Linda Small, circa 1975
Sharing our Past, Present, and Future with our Community
2025 is the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of CHP. As a part of our year-long recognition and celebration, we have been diving into the history of our organization to share history and stories that have shaped CHP over the course of its fifty years, and which highlight transformative leaders, staff, and providers who have played key roles.
CHP was established by Dr. Thomas Whitfield, a local pediatrician who shepherded the organization in 1975 along with the leadership of its first executive director, Linda Small. In honor of this milestone anniversary, CHP was honored to have the opportunity to chat with Linda about her memories of CHP’s early years.
CHP began as Children’s Health Programs in Great Barrington when Dr. Whitfield took action in response to the large number of Berkshire children who had not received health care as babies or infants, lacked immunizations and were experiencing social, medical, or cognitive delays. Linda describes that the South County of the time was rural and low-income and that it was almost impossible to know how many children there were to treat.
“We knew we had about 350 square miles to cover,” says Linda. “We weren’t exactly sure how many kids might be out there, nor did we know anything about their health status until Tom Whitfield opened his pediatric practice, and all of a sudden he was seeing kids who were sicker than he had seen kids in a long time”.
Dr. Whitfield gained support for the idea of well-child clinics when it became clear that many South County children were entering kindergarten with various pediatric issues that could have received prior intervention.
“I think Doctor Whitfield primarily saw that we needed a more robust response to pediatric issues in children from their birth to their fifth birthday. He could see that there was a lack of care, and he found that alarming and felt that there had to be a public response,” Linda explains.
Linda credits the foundation of Dr. Whitfield’s attitude and approach to CHP’s success. “It was an amazing process to watch,” she admires, “because he had incredible empathy with the parents … and he knew what he wanted to achieve, which was to help them understand their role in caring for the baby and how well the baby was doing due to their care and so his visits were always, sort of a joyful, happy, process. It helped parents understand that they were doing a wonderful job and that gave them such a boost of confidence that crossed all economic lines, all possibilities of parenthood. I think jumping over that barrier, as he did so beautifully, is what strengthened CHP through years of work”.
Looking back on its fifty-year history, Linda reflects that “it is a tribute particularly to those CHP pioneers, as I call them, who learn to work through problems and figure out solutions and continue to make families, elders, whoever, comfortable, in their health care system. It’s reassuring and exciting that despite all the ins and outs of politics and craziness in the world that you can still move forward, with good people and create an amazing institution”. Linda helped to shepherd much of CHP’s growth and expansion from its earliest years until her retirement. Thank you to Linda for sitting down with us to reflect on the past fifty years!