Welcoming new Catholics 2 Perinatal bereavement care 3 Executive changes 7 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
AUGUST 2026 VOLUME 42, NUMBER 8
COMMUNITY IMPACT: HELPING VULNERABLE POPULATIONS FLOURISH In Virginia, Bon Secours boosts section of Richmond with small business grants
PeaceHealth partnership brings care to the doorstep in Ketchikan, Alaska
By JULIE MINDA
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
Anthony Cornwall long has had a passion for serving delicious food. Since 2021, patrons of his Bono’s Caribbean Cuisine food truck in Richmond, Virginia, have been enjoying his unique style of cooking, which blends Jamaican flavors into Southern comfort foods. His wife, Cortney Cornwall, says several years ago the two of them began thinking about also opening a brickand-mortar restaurant, but they feared the costs would be too much. A friend told them about a grant program. They applied to Bon Secours Richmond’s Supporting East End Entrepreneurship Development, or SEED, grant program.
If there’s a problem accessing healthcare in Ketchikan, Alaska, the community has a way of coming up with creative solutions. Last year, a landslide took out a road connecting the town to its north end, where many PeaceHealth doctors live. Residents used boats to ferry the doctors to and from work. Conversely, Ben Watson, a paramedic with the city of Ketchikan, meets with patients where they are. He can do a followup EKG, draw blood and bring it to the hospital and set up a telehealth appointment. For those who can travel, he can arrange transport for an appointment.
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Anthony and Cortney Cornwall serve Southern comfort foods that incorporate Jamaican flavors from the food truck they operate. They have received funds from Bon Secours Richmond, Virginia’s Supporting East End Entrepreneurship Development grant program to open a restaurant.
Ben Watson, a paramedic, uses a van as a mobile clinic as part of his work with PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center to help reduce readmissions among “high utilizer” patients. He says the van is particularly useful for reaching unhoused patients.
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SSM HEALTH’S ST. LOUIS FOUNDATION USES $10 MILLION DONATION TO ESTABLISH THE COMMUNITY HEALTH IMPACT FUND. PAGE 6
‘We did the right thing’
Providence joins in creating platform to forestall mental health crises
Members of the child life team in the pediatric intensive care unit at Saint Peter’s Children’s Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, offer patients a selection of sensory-friendly fidget toys designed to promote comfort and reduce stress during hospital stays. The emergency departments at that hospital and at Saint Peter’s University Hospital have become certified autism centers.
By JULIE MINDA
Providence St. Joseph Health is partnering on a federally funded effort to create an online model to help predict, prevent and manage mental health and substance use disorders. The health system is recruiting participants for a project being led by Ksana Health to develop a predictive model that improves mental health intervention. Ksana Health, a technology company focused on creating digital tools to improve mental health care, will use a $17.9 million federal grant to gather data that will build up a “large health behavior model” to better understand and respond to mental illness, Providence said in a press release. “By collaborating with Ksana and other partners, we have an opportunity to help develop data-driven tools that can better identify and address behavioral health needs earlier, ultimately improving outcomes for the communities we serve,” said Staci Wendt, Wendt director of research for Providence’s Health Research Accelerator. She added that “Providence is taking part in this partnership as part of our 2030 Vision to expand access to whole-person care, advance health equity and lead in innovation.” Continued on 5
STORY ON PAGE 8
Ascension St. John supports trafficking victims in Oklahoma to find safety, dignity and hope By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
It is estimated there are
50 MILLION victims of human trafficking around the world including both labor and sex trafficking
Sara Gadd of Ascension St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, can’t think of anyone more vulnerable than human trafficking victims, who often are so used to the abuse they don’t realize that they are being victimized. They weren’t kidnapped or lured Gadd into a scary white van. Some say they willingly prostituted themselves at a hotel. Or maybe they took a job paying $2 an hour,
because it’s better than what they were getting paid before. It’s sometimes difficult to help people in these desperate situations because they don’t know what’s happening to them is a crime, Gadd says. The staff at Ascension St. John knows and is poised to help connect them to resources to escape their situations and traumas that could cause shortand long-term health consequences. “Healthcare is amazing for this work,” she said. Continued on 4