Preserving long-term care ministries 4 Executive changes 7 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
NOVEMBER 1, 2022
VOLUME 38, NUMBER 17
CHI Health prioritizes mental health needs of rural youth Funding supports school, community efforts to strengthen families, address trauma By JULIE MINDA
Allison Q. Salopeck, president and chief executive of the Jennings eldercare organization, visits with Sr. Margaret Mary Grochowski at her jubilee. The last surviving member of the Sisters of the Holy Spirit congregation, Sr. Grochowski died Nov. 7, 2021. The congregation moved to a lay sponsorship model for Jennings in 2020.
Congregations encouraged to act to ensure eldercare ministries endure By JULIE MINDA
Founding congregations of large Catholic hospital systems in the U.S. began methodically grappling decades ago with how best to preserve their ministries and charisms as their congregational ranks decreased. Many congregations chose to create a new sponsorship structure — a ministerial juridic person — to allow for continuity of their ministries and charisms under the sponsorship of lay leaders. They created formation programs to instill in lay
Lori Henrichs, center, a parent educator with Southwestern Community College, takes part in a Parents As Teachers home visit with a Corning, Iowa, mother and daughter. CHI Health provides funding to support the Parents As Teachers program.
The prevalence of mental illness is about the same in rural populations as it is in urban populations, but there is far less access to mental health services in rural areas. CHI Health has been working with local partners to identify the mental health issues affecting rural communities in its service areas and helping to set up and fund programming to address unmet needs. A top focus is the mental health of youth. CommonSpirit Health, CHI Health’s parent system, has made grants to fund a wide variety of community-based mental health interventions. The programming includes providing consultation and training on mental health to teachers and other school staff, offering mental health first aid training in schools, building mental health referral networks, establishing wellness centers that include mental health services, and providing technology to connect teachers and students which has been shown to lead to greater student engagement and Continued on 6
Ethicists see need for clinical training for next generation By LISA EISENHAUER
The immersive experience Amanda Altobell got in Catholic health care ethics, mission and spiritual care through a virtual internship followed by an in-person fellowship within Bon Secours Mercy Health provided a vital link between her academic studies and her career. She completed the semester-long online internship last fall as part of her work toward a PhD with an emphasis on Catholic health care ethics that she’s close to finishing at Duquesne
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Altobell
Throughout Catholic health care, ethics and spiritual care openings are going wanting for lack of qualified candidates. Interns and fellows who gain experience in clinical settings to complement their academic training are better prepared for professions where they will lead complex, often high-stakes discussions with patients and administrators.
Providence-supported academy readies community health workers for clinical settings By LISA EISENHAUER
Micaela Reyes, a senior community health worker, hands a list of community resources and some new clothing to a patient in the emergency department at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance, California. Reyes assists patients who are experiencing homelessness in finding shelter and supportive services.
Jessica Verdugo credits the training and experience she got from the Community Health Worker Academy with opening her eyes to how seemingly minor barriers can keep people from accessing needed health care and to the many ways she can guide patients past them. “I didn’t think that something as little as helping people make a phone call or helping them schedule an appointment would make a difference for them,” says Verdugo, who graduated in February from the academy which is based at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles. She was one of 13 students in the certificate program’s second class. Since then, she’s been working full time at clinics affiliated with Torrance Memorial Medical Center in the south Los Angeles suburb of Carson. The medical Continued on 5
Blessed be the pets Several hospitals across the ministry celebrated the Oct. 4 Feast of St. Francis of Assisi by hosting blessings for pets events in early October. Here, Scout sits pretty to receive his blessing from Fr. Sam Maranto at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Stephanie Manson, center, Scout’s companion and the hospital’s chief operating officer, looks on. Story PAGE 3