Update on Progress

At left: Fr. Gerry, MM, and I had a chance to chat in October at the Mission Congress 2010.

It's been awhile between entries, but with the New Year well underway, an obvious resolution is to post on this blog more frequently!

So here is a brief update on the status of Medical Mission 2011:

I saw Fr. Gerry (of the Medical Missionaries of Divine Mercy in Texas) at the Mission Congress gathering in Albuquerque in late October. Fr. Gerry had left for the Congress from Laredo, where the MMDM's were finishing up their 2010 mission. Fr. Gerry said the Laredo Mission went well, but there had been some extra challenges this time around - including computeres and fundraising (a rough combination). [The Mission Congress, by the way, was an amazing event!]

After returning from the Congress, I received an e-mail from Cordell, the leader of the MMDM's, and he let me know that we would indeed have to postpone the MMDM November visit to the Diocese of Lexington. As a result, we also have to postpone the envisioned Spring 2011 Medical Mission to Kentucky. Cordell does feel, however, that things will work out for a November 2011 fact-finding trip, but, of course, that moves the actual mission trip to 2012.

It's not what we had hoped, but volunteers and donors, whevever they are, "do what they can do/give what they can give," and we're very grateful for that. We are, of course, optimistic that we can marshall our resources and look at other health ministry opportunities this year.

For instance, the Remote Area Medical (RAM) organization has posted their schedule for 2011, and it lists a weekend-long clinic at Pike County High School, slated for June 11-12. I put in a call to the RAM headquarters in Knoxville a few months ago, and the administrator offered to pass my contact information to the KY coordinator for RAM. I haven't gotten a reply, so it's time to check again. But in the meantime, be sure to check out their page, linked above. It's very impressive!

Health Ministries Meeting

Above: Rosalie and Eileen with one of the board displays prepared by nursing students to raise awareness about preventing domestic violence.

Here are a few notes from the recent Health Ministries meeting, sponsored by the Margaret Stoeckinger Foundation.

* Participants shared information about programs and activities in their health ministries. We had representatives from parishes, outreach ministries, and health care providers

* We heard about grants available from the Margaret T. Stoeckinger Foundation for parish health ministry. We also heard about the Foundation's scholarships for nursing students who are enrolled in programs within the region encompassed by the Diocese of Lexington and participating in a church-based health ministry.

* We took a tour of the updated Margaret Stoeckinger Foundation website, which is chock full of links to resources as well as the grant application and scholarship application mentioned above.

* We quickly looked over the informative articles included in our packets, including
-the updated Blood Pressure Screening/Hypertension Protocol (as published by the International Parish Nurse Resource Center)
- articles about how parish nursing can integrate spiritual dimensions of care and spirituality in nursing
- an article reporting on recently published results that noted patients' ranking spiritual care as a high need during advanced stages of cancer
- easy ways for a parish to "go green"

* We participated in a continuing education unit to learn more about "Domestic Violence and the Faith Community." Above left, Rosalie Albright, RN and Coordinator of Faith Community Nursing Services for Ephraim McDowell Health in Danville, led us in the interactive presentation

And finally, we thanked Eileen TeKrony for her many years of service to the Stoeckinger Foundation in coordinating activities and events to promote parish health ministries in the Diocese of Lexington.

At right, Carol Enright presented Eileen with a scrapbook of thank you's and artwork from members of the Stoeckinger Foundation and health ministry.

Parish Health Ministries Meeting Coming Up

The Annual Stoeckinger Health Ministry meeting will be held on Thursday, September 9, 10am-2:15pm at Pax Christi church,
4001 Victoria Way, Lexington, KY. This annual meeting is sponsored by the Margaret T. Stoeckinger Foundation, to promote health ministries within the Catholic parishes in the Diocese of Lexington.

All those interested in health ministry are invited to attend. Please RSVP with Eileen TeKrony at tekrony@insightbb.com

Here is the agenda:

Date: Thursday, September 9, 2010
Time: 10:00 AM-2:15 PM
Place: Pax Christi Church

10:00 AM-11:00 AM
· Welcome
· Introductions
· Prayer
· Announcements

· Grant Program-Stoeckinger Foundation: Mary Jo Votruba

· Scholarship Program-Stoeckinger Foundation: Eileen Kelty

· Caring for the Caregiver/Respite Care-Stoeckinger Foundation: Cathy Lerza, Caregiver Assistance Coordinator
11:00 AM-12:00 Noon Resources and Sharing

12:00 Noon-12:30 PM Lunch

12:30 PM-2:15 PM "Domestic Violence and the Faith Community Nurse", Rosalie Albright, RN,MSN,CNS-BC,ARNP,FCN, Coordinator, Faith Community Nursing Services, Community Service Department, Ephraim McDowell Health

2:15 PM Wrap-up

Closing Prayer

** 2.0 CEU's will be awarded for the afternoon program provided by Bluegrass Community Technical College. **

St. Joseph - London is now open!

Above: View of the new facility for St. Joseph-London while it was under construction

The new St. Joseph-London hospital opened on August 19. The $152 million, 340,000-square-foot hospital held its ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesda in late July, but patients at the downtown hospital were transferred beginning at 5 AM on Aug. 19. New patients admitted after that got to go straight to the new hospital.

St. Joseph-London includes 120 private rooms, artwork from local artists, and a lake and garden on 52 acres. The hospital's "Serenity Garden" is being designed by Kentucky celebrity gardener Jon Carloftis.

The new facility is nearly twice the size of the hospital it replaced in downtown London, which was the former Marymount Medical Center. St. Joseph-London is now located right off Interstate 75 for more convenient access.

The new hospital plans to expand the cardiology and obstetrics-gynecology services. The first open-heart surgery in southeastern Kentucky was performed at the hospital in 2000.

Congratulations to the the folks at St. Joseph-London!

Article about Manchester KY

Above: Sister Mary Glass, CIJ, at right, talked with Polly Duncan-Collum, at left, Director of Peace and Justice for the Diocese of Lexington, and Sr. Alice Schmersal, middle, Pastoral Associate at St. Ann Catholic Church, Manchester KY. This photo was taken during a visit to St. Ann's in May, 2010.

Hello again - after a bit of summer-ish delays, we're ready to get back to blogging. (Schools are already starting up here in KY!).

Here is a link to a syndicated article from the Washington Post that looked at obesity in the small town of Manchester KY, which is located right here in the Diocese of Lexington. (This link is actually from the online site for a Connecticut newspaper - the story was picked up by a number of newspapers nationwide. The story was published in the Lexington Herald Leader on July 13, 2010)

http://www.theday.com/article/20100718/OP05/307189920/1019&town=

I recently spoke with Sr. Alice Schermsal, the Pastoral Associate at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Manchester and we talked a little bit about the article and any reaction it stirred up in Manchester. Sr. Alice noted that some people she had talked with felt the article was too narrow in focus. The reporter wrote about only one family (a divorced dad with two daughters) and only included comments from the town mayor, a pharmacist, a professor of kinesiology and one resident who lost about 60 lbs and now works as a professional trainer. The reporter also noted that the glow of night lights at the intersection leading into Manchester is mostly from fast food restaurants.

(Note: Manchester is a beautiful place, as you can see from the photo views of St. Ann's "front yard," above and her "back yard" below. The church is actually situated on 40 acres, and the setting is truly lovely. The reporter did end his story noting the view of the beautiful valley, although he goes on to say the population does not reflect so well on the town).

Sr. Alice went on to say, however, that other people did acknowledge that looking around, it's clear there are a number of overweight people in the area, including overweight children. [Reading the article, the kinesiology professor conducted a study of 277 4th and 5th graders in 7 local schools and determined that almost half were overweight or obese. This does not bode well for these kids' health in the future, since being overweight is a risk factor for developing a raft of problems, such as diabetes, heart and circulatory problems, joint problems, etc.]

Sr. Alice and Sr. Mary Glass, who also lives in Manchester and who has been a nurse for over 50 years, attended a women's group meeting earlier this month. The group held a very good discussion about mounting a program to encourage fitness, healthy eating and weight loss - -a "Give 20 in 2011" sort of theme. Sr. Alice feels at the very least, the article will give some momentum to putting this plan and possibly others in motion. She thinks this is something that St. Ann's could help get started.

Health education and promoting healthy lifestyles is clearly an important part of meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of families and individuals!

Remote Area Medical Clinic in Pikeville

Above: This photo (from the Lexington Herald Leader article cited below) gives an idea of the scope of the recent RAM clinic held at Pike County Central High School

The Remote Area Medical organization, called RAM, for short, was back in Pikeville, KY, this past weekend of June 19-20. The group, headquartered in Knoxville, offers free medical clinic services in various areas of the US and has visited several KY locations since 2008. As of Saturday, 750 medical, dental and vision patients had registered for services, with about the same number expected on Sunday.

Be sure to check out the article that appeared in the Lexington Herald Leader newspaper on Sunday, June 20, 2010 at

http://www.kentucky.com/2010/06/20/1315082/in-pikeville-free-clinic-serves.html

The article notes that RAM has started a KY chapter and continues to attract more volunteers for each clinic. The organization has also worked out some snags over the past two years about temporary licensing of volunteers and rules that affected certain medical professions, such as allowing optometrists to volunteer outside their offices. Above right, a volunteer nurse checks blood pressure for a patient who visited the clinic for vision and dental services.

We will definitely talk with the RAM folks in the near future to discuss how our Medical Mission can mesh with RAM activities!

Visit to St. Joseph Hospital in Martin KY

Above: Judy Salyer, Billie Turner, Polly Duncan-Collum and Neva Francis during a fact-finding meeting at St. Joseph Hospital in Martin KY

Preliminary "fact finding" continued this month as Jill Heink, Grant Developer for the Diocese of Lexington, and Polly Duncan-Collum, the diocesan director for Peace & Justice activities, traveled to St. Joseph Hospital in Martin KY on June 16, 2010, to talk to some of the staff about options for hosting the medical mission trip that the Medical Missionaries of Divine Mercy are planning for spring, 2011, in Eastern KY.

St. Joseph Hospital, formerly Our Lady of the Way Hospital, has served this area for many years. As stated on their website, St. Joseph - Martin (SJM) ".. may be small in size compared to some of today's newest hospitals, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in tradition and care. Our 25-bed critical care access facility in Floyd County, Kentucky, provides patients with holistic, personalized care."

We met with Billie Turner, VP of Clinical Operations & Chief Nursing Officer; Neva Francis, Coummunity Outreach, and Judy Salyer, Social Worker. They talked about some of the challenges facing people in the area (lack of jobs, high rate of poverty, lack of transportation, etc.) and some of the most pressing medical issues, including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, COPD, dental problems and vision problems. As mentioned in earlier blog posts, many people in this area (and throughout the mountains, really) are "working poor" - they have jobs, but the pay is very low and the jobs do not offer health insurance. These folks don't qualify for Medicaid, and they are not eligible age-wise for Medicare. Kentucky does have the KCHIP program to provide health care benefits for children, but again, the parents often fall through the cracks of the system.

St. Joseph-Martin already provides millions of dollars in charity care each year. Representatives from St. Joseph-Martin are very involved with several local committees to provide better access to health care, and SJM has collaborated with a number of local agenicies and organizations to help extend more health care opportunities to people in the region. For instance, SJM has worked with Big Sandy Health Care, a non-profit corporation, to deliver health care in parts of Floyd County and with New Eyes for the Needy, a national organization that provides eyeglasses to individuals who are not able to afford them. There are still challenges and lots of paperwork in partnering with other agencies - for example, it can take a 5 to 6 months to actually obtain the eyeglasses.

Billie, Neva and Judy also talked about some of the satellite clinics that SJM operates, including one next door to the hospital in Martin and including clinics in Wheelwright and Betsy Layne. Billie noted that our Medical Mission might be able to work out of the Martin clinic, so we will explore that possibility in the coming months.

Our thanks to our hosts at SJM for a very productive visit. We'll be in touch over the next few months!

At right: Inside the beautiful chapel at St. Joseph-Martin