next week in Albuquerque to honor GEN by the number of acts of kindness that have been logged in and really putting Albuquerque on the map to be one of the kindest cities in the United States. But here we are in Vermont and I have the absolute pleasure and honor to introduce Kimberly Pierce who is a physician's assistant in Plainfield, Vermont, Central Vermont area and just I hope we have enough time to listen to Kimberly about the kindness project that she's involved in and what she really has to offer to us in regard to what's tangible to be able to bring change to the healthcare system and move forward in a much kinder way. So let me introduce you to Kimberly Pierce and good morning to you. Don't forget about Bruno. I know I was going to give that honor to you. He's becoming my best friend but I wanted you to introduce your special friend to us please. Yes this is Bruno the dog who's here for just for fun and for support so. And I love his purple scarf and thank you for wearing purple. I know obviously that was GEN's color and as well as your friend that you can talk about as well but please begin by you know saying how you're feeling about being here and then talking a little bit about the kindness project to get things started. Sure thank you so much for having me I am so honored I I feel like my life has been leading up to this moment. Love it just love it thank you for your time Kimberly I know how busy you are. And I just I just want to take a second to recognize that we here in Vermont are actually here on unceded Abenaki territory and I just want to honor that. Love that I love that and which is such a wonderful tie to Albuquerque too. I think of you and I'm out there so that's beautiful. I just want to dedicate the next half an hour to my to my niece. Absolutely thank you. Consider it done. Okay so if you could just begin you know we'll just chat about I know there's so many different things that I love hearing about and I would love to share obviously with the community. But let's just talk about the kindness project because when I was able to obviously host the show I went on to Google and put kindness Vermont you popped right up picture and then I reached out to you and thankfully you were back in touch that night and the rest is history here we are. So that was very exciting for me to see what had been taking place because I was not aware of that and obviously being kindness related I was all about that and being able to find out what you've done and what the next steps are. So if you could just talk about the project that would be fabulous. Thank you we're waiting for you. Thanks. Yes yes so the Vermont kindness project came out of I've been working as a medical provider for the last actually really long time since 1987. Thank you and I've actually been in the same practice and what I found is there has just since the opiate crisis hit probably I don't know whenever that was 10 years or so ago I just found that I was feeling very much into despair and hopeless about what I could do for my patients and I could love them up in the exam room but then I send them out to a system that is really broken and so the Vermont kindness project if you could think of it as everything that can happen outside the exam room it's really more for community and convening and also thinking about healing and reducing stress in ways that we've never thought of like tapping into creative pursuits and think about yoga and meditation and pet therapy and walking labyrinth and those kinds of things and trying to get a place a resource for my patients so they'll be able to find some resources learn some more about the topic we're going to talk about today and find some some some things that they can do. Perfect and my understanding and maybe you can expand upon this a little bit more is that Vermont is leading the way there's no question about that as far as taking this step forward to create a pilot program in Vermont that would be nationwide in our lifetimes which is fabulous to know that we'll be able to see this through but what would you say from your perspective has been the biggest obstacle I know there's many there's so many but you obviously in the trenches you can prioritize what is the biggest obstacle obstacle to this point that has not allowed this to move forward at a little bit faster pace I mean I know what's involved so it takes time but we've struggled with healthcare for so long and so this is just fabulous news but what's holding you back at this point? Well nothing's holding us back at this point and we're about to unleash and I'm very proud to say that Vermont is going to lead the way in becoming the first I'd like to say the first trauma-informed state and race-informed state and when you say Kimberly just because we've had a chance to talk so I'm starting to get a little bit of the the language but what is trauma-informed mean in your practice and that's a great question and we're still trying to actually learn what the meaning of that means and I don't want to scare anybody off by trauma-informed but the easiest way to distill it is just to imagine imagine the lens of looking at a puppy or looking at a baby on the floor and like how how we feel a certain way we feel joy we feel like this we're light yeah there's a there's a word for clumped right and we feel that yes joy natural yeah it's in it and it's actually it's a physiologic state and so what what we're trying to do through education and empowerment is to stop the intergenerational cycles of violence that when you when you when all you know is a violent family then that's all you're gonna know what to do you don't know and respond differently right how do we so trauma-informed is a lens from which we can look at a person and it's really through instead of a fear-based lens it's really a lens of love and and how can I as a practitioner sitting there in an exam room with a patient who's struggling who maybe maybe they're homeless maybe they're dealing with addictions how can I imagine not only where they came from today but what what happened in their ancestry what happened to them as children what happened to their grandparents and where are they going to be going so looking at the whole well-being of exactly physical the emotional and spiritual well-being which is I'm afraid and I'm I'm I'm honestly I'm ashamed that the medical establishment has sort of cut off spirituality as something that's actually important when that's exactly what we're missing right now exactly right that can certainly bring everything together so what would that look like for you going into work tomorrow with a trauma-informed center and how would you treat that patient well I know what you're already doing so I shouldn't use you as an example but how would another provider either in your clinic or elsewhere act when a you know a patient came in versus their normal routine what would be the tangible difference so this is the exciting thing and we didn't really talk about what this project is going to be at the health center in Plainfield where I've been working we're going to be and there's let me just take a step back to say that there are about 1600 federally qualified health centers in the United States okay there's about 12 in Vermont we believe we're going to be the first health center in Vermont and maybe of the whole U.S. that's going to be what I call trauma-informed right and so what that's going to look like is the whole organization gets trained up about the importance of understanding and reflecting on our own things and our own own trauma so that we can be our best moving forward and so that would mean that what we're hoping to capture and we actually have a research study with five colleges from the University of Vermont and I'll just say the College of Medicine this College of Public Health the School of Business the School of Nursing and the School of Education are actually coming together at the table try to create a pre and post survey so that we can actually measure what we know it was going to happen and what I hope is going to happen is that when patients come in the door they're going to be greeted by a different vibe exactly you can feel the culture shift and if you realize that we're all on a spectrum there's the autism spectrum but there's also kindness spectrums there's trauma-informed so there's so many and and so if we could all just come up come up a couple of notches then I think that would be palpable and I hope that that will also translate into better outcomes for patients and that's just the beginning right and that's fairly recent as you say with UVM with the five colleges coming on board the training we just got the dates today it's going to be in February and congratulations thank you yeah it's really exciting it sure is I mean it's a movement it is truly a movement and we're hoping that that we're actually going to film it as it's happening so that we can be a model for other places and and to be able to say this is not rocket science it is brain science but it's not rocket science and it's really it's it's doable and it's all of us are at the core you talk about that baby or that puppy and they come in with this clean slate as we all do for the most part things happen and obviously we have to deal with that but again it's how we get through those things and I can certainly look to my brother in the the trauma that has come you know for their children and family and friends and how you need to be very aware of ways to get through such as spreading the mantra of gen's kind loving caring sharing keeping that spirit alive and focusing in on the positive which would be the conversations that you're having in your office to discover what could be going on in somebody's life that they're ashamed or embarrassed to to talk about meanwhile you bring that out and there's no there's no judgment why should there be we should all be at our core supporting one another and I think there's more people out there that would like to do that but just don't even know how simple it could be yes and you asked me about obstacles I really didn't answer that question but I think the system right now is set up to be a for-profit industry absolutely so if we want to change so it's all about time right it's about time it's about you know checking the correct boxes and you know ordering the protocols old things that don't take into account this very very powerful public health study that was done the ACE study which is what is now what does a stand for so adverse childhood experiences ACEs was a study that was done in the mid 1990s a long time ago and it was the biggest public health study that's ever been done of its kind even to date to date and what it showed was just stunning nobody could believe it the the the amount of trauma that this population the seventeen thousand mostly white mostly well educated and very well insured population had was so surprising and and we had no idea that it was so common but what we also didn't know is that stress in childhood imprints in our bodies in a physiologic way it's not just that oh okay you know you had a lot of stress and then therefore you're making bad decisions right right what I'd like for people to understand about ACEs is kind of think about it as a like a lead level right if you're exposed to lead as a child right you have a high level we don't usually blame those kids because they can't control what their their environment is like right so a lead level is an environmental toxin right that imprints in our bodies in a physical measurable way right that's the difference I think it's measurable and so is ACEs so is stress and child yes stress and childhood is is basically so intense because of the the the sponge that we are as children soaking up and if our bodies are in a state of hyperarousal or fight or flight which is understandable if you're in a lot of stress it's actually an adaptive mechanism that is absolutely you know probably keeps you alive exactly it lets you like you know leap of a tall building or something right but if that stress doesn't ever come down that cortisol the adrenaline all of those physiologic changes actually imprint in our bodies and increase the risk of disease exactly but the exciting thing and this is what people aren't talking about because they just I think that they get so like oh it's just such a bummer like why would you be excited about this well I'm excited about it because now we have the research on the flip side on the light side got the dark side exactly got the light side which shows us this the that neuroplasticity and resilience is something that can be taught it's not something that's inherent that we can all become more resilient and we can all heal no matter what age you are that's amazing and I'd love to talk about that a little more so what would be an example of that say you do have you know a child or really anybody that comes into your office that you know has dealt and has been dealing with a great deal of trauma what is that kind approach do you go to I know you make home visits which is fabulous to be able to do that in this day and age but how do you get to a place with that person where there is some sustainability on a kinder environment culture for them such a great question to me I think it is using when I think about trying to talk to a patient about their stress and childhood I have to empty myself and I have to be completely fully present and ready to receive what I'm about to hear exactly and some days I'm not up for it and I can't do it but if I am then what I find is that by bearing witness we can transform trauma into healing and that's just about showing up and being aware being acknowledging and not just being oh yeah okay you have the score have a great day exactly I put it in the file and oh my god I had no idea that's more of a disservice to know and not be able to respond and react accordingly and and the medical system has always been like you know okay well if this is a psychiatric kind of thing then that's for DCF or that's for you know mental health that's for psychiatry and in fact primary care is the place we need to be entering this and and starting conversations about mental health because I I have been at the health center now and taking care of the same families since 1987 generations of we tried to actually estimate how many patients I might have seen and I think it was something like 15,000 people over my time there and I'm still there and and and what I so what that allows me is an aerial view and and to be able to see people in an individual basis but also through families and and also community and and I think going back to sort of the old days where there was a doctor that was doing house calls who knew more of the dynamic of that family right who just wanted to who who wasn't a stranger that you know to me is is like a shift toward away from being a medical provider and toward being more of a healer exactly right so how can we be more healing well that and that means that we're we're we're not judging you number one on any level right and even if I'm smiling and I'm I'm being professional but inside I'm thinking what is wrong with this person why can't they just stop you know whatever it is dot dot dot if there if you're thinking those things even on some level it comes across it comes across there and you know when someone's sure when they're not and it breaks it breaks my heart exactly because somebody who's been traumatized they need I feel like you know we all there's there's a starting line right there's a starting line in life whether we call it kindergarten or whatever and you want everybody to be here yes you know maybe you've had good food and you've been taught some things in school and I'm at away from school and then you show up but people who've had trauma literally if the starting line here they're under the ground right and so showing up it's and how do we acknowledge that some people are here some people are here they're already ahead because of our own white privilege or whatever it is right and so I want to say for all those people and this is what I try to do is if you're you were down here I'm just gonna I'm gonna put you up here for a minute right and I just want to say you're amazing you're incredible what happened to you was not your fault you are survivor I am so impressed like the fact you even got here today like I mean like I can't imagine what people go through right to recognize so having that true empathy and and I don't see that it's at us or them for me it's it's here we are we are united and that's the basis of all spiritual health right is that we are connected so care about one another right and if we don't and somebody in our communities is you know and if they are suffering so are we absolutely and and talk about community vitality what a way to transform a community no less you know at every level whether it's in you know obviously healthcare I also you know love to think about the different things that can be done in the school system the workplace you know through the community with rec centers and gathering places there's so much opportunity to be able to level that that play field in the sense of people showing up and being glad to be there even if it's for one hour out of that day today maybe tomorrow it's an hour in 10 minutes where they're feeling at peace but just to bring peace into their life and I remember when we first met you had different phrases in different ways and I think these are nice tangible things for me even as a you know as a friend or a family member or co-worker to be able to I don't think we realize sometimes when we say something one the tone or secondly the words we might have a nice message but it comes out differently so can you give us those examples of how to word something in a better way sure and I think tone and posture matters so much absolutely so much and voice matters so much and we don't talk about that but if I were just to stick with what is trauma informed language I would say it's you know again and I'm I'm I'm actually quoting the the the U.S. Surgeon General I was I was so honored to listen to him on it was a on-being podcast and he talked about moving away from a fear-based system toward of medical care right so a fear-based system to a system based on love and what would that when was that Kimberly when last week yeah I love it so reframing the medical system and what would that look like well let's just say that trauma informed language is about equalizing and I will say one of my favorites is instead of saying I'm going to call you out on your stuff I'm calling you out right how about let's call you in there's a perfect example what is wrong with you why don't you just stop smoking stop whatever what's wrong with you versus I wonder what happened to you what's right with you let's start with that perfect instead of this sort of sort of American thing of like well people just make bad choices you know they they have the ability to make better choices and I would argue you know people who who don't feel safe are not going to be they won't be able to do safe things they will do unsafe things for themselves and for other people right they're not looking at the scenario through the same lens I mean it just it's so shaded and and that's the unfortunate part they think they're doing the right thing given what they know right right and I believe that either you're coming from a place of love or you're coming from a place of fear and if you're coming from a place of anger and envy and jealousy and frustration and confusion and it's not a place of love everything else is coming from a place of love if you're coming from a place of equality and deep respect and reverence yes reverence absolutely for the fact that all life on earth is sacred so what would be and I know we had talked about this but what would be some words that come to mind for you as far as the culture and the vibe that people would feel walking into your clinic after February and and really what does 2022 look like as far as that that sensation that somebody gets the minute they walk through the door so many words that I hope will come out I hope that people will feel a sense of belonging that they belong there that they are connected that people care about them that they don't have to fight so hard to to fight for their health that we got this that we care about you I'm an advocate for you and you and let me hold some of that oh yeah what a relief that must be yeah compared to you know putting their head for years of you know pushing it down and not even expressing it number one just being blamed yeah like I don't see why you can't just stop doing this thing you know right and that's what what our culture is saying so I mean I think when I look at the the movement that that you know occurred as a result of this research from 30 years ago the the educational system is way ahead of the medical system and the and the the complementary health world is also way ahead of the medical system in understanding this as is the mental health system to some degree but what I think we've been missing is the medical piece to try to say you know what this is legitimate this is a science this is important we need to learn this stuff so this is the perfect segue into what I find to be the most intriguing part of impacting those outcomes in the future my career for 38 years was in health care wellness and so when I heard this I I could not have been just more thrilled because I tried to move in this direction for so many years but to bring an insurance company on board and I want you to be the one that gets to announce it because you know insurance companies for years rely on you being sick they make money by people with illnesses and chronic disease not getting better and preventative care so that health care costs go down and that's where things can be shifted you say profit nonprofit right it can all go to better benefits that are important so you go ahead and take it away on insurance we have a couple minutes left so yeah this is a wrap here I just found out today that um and I'm I'm honored to say that Blue Cross Blue Shield is honored to be part of the project of creating and we're still trying to figure out what that looks like right but we are going to be partnering with Blue Cross Blue Shield to try to help create a new model a new framework of trauma informed providers create a training program for medical providers but also that training program will be able to be used in all the other sectors education exactly because it's about the staff as well all the staff is trained and then that just that in itself you take that home you take that out into the community so it's you know evolving everybody at that level not even I mean the patient's obviously the main concern that's setting but again it's coming from such a pure place and I just want to say that the most heavily traumatized people in our society are being locked behind bars and we should be ashamed of ourselves it is it is shameful it is shameful right and I'm disgusted and it's time to change the systems yes and I hope that this if we can establish a new way of creating the way we're going to practice medicine and reimburse for medicine I hope and I pray that this will ripple out to the people that need it the most absolutely let me just see I as I said we have a couple minutes so if there's anything that you're thinking of that I have not asked I would love to have you just go right ahead but well here's one last question and then you take it to the end but what can we do you know starting right now telling me to go out into the community and do something that will make it more kind is there something at that level just to be aware of and I try and I I've certainly gotten better just knowing how Jen was about being kind loving caring and sharing and I try to do things a little differently but what would you say would be a good takeaway to just say you know when you see the person blah blah do this what what comes to mind for you would be a kind act today I would say start with being kind to yourself great point self-care because if we don't and and you know self-care is all great and good but we need to do self-care together yes to create a culture where we're all being we're able to you know sing together and I will tell you through this whole project I've didn't expect to find that I was healing myself and the way I healed myself was through being in a gospel choir and I'll give a little pitch here for the Montpelier community gospel choir we're a perfect microcosm of of people coming together from all different traditions and what you know what allowed you to take that step what did you do that for yourself why did that happen because I knew I wanted to be able to speak about this project and I was afraid of public speaking well look at you girl so I started singing I started singing and then what that allowed me is to actually take the next step and then be involved with something called playback theater central Vermont playback theater is another way of helping people heal through storytelling and and drama and using metaphor and so I it is through those two things and also getting outside I would say if there's one thing you can do to take care of yourself would be get outside and connect with nature in some way because we are we we have to save the earth we're living in a catastrophe racism is a national health emergency we have to change the way we're thinking about everything I agree and I have to say when we first talked and you had mentioned that I'm paraphrasing your bit but basically you're going to save the world I'm thinking okay I gotta love it you know I'm wide open but then when I listen you are going to change the world Kimberly well I all I know I'm not an expert in trauma all I know is that I've interviewed over a thousand people now at the health center and I see what an incredible impact it can make on one person and I've seen the the impact in one life and then you times that by a thousand and I I just dream of a day when everyone will have access to this kind of important conversation with somebody who's taking care of them right who understands them who understands that fully and doesn't look down on them correct yeah right and thank you so much for all that you and your colleagues are doing in the central Vermont area it's remarkable it's remarkable we hopefully will be able to follow up I would love that if you're willing to come back and certainly keep track of 2022 things are happening in February so that gives you a lot of time to have some great results and outcomes so quickly having an insurance company on board makes all the difference in the world as far as being able to you know really get to the right place where laws are changed and policies are put in place and protocols are adjusted and until those laws and policies are going to be put in place I'm going to continue to put a lot of energy into the Vermont kindness project which we do have a website thanks to my genius niece who got this together and it what it is what is the address for your website the Vermont kindness project dot org okay and is Vermont spelled out it's Vermont is spelled out okay and there's some resources there's TED talks there's people that have been really inspirational to me Nadine Burke Harris being one of them and Bezel van der Kolk Dr. Hudziak there's so many people that have stepped into this path of this project that we've been starting and now every time I need something something else like Jan Reardon calls me up thank you it gives me chills it does on so many levels and I better obviously wrap this up but I am looking forward to having you back here Kimberly and obviously staying in touch and Jennifer and I know your close friend is Carolyn yeah yeah we're we're instrumental in having this all come together we have to definitely have to have some some kudos go out there but I just wanted to say that this show is something that I'm just so passionate about and I am wide open to people letting me know if you have someone that I could interview where you feel as though a topic would be appropriate again I really want to stay connected to Jen's four pillars but her mantra of being kind loving caring and sharing applies to everybody of every age of every race of every you know nationality so it's time to put that out there as much as we possibly can in any reinforcement on the importance of that no less in your case true evidence-based programming is where it is to I think get people to you know really see where this is going and overpower the bad news exactly finally there is so much and we don't talk about it so having a place the third Thursday of every month at no exactly it's a it's a great start and you know shout out to town meeting tv to really understand the importance of being able to do this because years ago you know certain forms of media would never have even considered it so the fact that now it's something that we know has to be a part of our community it really will make a difference and and transform life as we know it I hope so yes yeah so thanks again this is fabulous okay okay thank you thank you