North River woman receives award for nursing

NORTH RIVER, N.S. — An award she recently received is one more sign that Charlene (Boutilier) Thomas made the right decision years ago.
On May 23, the North River woman was presented with an Excellence in Nursing Administration Award from the College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia for her work in mental health.
“It’s very humbling but very nice,” she said. “I was nominated and recommended by colleagues and that means a lot. Some shared their letters of support with me and that was very encouraging.
“Traditionally, awards were for more traditional nursing roles, so it excites me that the area of mental health is being recognized.”
The final decisions are made by a selection committee.
“When I was starting my nursing career I was going through programs and didn’t find the right fit until I found mental health,” said Thomas, who grew up in Dominion. “Some people, who were well meaning, advised against it but my parents told me I should go where I’d be happiest and felt I could do the most good.
“I realized early on that healing is not only physical, it has to be emotional, too.”
She worked in the mental health area in hospitals, in provincial leadership and with the Department of Community Services. She helped develop a model of care for people with intellectual abilities, and with setting up palliative care services and Help Line. She is also a past president of the Colchester-East Hants branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association. She’s been operating her own private Truro practice, Complete Counselling Services, for many years. 
“I enjoy this work," she said. “When you’re invited into somebody’s life it’s very honouring. When you see their life become better it’s nice to be part of that.”
Thomas also enjoys writing poetry, short stories and songs. Her first book, Achieving Personal Power and Inner Calm, was published in 2014 and addresses relationships between spiritual and mental health principles and practices. Her second book, Unconscious, is a work of fiction about a woman who suffers a concussion and goes back in time to when she was 13 years old.