New Hampshire
Should hospital guards carry guns? New Hampshire Hospital an outlier in saying yes.
November’s fatal shootings of an unarmed security officer and former patient inside the state psychiatric hospital could lead to a major policy change that most other hospitals in New Hampshire have considered and rejected: arming security guards.
In interviews, security officers at several hospitals in the state cited concerns that a firearm in a volatile situation could exacerbate, not mitigate, safety risks to patients, visitors, and staff. And they cautioned that a gun in a hospital setting could take away from what should be a welcoming and therapeutic environment.
Even with what they described as an increased prevalence of workplace violence against staff — from verbal abuse and threats to hitting and choking — the security officials expressed a preference for other safety measures, such as stun guns, pepper spray, handcuffs, and ongoing de-escalation training.
John Duval, head of security at Concord Hospital, said the number of “code gray” calls for “aggressive, out-of-control” individuals dropped from 30 in 2017 to five in 2023, in part by increasing security “standbys” in cases where staff anticipate a problem. Officers were unarmed during those 14,870 standbys in 2023, he said.
“For me, that’s an example of, as a precautionary measure, we utilize security to de-escalate,” Duval said.
He said the hospital has at times placed an armed Concord police officer outside the room of a patient who poses a threat.
Catholic Medical Center has adopted a patient code of conduct in hopes of curbing the daily assaults and hostile comments staff are experiencing.
“Security staff assist medical staff in really close proximity to patients,” said John Patti, a retired Manchester police officer who oversees security at the hospital. “To have a firearm that close to patients, I think it’s certainly risky.”
Mental health advocates have voiced similar concerns following the deaths of officer Bradley Haas, whom many patients and families knew by first name, and John Madore, who had been a patient at the New Hampshire Hospital and worked as a peer counselor.
Susan Stearns, executive director of NAMI New Hampshire, also cited a concern that guns in treatment hospitals could retraumatize patients who’ve been involuntarily committed and transported to the hospital by armed police officers, possibly in shackles.
“There is absolute broad consensus that it would be dangerous to both patients and staff to have firearms allowed on patient units,” said Stearns. “In a situation that is volatile, the risk of a firearm being used is really significant. I am really concerned, frankly, that it would be used on a patient.”
The Department of Safety announced the security changes just 11 days after the Nov. 17 shootings, far too quickly, some have said, given that law enforcement was still investigating the incident. It is unclear, though, when the Department of Health and Human Services intends to enact the policy change and arm its security officers with firearms.
When safety officials announced their security recommendations, they said the policy change was “in progress.” Their additional recommendation that the state hospital hire armed private security guards was also in progress, they said.
Jake Leon, spokesman for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, did not provide a timeframe, saying only that the department is at the “beginning” of implementing the recommendations. It is also unclear whether security officers would carry firearms in patient areas, but that appears to be a possibility.
The hospital’s security officers, according to the department’s recommendations, would “carry firearms throughout the hospital to mitigate any threats occurring within the (New Hampshire Hospital).” The new armed private security officers would be stationed at the hospital entrance to screen patients, visitors, and staff, according to the recommendations, but also be used to assist hospital security officers “throughout” the campus.
That concerns Stearns and NAMI New Hampshire families who have visited loved ones at the state hospital.
“They talked about how intimidating it would be to have someone who’s carrying a firearm there at the door . . . and how that would have certainly added to their experience in terms of anxiety and concern,” Stearns said. “And we really want to be careful that we’re not criminalizing people with mental illness.”
Her community saw Hass as part of the hospital therapeutic team, not a security officer, she said. A NAMI New Hampshire volunteer told Stearns how helpful he’d been when she had encountered him at a security checkpoint while visiting her son.
“He talked to her about things that were OK (to bring in) and then made other suggestions of things she might want to bring next time,” Stearns said. “Just, you know, really caring.”
Leon said: “Any changes made to enhance security will be evidence-based and trauma-informed” and balance quality care and safety. The department intends to get input from a diverse group of stakeholders, he said.
Stearns said she has already shared her thoughts.
Those include ensuring private security guards be trained in handling behavioral health crises just as hospital security officers are. Leon said in an email they would. And she’s asked the department to reach out to families and individuals who have personal experiences with behavioral health challenges.
Hospital workers in harm’s way
Fatal attacks in health care settings are rare. Between 2011 and 2018, 156 health care workers were killed at work nationwide, nearly 29 percent of them by a relative or partner, according to themost recent federal Department of Labor data. Fourteen percent of victims were killed by a patient.
Nonfatal violence and hostile words, however, are not rare.
In 2018 alone, the federal Department of Labor recorded 15,230 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses among health care workers. The majority of incidents took place in hospitals, particularly psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals, according to the federal data.
In describing the security needs of a behavioral health hospital, Leon cited that distinction.
“The New Hampshire Hospital is unique in the population it serves, so it is hard to compare its policies to those of other hospitals,” he said.
Patti had been with the Manchester police for years when he was named director of security at Catholic Medical Center a decade ago. He said he was “shocked” to see the behavior hospital staff were experiencing.
“An extreme outlier would be what happened up at New Hampshire Hospital,” Patti said. “On a regular basis, we have staff who get punched, kicked, bitten, spit on, and verbally abused.”
Terrence O’Hara was no less taken aback when he became director of security and transportation at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover in 2020 after 22 years as a Tucson, Arizona, police officer.
“Once I got into health care and saw it on a daily basis, I was like, ‘Holy smokes,’ ” O’Hara said. “The volatile people that come in the emergency room, whether they’re under the influence of alcohol and drugs, or suffering from a mental health crisis, or a combination of all three, the volatility and violence that you see on a daily basis . . . is certainly stunning.”
The challenge is knowing how to prepare for those incidents and how best to respond.
Security officials said those decisions require detailed data collected over time that tracks not only what, where, how, and when an incident happened but why.
Concord Hospital’s Duval said, for example, a patient who is agitated and acting out due to dementia and one acting out of anger call for different security responses.
Without that information, it’s impossible to meaningfully identify patterns of violence, security vulnerabilities, and opportunities for improvements, security officials said.
While hospitals track that information internally, according to their own procedures, there is no statewide data to understand what is happening across hospitals and how hospitals are responding.
That’s changing.
Patti helped write legislation in 2022 that created a commission to gather statewide data on the prevalence and type of hostile and violent behavior health care workers are experiencing. That commision held its first meeting last month and will report out its findings, said Duval, the vice chairperson.
Balancing accessibility and security
In a national poll last year, the American College of Emergency Physicians asked emergency department physicians to rank options for improving security in their hospitals. Communicating and enforcing security plans and increasing security measures such as cameras, visitor screening, and visibility of security officers topped the list.
Arming officers was not a suggested option, and doing so is rare in New Hampshire.
At the state hospital, an armed state trooper assigned to campus shot and killed Madore after he killed Haas. Tyler Dumont, spokesman for the New Hampshire Department of Safety, said state police have had troopers on the hospital grounds since 2022, due to a shortage of hospital security officers.
Elliot Hospital in Manchester has an armed Manchester police officer in its emergency room at all times, but that is unusual.
“At the Elliot, we have a robust security team that is supported by a partnership with the Manchester Police Department,” said hospital spokeswoman Dawn Fernald. “As an organization that is open for care 24/7, we need to balance our ability to be accessible and available to care for patients’ needs at all hours with our ability to offer a secure environment for our patients.”
At Wentworth-Douglass, O’Hara may assign two unarmed security officers to monitor a patient who clinical staff anticipate may be dangerous. Doing so can discourage violent behavior and, if a patient does act out, contain the threats with an immediate response.
In 2022, the hospital adopted a patient code of conduct that warns patients there will be consequences for physical and verbal threats; assaults; sexual and vulgar words; and disrupting another patient’s care.
O’Hara said patients get a warning and a hardcopy of the policy after a first offense. Depending on the circumstances, they may be discharged after subsequent offenses, he said. Catholic Medical Center has similar warnings throughout its building.
“Just because they’re in these four walls of the hospital, it doesn’t mean that they can act whatever way they want to. They are still expected to behave in a certain way, with civility and respect,” Patti said.
Concord Hospital rewrote its security policy in 2022 and focuses on awareness and readiness and teaches staff techniques on how to respond to hostile words and threats.
“The more that employees are individually empowered to react, I think that’s the most powerful strategy,” Duval said. “The cameras, access control, all those are great tools and we have our share of them here, but even those resources are limited. When you empower each employee to be ready as an individual and with a variety of choices, to me that’s the strength of how to respond to workplace violence in conjunction with the other things that are certainly valuable.”
New Hampshire Bulletin is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com. Follow New Hampshire Bulletin on Facebook and Twitter.
New Hampshire
Opinion: The farm bill passed the House. Western New Hampshire got the bill. – Concord Monitor
In 1794, George Washington wrote that he knew of “no pursuit in which more zeal and important service can be rendered to any Country than by improving its agriculture.” Two hundred and thirty years later, the House just passed a farm bill that proves his successors stopped believing it.
Drive Route 12 through Walpole. Take Route 10 up through Haverhill. Cut across to Littleton, past the diner that has been feeding the town since 1930. The farms are there. Lush land that produces. People who work till their sweat and blood soak the ground they nurture. A region with every ingredient to feed itself.
What is not there is the processing facility that makes it worth raising the animal. The cold storage that keeps the crop from spoiling before it finds a buyer. The regional market that pays a price worth planting for. I want to believe Washington did not forget to build those things. Regardless, it built something else instead — a system that works beautifully for an operation running 10,000 acres in the Midwest and leaves the farmer on Route 12 doing the math at the kitchen table at midnight wondering if this is the last season.
And the 2026 Farm Bill just made that system more expensive to survive. Large commodity operations received a $54 billion subsidy increase over the next 10 years, with individual payment caps that can exceed $900,000 per operation. Is the farmer at your farmers market in position for this kind of payout?
The bill guarantees money, codified by law, for the people who need it least. Local food programs were reauthorized with zero mandatory funding, but plenty of empty words. They exist on paper and nowhere else. It means a farmer in Plainfield cannot count on them. It means Coos County, where one in seven people cannot reliably put food on the table, keeps waiting for help that has been promised and deferred so many times the promise itself has become an insult. Especially when supermarkets and superstores — just 15% of SNAP-accepting establishments — vacuum up nearly 74% of every food assistance dollar, while the local farm stand sees almost none of it.
And that is before the input costs.
Local farmers know this better than most. You buy fuel and fertilizer on global markets you have no vote in and no say over. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, causing record high prices for fertilizers globally, all because Russia is the world’s top exporter and suddenly it wasn’t exporting. And while that news cycle is long buried, remember that the Iran war has closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a third of the world’s seaborne fertilizer travels. Diesel recently crossed $5 a gallon, which large trucks that move food and tractors rely on. Fertilizer went from $500 a ton to $850. One tractor cost $350 more than it did last year. You did not start either of those wars, yet you pay for both of them. And that is not even accounting for the sharp sting of tariffs on the inputs you depend on to plant next season.
Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies rose 55% in 2024. Then another 46% in 2025, and those numbers only count the farms that qualified for Chapter 12, which requires the majority of family income to come from farming. The ones that don’t qualify quietly disappear, not even a balance sheet to mark the years of struggle, labor and community these farmers gave. They just stop. Since 2018, this country has lost more than 158,000 farms, with every size category shrinking except operations over a million dollars in annual revenue. Those are still growing, and will do so as long as the policy is written to grow them. Another example of an unlevel playing field where the rich get richer.
To be clear about something: large-scale agriculture feeds a lot of people and nobody sat in a room and decided to destroy the small farm. But does intent matter when these are the results? The system produces what it was designed to produce. That is exactly the problem. It was not designed with you in mind, and after enough years of that, the results look intentional even when they are not.
I got involved locally here because I believe western New Hampshire has everything it needs to feed itself and then some. Four thousand farms, nearly half a million acres, led by a direct-sales culture that leads the entire country. What is missing is not the land or the people or the will. What is missing is a representative who walks into bill negotiations fighting for the farmer on Route 12 instead of the operation collecting a $900,000 subsidy check in a state they have never visited, and pretending it actually helps their constituents.
I have a specific plan for how existing federal dollars already flowing into this district get redirected toward processing, storage and regional market access that actually serves the farms here. No new appropriations. No new programs. A full breakdown is at livefreenh02.com/food-independence.
Daniel Webster, born thirty miles from where I am writing this, put it in the Capitol: “The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.” Washington and Webster were not just statesmen. They farmed. They understood what was at stake when the land stopped producing for the people who worked it. The authors of the 2026 farm bill apparently do not.
Robbie Mahrou is an independent candidate for U.S. Congress in New Hampshire’s Second District and a Walpole resident. She can be reached out robbie@livefreenh02.com.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Concord on Friday to discuss a new health initiative to prevent and combat Lyme disease.
The visit was part of the “Take Back Your Health” campaign tour, a multimillion dollar initiative to promote dietary changes and exercise as preventative measures for chronic illness. Kennedy has been traveling the country to outline projects, including changing federal dietary guidelines, gut microbiome research, and addiction recovery.
Kennedy said his goal was to reduce Lyme disease by 25% by 2035.
Kennedy announced that over $2 million of federal funding will be up for grabs for projects focused on the prevention and treatment of Lyme disease. The grants, through a program called LymeX, will be available to businesses, scientists, and the public.
At the press conference Friday, Kennedy said the grants will go to projects including education tools and public awareness campaigns, front-line solutions like medication, and AI technology.
“This initiative will harness artificial intelligence and open data to help patients with Lyme disease and other invisible illnesses. Get answers faster and connect to care sooner,” he said.
Lyme in NH
New Hampshire has long been one of the epicenters for Lyme disease. The state has the seventh highest rate of Lyme disease in the country, according to the most recent data from 2023.
Read more: It’s tick season in New England. Here’s how to stay safe.
Tick season is a well-established time of year in New England, with an increase in cases and hospital visits in April and May. Research from Dartmouth shows half of adult blacklegged ticks in the Northeast carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
In a health advisory issued on Wednesday, State Epidemiologist Benjamin Chan pointed out that Lyme disease is one of the most common infections spread through tick bites. Other tick-borne infections include anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and Powassan virus.
Lyme is also the most common tick-borne illness in America, with an estimated 476,000 people getting the disease each year nationwide, according to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Service.
Kennedy’s record on Lyme disease
In the past, Kennedy has promoted a conspiracy theory that Lyme disease was bioengineered by the U.S. military. Late last year, he advocated for an investigation into a possible link between the military and the disease as part of a provision in a new defense bill, Scientific American and Politico reported.
Around that time, Kennedy said many patients’ claims were ignored, and he announced that “the gaslighting of Lyme patients is over.”
As an anti-vaccine activist, Kennedy launched a bid for the Democratic nomination for president in 2024. He then ran briefly as an independent before quitting and endorsing Donald Trump.
Trump later nominated him for health secretary, and he was confirmed by the Senate in early 2025 on a party-line vote.
Kennedy is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, and a son of Robert F. Kennedy, who was slain during his campaign for president in 1968. In his own bid for the White House, RFK Jr.’s name was never on the ballot in New Hampshire. In mid-2024, a UNH Survey Center poll found he mustered only 3% support among likely voters.
More resources
What to do if you’ve been bitten by a tick: Step one, don’t panic.
Tick season: How not to get bit
Editor’s Note: This is the latest installment in a series honoring Seacoast veterans’ military service and the organizations who support veterans sponsored by Service Credit Union. It appears each Friday. Nominate a veteran you know to be profiled by clicking on this link or using the form below. More than 85,000 veterans live in New Hampshire, according to the state’s Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services. Here are some of the many services available to veterans, their families, caregivers and supporters in the state.
New Hampshire Division of Veterans Services
This is the state’s starting point for veterans’ assistance. It can be reached by phone at 603-624-9230 or 800-622-9230, and online at nhveterans.nh.gov/veterans-services. On this site, you can find an important guide to services for veterans and their families. The N.H. Guide to Veterans’ Services is a PDF that can be viewed online or downloaded and printed out, and contains a plethora of important information about all aspects of a veterans’ life. https://www.nhveterans.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt401/files/inline-documents/2021-07/nhes-031320-vets-dir-guide-final.pdf
N.H. Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services
New Hampshire’s Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services (DMAVS) has mission to oversee and support the Service Members of the New Hampshire National Guard (NHNG) and to provide quality services to the state’s veterans and their families, according to its website. Call 603-225-1200 or find it online at https://www.nhveterans.nh.gov. There is a list of the state’s regional Veterans Services Officers and how to reach them or make an appointment at nhveterans.nh.gov/veterans-services/vsos-and-sites
Veterans Count
Veterans Count, a program of Easterseals NH Vets Count, provides mental health counseling, care coordination, housing stabilization, substance use treatment coordination, benefits and resources connection, and emergency financial assistance to all who have served in the military regardless of service era, discharge status or VA eligibility. The program connects veterans and their families with the help and resources they need confidentially. Email intake@vetscount.org or call 603-315-4354 or learn more at vetscount.org. The statewide Veterans Count program has four regional chapters. You can reach the Seacoast chapter at vetscount.org/chapters/seacoast. Vets Count presents local events and fundraisers like the upcoming Veterans Count Pack & Boots 5K Road Race on Sunday, July 5 from 8 to 11 a.m. beginning on Pierce Island in Portsmouth and ending in Prescott Park. Service members, veterans and community members are invited to participate in the fitness event designed for all ages and abilities, which will include a Survival Run-All, where runners carry a pack equal to 10% of their body weight; a Kids Fun Run 100-Meter Dash, and a 5K Road Race. Register at https://vetscount.org/events/veterans-count-pack-boots-5k-road-race/
Veterans Inc.
Veterans Inc. is the largest provider of support services to veterans and their families in New England. Email info@vertansinc.org, call 800-482-2565, sign up for its electronic newsletter and visit veteransinc.org.
Veterans Benefits Administration
A good source of information for the federal government’s veterans’ benefits and where you can search to locate a variety of local offices for federal services. Visit benefits.va.gov/benefits.
Pease ANGB Retiree Activities Office
The Retiree Activities Office at Pease provides information, services and programs to military retirees — all ranks, all services. Its mission is to act as an interface between the active-duty and retired communities; keep retirees updated on various matters; provide information and services as necessary or appropriate; and to represent retired members at the base and Air Force level, according to its website 157arw.ang.af.mil/About-Us/Retiree-Activities-Office/ where you can sign up for a periodic newsletter. The office has limited weekly hours so check its website for when it’s open or call 603-430-2636 and email peaseangb.rao@gmail.com.
Community-based Military Programs
The mission of the state’s Division of Community Based Military Programs is to collaborate, coordinate, and communicate with military and civilian provider groups to promote the delivery of quality health care services to New Hampshire veterans, service members and their families. Visit nhveterans.nh.gov/community-based-military-programs.
National Social Work Program local representatives
There is a social work leader in every VA health care system to help veterans get the care they need, according to the VA website, and connect them to the appropriate VA employee to assist them. New Hampshire’s social work leader is Kristin Maxwell. Contact Kristin. Maxwell@va.gov or call 603-624-4366. Visit socialwork.va.gov/Social_Work_Leaders.asp#NewHampshire.
Veterans Crisis Line
Veterans in crisis or someone who is concerned a veteran is in crisis can reach immediate help by dialing 988, then press 1. This is the National Suicide Hotline and by pressing 1, you’ll reach those specifically trained in veterans’ needs and resources. Veterans don’t need to be enrolled in VA benefit or health care to access this help, and it’s completely confidential. Free and available 24/7 every day. The Crisis Line can also be reached at its previous number, 800-273-8255, by text at 838255 and through chat at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat.
Veterans Councils
Many cities and towns in New Hampshire have a Veterans Council to assist its residents. An example is Rochester’s Veterans Council at rochesterveteranscouncil.com or
Veterans Groups and Meetings
Community meetings and socials are a great resource for veterans looking for information and help. The Rochester NH Veterans for Veterans (facebook.com/groups/1258228782144974) meets every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Rochester Community Center and is sponsored by Rochester Recreation. All Veterans are welcome to attend the open discussions, which sometimes host a guest speaker from a veterans organizations to help members find resources. The Portsmouth Senior Activity Center hosts a Drop-In Veterans Social at 1 p.m. every Wednesday sponsored by the local Daughters of the American Revolution. All are welcome.
Assistance for veterans
There are many non-profits that provide a specific service to veterans. Some are:
Vouchers for Veterans
This non-profit, which was founded in Rochester, N.H., recognizes and thanks veterans for their service by providing voucher so they can purchase locally grown and prepared food directly from farmers and growers at local farmers markets. Visit vouchersforveterans.org or find them on Facebook at Vouchersforveterans.
Roofs For Veterans and Roof-A-Vet
Two non-profits will provide veterans with a new roof. Find more info at roofvets.com/roofs-for-veterans and roofavet.org. There are many organizations like these that will assist a veteran with home repairs or renovations.
Northeast Passage
Northeast Passage, based at the University of New Hampshire, provides adaptive sports and recreational opportunities for veteran and active-duty service members of all service eras and all ability levels. Many programs are free through funding from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, a partnership with Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Operation Hat Trick and local organizations, according to its website. It offers veteran-specific events, group outings and competitive teams in sled hockey, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair lacrosse or power soccer. Visit nepassage.org/veteran-recreation.
University of New Hampshire Military and Veteran Services
UNH provides service and support to student veterans, service members and other military-affiliated students such as dependents. Contact Kalyn Ryll, director of military and veteran services, at Kalyn.Ryll@unh.edu or 603-862-3480.
Local VFW and American Legion posts
Find a local American Legion post at mylegion.org/PersonifyEbusiness/Find-a-Post. Find a Veterans of Foreign Wars post at vfw.org/find-a-post.
Elks programs for veterans
Many local Elks lodges have events or programs for veterans. The Elks have made a pledge “So long as there are veterans, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks will never forget them.” Its Elks National Veterans Service Commission helps local lodges provide services locally. The Portsmouth lodge is very active in helping veterans. Find more information at elks.org/vets/default.cfm?m=programs.
Service Credit Union thanks veterans for their military service and remembers all those service members currently deployed around the world. R.E.D. Friday stands for Remember Everyone Deployed on Fridays when some wear red to honor service members deployed worldwide.
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