Generate an explanation for the given claim using the provided supporting material from the paragraph. Please consider the following points while generating an output. 1) The claim will always have supporting proof in the paragraph, and the paragraph will have a clear point of view supporting the claim. 2) There can be instances where direct correlation to the claim is not available. Make use of the sentences in the paragraph to provide a corresponding output supporting the claim. 3) The explanation should be at least one and at most twelve sentences long.
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Question: Paragraph: Brattleboro Retreat Board Chair Elizabeth Catlin said the organization is ready to work “with all willing partners” to help it achieve financial stability. The board began considering its options last week when the state of Vermont rejected a $2 million request for additional funding. “In recent years, the Brattleboro Retreat’s board and its management team have taken a number of creative, cost-conscious steps to reshape and modernize hospital operations while meeting the rising tide of soaring labor costs,” said Catlin’s statement. “The Brattleboro Retreat’s quality of care, even with these financial pressures, continues to be excellent.”   The facility serves more than half the people in Vermont who need psychiatric care and provides all of the child and adolescent psychiatric care in the state. It also provides addiction services including inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, and treatment services for those who get Suboxone, a prescription medication used to treat opioid addictions. If it closes, the letter said that would mean finding services for 2,500 inpatients annually as well as filling new gaps for Suboxone treatment services, residential programs for children and meeting other critical health needs. On Sunday, Vermont Human Services Secretary Michael Smith said he had rejected a request for an additional $2 million in funding from the retreat. That request would be added to a financial package valued at an estimated $16 million for new beds and a recent rate increase valued at an estimated $3.5 million per year. Smith said he rejected the request in part because he believes it would constitute a taxpayer bailout of financial miscalculations by Brattleboro Retreat’s management. But Josephson said the state wasn’t paying it enough to care for the patients the state wants cared for. On Friday, Josephson sent a letter Friday to Smith and Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, that said the facility cannot continue operating without more support from the state. He said the board had authorized him to begin planning for the sale or closure of the retreat “in the very near future.” Claim: Psych hospital’s financial woes won’t stop services, for now.

Answer: Officials at Vermont’s largest private psychiatric hospital said Monday they are dedicated to providing quality mental health care to patients amid the possibility of the facility shuttering or being forced into a sale.


Question: Paragraph: Louise, a black English Labrador, doesn’t ask anything of Casteel except to provide a warm lap to sit in or a ball to chase across the room. For Casteel, it’s about the best therapy she’s ever had. ″(Louise) calms me down,” said Casteel, who lives in the Manhattan area. “She’ll play with you, she’ll sit with you. She knows when you’re sad.” Casteel is a client at Veridian Behavioral Health, a multi-disciplinary mental health care center that is part of the behavioral health department of Salina Regional Health Center. Many of Veridian’s psychiatrists, counselors and nurse practitioners serve individuals and families struggling with common life problems such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, marital problems, parent-child conflicts or grief and loss. Recently, the center added another tool to help clients in their programs — certified therapy dogs. Three dogs specifically, have been introduced to the programs: Louise, a Chesapeake Bay retriever named Phil and a Great Dane named Daisy. These dogs assist adult inpatient and outpatient clients at the hospital, as well as children suffering trauma and other mental health issues at Veridian’s east campus, the Salina Journal reported. Angela Koerperich, an advanced nurse practitioner who owns and supervises Daisy, said Veridian received a grant in October 2015 to add three certified therapy dogs into its mental health program. She and two other Veridian nurse practitioners took on a dog: Louise belongs to Jennifer Pekarek and Phil is owned by Marcia Cleavenger. “We’ve talked about this for years as something that would be great to have in the inpatient unit,” Koerperich said. “We worked together to make it happen. We got in contact with CARES, and the pieces just came together.” CARES, which stands for Canine Assistance Rehabilitation Education & Services, is Concordia-based specialty service that offers specially trained canine assistants to people with disabilities throughout the U.S., as well as professional therapy dogs for schools, mental health facilities, hospitals and nursing homes. The majority of dogs that CARES trains are produced from their own breeding programs or are donated ex-show dogs, specifically bred puppies and family pets. Dogs are fostered out to volunteer homes and facilities where they are raised for nine to 18 months, learn basic obedience and become socialized to all aspects of public and private life. Louise and Daisy happened to be trained by inmates at the Ellsworth Correctional Facility, Cleavenger said, which has established a dog training program. “It can be nearly a two year process before they’re certified,” she said. To become a certified therapy animal, a dog has to have the right kind of temperament to interact with subjects who may be going through trauma or other mental or physical issues, Cleavenger said. “A lot of times people come into the clinic, and they’ll be highly anxious or depressed,” she said. “A therapy dog helps to ease the anxiety and make it easier to converse with that person. I’ve had a patient with high blood pressure who, once they spent a little time with Phil, their high blood pressure dropped.” Koerperich said Daisy, who like the other therapy dogs wears an identifiable vest while at “work,” does wonders with children at the Veridian outpatient office. “Sometimes it’s hard to get children to engage or take their medicine, and the dogs can help,” she said. “When you are talking to kids about trauma, it’s nice to have Daisy in the room. Sometimes a child will talk to the dog and not the therapist. They’ll take Daisy outside, walk her around. It’s nice to have that physical distraction.” Pekarek said at Veridian’s inpatient unit at the hospital, Louise has been an immense help when it comes to communicating with patients who are virtually disabled as a result of trauma or mental issues. “Louise seems to warm up to people really fast,” Pekarek said. “I’ll bring Louise into the inpatient units, and she seems to know who needs her the most. She will stay with them, even if that person won’t get out of bed. There was 14-year-old girl here who would not talk to me or her mother, but she talked to Louise. It’s amazing to watch.” For Casteel, having Louise by her side during therapy sessions has given her hope that her life will continue to improve in the future. “I got an animal myself after I met Louise,” she said. “I know now that I need an emotional support animal, that without one I’ll be more depressed than usual. I got a cat, but he’s as gentle as (Louise) is.” ___ Information from: The Salina (Kan.) Journal, http://www.salina.com Claim: Salina center’s therapy dogs help manage mental health.

Answer: Whenever Jackie Casteel has difficulty dealing with her depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, she knows she can rely on the comforting paw of a four-legged therapist named Louise.


Question: Paragraph: Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expect this year’s bloom to rank among the top five since it began measuring their severity in 2002, according to their annual algae forecast for the lake. What’s not known is how toxic it might be or whether it will pose a threat for cities in Ohio and Michigan that draw their drinking water from the lake. Algae blooms that produce toxins and can sicken swimmers and harm fish are becoming an increasing concern nationwide, causing water warnings this year from Vermont to the Gulf Coast. Environmental officials in New Jersey have been telling people to stay out of the state’s largest lake since late June and beaches in Mississippi have been closed in recent weeks by a bloom fueled by polluted Midwest floodwaters pouring from the Mississippi River. Lake Erie, the shallowest and warmest of the Great Lakes, has been hit particularly hard over the past decade. It was five years ago when a toxic bloom caused a two-day shutdown of drinking water in Toledo. Researchers, using a scale for rating the severity of the bloom, expect it to be a 7.5 this year — short of the most severe outbreaks this past decade but still a significant one. Studies have shown that much of the phosphorus that fuels the algae comes from fertilizer runoff from farm fields along with sewage treatment plants and other sources. Unusually heavy rains this spring washed large amounts of nutrients into the lake, but the rain also prevented many farmers from planting corn and applying phosphorus-rich fertilizers on their fields. That may be why the amount of phosphorus found in the lake’s largest tributary, the Maumee River, was much lower than what would be expected, said Laura Johnson, director of the National Center for Water Quality Research at Heidelberg University. The forecasters say one thing they’re unsure about is how the record-setting water levels on the lake this year will impact the algae. “Each bloom is different in how they behave,” said Rick Stumpf, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Where the bloom will go on the lake’s western end along Ohio and Michigan will vary based on wind direction, but researchers point out that most of the lake will be fine for boaters and swimmers. Other factors that will determine the size and location of this year’s bloom in the coming weeks include rain amounts and the lake’s water temperature. Although some areas along the Ohio shoreline already have algae starting to form and drift into the lake, researchers don’t expect to see a large outbreak until the end of July. Claim: Expect another huge blob of algae on Lake Erie this summer.

Answer:
Heavy rains that inundated the Great Lakes region this spring will fuel another massive algae bloom across parts of western Lake Erie later this summer, researchers said Thursday.