OGDENSBURG –Dawn Brabaw of Canton, who works with the United Helpers ACT (Assertive Community Treatment) Team as its registered nurse, has earned their Summer 2017 Life Improved Award.

The United Helpers Life Improved Awards were created in 2015 as a way to recognize employees who best exhibit the traits behind the organization’s Life Improved mantra. Awards are distributed in the winter and summer each year with employees being nominated for the honor by their co-workers.

Brabaw was nominated for by ACT Team Program Manager Nicole Kennedy and ACT Team Family Education Specialist Amy Chisholm.

“As the registered nurse on the team, Dawn is often the primary contact person for ACT recipients who have significant medical problems, Kennedy said. “She possesses highly desirable characteristics necessary for community treatment which include patience, empathy, optimism, persuasiveness, flexibility, good judgment and ‘street smarts.’”

Prior to joining the ACT Team, Brabaw worked as a hospice nurse and is now using that experience working with a man with terminal cancer.

“She has gone above and beyond to meet his needs to assist with pain management and connecting with his providers for continuity of care,” Chisholm said.

In addition to working for the ACT Team, Brabaw has also helped the staff at the Behavioral Health Clinic and served as a liaison between the team and other community agencies.

“She is often engaged with extended treatment teams outside of the United Helpers organization. She is instrumental in gathering information and knowledge from outside community programs and sharing her knowledge with those programs, as well as our team,” Kennedy said. “Dawn has a clear understanding of the major goal of ACT, which is to help clients live successfully in the community. Through her advocacy of the ACT program and her continued efforts to educate the community in regard to mental illness, she is not only a great contributor United Helpers, but our community as a whole.”