Health ministries form new front line of care

OGDENSBURG — Health care is usually thought of as taking place in a hospital, a clinic or a pharmacy, but Catholic Charities is encouraging north country residents to take a more holistic view of what it means to be healthy.

To help keep Catholic parishioners and others in the north country healthy, many churches are setting up health ministries where they can see a parish nurse for health care advice. Sister Mary Lou Stubbs, Catholic Charities parish partnership coordinator, is helping them with that task.

“Not all of your health is due to the medical care system,” she said. “About 70 percent of our well-being and our health is dependent on our environment and our lifestyle.”

Sister Stubbs said that with the proliferation of hospitals and clinics, people are more health-conscious than ever. Often neglected, however, are the methods by which they maintain and monitor their health outside of a clinical setting.

“Where do we go for the more subtle parts of well-being and health where we can get guidance and cooperation?” she asked. “That place has become the church-based health ministry, where professionals work along side the other ministers of the church and help coordinate wellness programs, health-awareness programs, programs helping people cope with chronic disease.”

Sister Stubbs said the ministries provide some of the community-health services private enterprises offer, but also programs beyond what one would normally find in a hospital.

“They end up doing things like health screenings and referrals,” she said “They also link-in and monitor with hospitals. They let people know when it is time to contact their doctors.”

Sister Stubbs said ministries are an attractive idea because they allow continuity of care through an institution people trust and participate in: their local church.

“Perhaps older folks get on medications, with these ministries they have some guidance in making sure that medications are taken appropriately,” she said. “Ministries are also having classes on disease processes that need maintenance like diabetes or smoking cessation.”

Sister Stubbs said health ministries were successful at her previous assignment.

“When we worked on this concept in St. Louis, Missouri, within a four-year period we had over 100 churches with active health ministries,” she said.

The programs are catching on across the area.

“Here in the upper eight counties of Northern New York, there has been an increased interest in health ministries,” said Sister Stubbs. “When I came to this area in October, we identified five Catholic churches that had some level of interest. We have had others inquire since then.”

Churches have come to realize that good health is integral to the happiness of their parishioners.

“It is a wonderful ministry that comes out of the heart of churches. Our health is critical to us, without our health everything falls apart,“ she said. “It is so intuitively correct that it is a good ministry within a given church.”

Though they give parishioners access to a certified health professional, the ministries are meant to be a supplement for the traditional health care system, not a substitute.

“It is not a substitute for them being connected to their primary physician; it is not a substitute for well-established, good health care, it is simply an additional support,” said Sister Stubbs.

Sister Stubbs said that though Catholic Charities is taking the lead in organizing and coordinating these programs, they have an interdenominational bent.

“We would like to see this expand among a variety of denominations,” she said. “It is frequent practice that churches near each other share a health ministry.”