Try-athlon 3 Well Being Trust turns inward 5 Brian Smith, mentor to many 7 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
DECEMBER 1, 2022
With policymakers focused on mental health, care providers hope for real change By LISA EISENHAUER
The federal government is allocating funding and drafting policy initiatives to address mental health and substance abuse at a rate that executives in the field within the Catholic health ministry extol as unprecedented, laudable and long overdue. Even so, they are unsure if the cash infusion and legislative action will end what they see as a crisis level of mental and behavioral health needs and they worry the current focus won’t last. They also say it’s unclear if health systems will be able to tap any of the expanded funding to sustain and grow their services. Patty Morrow, operational vice president for behavioral health at St. Louisbased Mercy, says the federal effort is direly needed to address gaps in access, especially for vulnerable and rural communities, and to improve the system of mental and Continued on 4
A MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS
1 in 5
Americans age 13 and over experienced a mental health issue.
1 in 6
young people experienced a major depressive episode.
1 in 20
Americans lived with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.
VOLUME 38, NUMBER 19
School district gets a hand from SSM Health hospital to take on ‘period poverty’
40.3 million
Americans aged 12 or older had a substance use disorder in the last 12 months. Statistics are from 2020
What causes mental illness?
There is no single cause for mental illness. A number of factors can contribute to the risk including: • Experiences related to other chronic • Early adverse life experiences, such medical conditions, such as cancer or as trauma or a history of abuse. diabetes. • Biological factors or chemical • Having feelings of loneliness or imbalances in the brain. isolation. • Use of alcohol or drugs. Sources: National Alliance on Mental Illness; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
In mountainous regions, ministry facilities ensure care access
Charlee Barks poses for a selfie in front of a dispenser of free period products just after it was installed at her school. Charlee is the daughter of Lindse Barks, whose request for funding from SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital — Midwest led to the dispensers being installed in grade and high schools in and near Midwest City, Oklahoma.
By JULIE MINDA By LISA EISENHAUER
Throughout the year, emergency room clinicians at St. Anthony Summit Hospital in the heart of a Colorado Rockies recreation area stay busy tending to injuries of sportsmen and women whose adventures have turned into misadventures. Now that ski season is getting underway, the ER team is prepared for spikes in patients with traumatic head injuries and orthopedic injuries. The hospital is in Summit County, where the highest peak tops 14,000 feet. It’s no surprise then that year-round, the hospital also cares for patients with altitude-related conditions, particularly high-altitude pulmonary edema, the accumulation of excess Continued on 8
This training for a helicopter rescue was part of the programming at a recent search and rescue conference sponsored by Centura Flight For Life Colorado and the Colorado Search and Rescue Association.
Karen Green wasn’t familiar with the concept of “period poverty” before the issue came up at a community event along with the idea for SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital — Midwest in Midwest City, Oklahoma, to fund dispensers to give away menstrual hygiene supplies in the local public schools. Once she learned about period poverty — the condition of being disadvantaged due to menstruation — and the fact that even students in the blue-collar MidDel School District where the hospital is seated were affected, she was onboard with the suggestion that the hospital provide Continued on 6
By LISA EISENHAUER
When the Sisters of Mercy equipped the forensic nursing team at the congregationsponsored Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore with a top-of-the-line alternate light source unit about 18 years ago, Debra Holbrook says it put her and the hospital on track to become pioneers in the use of the technology. Holbrook, the hospital’s director of forensic nursing, says the forensic nursing team, which was founded in 1994, was one of the first of its kind in the nation. When the team — officially the Forensic Nurse Exam-
iners Program — began experimenting with the alternate light unit as they examined victims of violence, they found it could be used to detect injuries hidden by skin color and those that left no marks on the surface of the skin. Holbrook credits that discovery with advancing the work not only of Mercy Medical Center’s team, but of forensic nurses everywhere. “This is what changed history in medicine across the world, because I published the very first research ever linking use of alternate light on victims of strangulation to (the ability to see) latent wounds Continued on 2
Jennifer McMenamin
Mercy in Baltimore pioneers alternate light sources as forensic tools Debra Holbrook, left, director of forensic nursing at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, demonstrates the use of an alternate light source device on forensic nurse Allyson Boss. The device emits light in wavelengths that can make wounds below the surface of the skin visible.