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

Catch Up Coming Soon!

The blogger has had an especially busy month and has been out on the road quite a bit, so there's a lot of backlog for the blog, including statistics, updates, and more. But it won't be here till June (sorry!).

In the meantime, the blog will pass along a very nice resource for prayers for healing and health. They are from the book 600 Blessings and Prayers from Around the World by Geoffrey Duncan. You can find the Google book entry at

http://books.google.com/books?id=-fyQez5AAwAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=600+blessing+and+prayers+from+around+the+worlds&source=bl&ots=00vfTWBnnm&sig=vOc0ML2R7QFCnmp52KPD-6OUz3c&hl=en&ei=43HkS_veKcWBlAf9-KiDAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

(or go to Google and type in "600 blessings and prayers").

You will see that the prayers "Toward Health" begin on page 310. A number of them are quite lovely, so please take a look!

Here at our diocesan offices, we have had a spell of illness and injury to a number of people we love, and no doubt many of you also know of individuals and families who need our prayers for healing. So while we continue our plans for a Mission Trip, let's take time to pray for those who are in need of restored health as well as for the health care providers and support personnel who work for healing and wholeness.

April 9 - Visit to Berea

Above: The team paused to enjoy the sunshine outside St. Joseph Hospital - Berea. L-r: Fr. Gerry, Flora, Mark and Cordell.

The team was looking at a shorter jaunt - only about 40 miles - for the last day of fact-finding, so we took a little time in the morning to spread out the map once again, recap some of the information we’d collected, and assign some action items for the next steps, including:

*Compile a list of attendees from the kick off meeting and also a list of people we met at health care locations while we were on the road.

*Prepare an information sheet for the MMDM’s to use to generate interest and enthusiasm for a medical mission in the Diocese of Lexington.

*Continue to contact potential collaborators

*Check out possible funding strategies, including grants and sponsorships

*Set mid-November as the date for the MMDM's next visit to Lexington, with an eye for setting a date for the medical mission!

Clearly, there is a LOT of work to do. But the immediate task at hand was to head south to visit St. Joseph -Berea.

Flora Washburn, Mission Leader and Chaplain for St. Joseph Hospital in Berea (as well as Mt. Sterling), met us at the door. On the way to the conference room, she pointed out the local artwork throughout the building, part of St. Joseph's initiative to spotlight the unique heritage and culture of the Berea community. In fact, the hospital was holding a dedication ceremony that evening, with Fr. Frank Brawner of St. Clare Parish in Berea coming to bless the new art installations. Sitting down for our meeting, Flora introduced us to Gerg Gerard, President-CEO along with Elena Baker, Education Coordinator, and Katie Heckman, Community Relations.

St. Joseph Berea serves roughly a six-county area, with much of their service area in the beautiful but rugged Daniel Boone National Forest. Again, chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, hyerptenson, COPD, etc. are very prominent througout the service area. Like the other hospitals we had visited, St. Joseph Berea carries a high percentage of charity cases. Berea Health Ministries now operates on the hospital campus and offers access to primary health care services on a sliding scale. Unfortunately, there is a long, long waiting list for an appointment, and many people essentially use the emergency room as their basic health care service.

The MMDM's reviewed prior medical mission experience and discussed what kind of sites might be set up in this area. The hospital team felt the model could work in the area, and offered some ideas for working with community health centers in the area.

Flora took us to lunch, and we talked some more about some of the special challenges of providing a spectrum of health care, including wellness care. Flora also noted the significance of having a strong Catholic identity melded into the medical mission's activities. St. Joseph Hospital is a fairly new entity in Berea (previously, the building had housed Berea Community Hospital), and this medical mission offers another opportunity to demonstrate the Catholic model of care for not just the body, but the spirit and mind as well.

After lunch, we had time for a quick stroll around Berea College, which was founded in 1855 on the principle of equal opportunity for all. Berea College admitted students of all races as well as both male and female students - very radical at the time! Today, the college offers all students a full tuition scholarship in exchange for their participation in the college's extensive work program. It's a very beautiful place, and we were fortunate to be out and about on such a lovely day, with the redbuds in full bloom all around us.

Then it was time for the fact-finders to head back to the great state of Texas. It was a great visit, and we all learned a lot. Best wishes to the Medical Missionaries of Divine Mercy as they prepare for their return to Laredo in the fall of 2010 for a medical mission. We look forward to seeing the team in mid-November for another round of planning this great effort to serve as Christ would have us serve!