Church-Based
Health Initiatives: Clerical Perceptions of the
Church’s Role in Advocacy
by
Valerie
Warner-Collins
MA,
College of Notre Dame of Maryland, 2000
BA, University of Baltimore, 1995
Dissertation
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of
the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor
of Philosophy
Health
Services
Walden
University
May
2013
Abstract
Health disparities have mostly affected poor Americans, and many
of whom have sought social and spiritual solace in religious advocacy. Research
on religion and health disparities has focused, historically, on the role of
the Black clergy in health care advocacy. The purpose of this case study was to
explore the perceptions of clergy in a multicultural community of the
Northeastern United States. Systems theory, which concerns the binding of
relationships for the purposes of replicating success throughout a community,
supported this conceptual framework. Positive social change is promoted through
equitable collaborations that benefit whole communities. A 4-member, expert
jury validated the 21 interview questions that were posed to 17 clergy. Research questions
were: How do clergy perceive their roles in social advocacy? What are the
perceived educational, historical, political, or religious inputs of faith
communities that potentially affect health policy decisions? What value does
mentoring and modeling between clergy have on encouraging their participation
in faith-based health initiatives?
Findings
illustrated that the respondents viewed their role in advocacy as a duty or
calling. However, several clergy conceded that severed relationships, from past
governmental and interfaith collaborations, greatly hindered the advancement of
church-based health systems. Consequently, opinions varied on the effects that
faith communities had on the health policy decisions of the local government.
The study contributes to positive social change, for collaborators and the
underserved, in the following ways: Establishes objectives for mentorship
between faith communities, provides a platform for restoring relationships,
identifies culturally sensitive services for an increasingly diverse community,
and reveals resources for future faith-based
With complete editorial credit to H&HN Daily and to author Marty Stempniak. For use in class discussion. REH 9/16/13
Hospitals Take a Stand Against Violence in their Communities
By Marty Stempniak H&HN Staff Writer
September 16, 2013
New American Hospital Association resource highlights strategies leaders are using to help treat and prevent future incidents.
Columbine, Sandy Hook Elementary, the Boston Marathon, and now just this morning, we're hearing word of another violent act unfolding at the U.S. Navy Yard in Washington. It seems as if every week another tragedy occurs that eats away at us a little inside and dulls us a little more to the next misfortune. I can't even imagine the grief that befalls the folks on the front lines at hospitals, who have to mend these broken bodies and help their families cope.
Hospitals are often the place where the victims of community violence end up, and it's critical that hospitals take a role in helping to curb violence. The American Hospital Association released a report earlier this month titled "Reducing Violence in Our Communities," which highlights strategies that hospitals and health systems have used to tackle this issue.
"I always say that all social and community failures eventually find their way to the hospital, and certainly the results of violence mean that people do wind up in hospitals in pretty critical condition," Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the AHA, told me by phone last week. "It's critical for hospitals to do whatever they can to either get upstream in the community, working with others to reduce violence, or taking the opportunity when someone is within the hospital's reach to try to prevent somebody from finding themselves in the same situation and winding up a patient again, or harmed even worse than that."
I also attended a thought-provoking session last week at the Mayo Clinic's Transform 2013 symposium that suggests violence is a public health issue for hospitals and health departments. Gary Slutkin, M.D., the founder and executive director of Cure Violence, made a case for how violence is really a contagious disease, and should be treated in the same fashion as one. I spent a few minutes with Slutkin discussing the issue:
The AHA report offers 11 different examples of hospitals and health systems that have developed programs to intervene and help prevent violent situations. Engaging with patients and their families while they're recovering from a violent incident is a key time to direct them toward social resources, offer counseling, or link them with life-skills coaches, according to the report.
Here are a couple of examples:
Facing a homicide rate for the young that's higher than state and national norms, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center has developed a program called "Bridging the Gap" to stop violence before it happens. While staying as inpatients, victims of violence receive an intervention that includes reviewing the incident, exploring possible conflict-resolution strategies, and discussing ways to better cope with the aftermath of an incident. The program has also helped victims fill other needs that might lead to violence, including housing, education and mental health services.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital — which treats about 1,000 traumas annually, a third of which are violence-related — staffs its ED with violence interrupters to help break the cycle of retaliation. Interrupters, who have links to the neighborhood and its cultural issues, are dispatched to both the hospital and at the street level to help assess the situation and minimize any risk of retaliation.
In Chelsea, Mass., Massachusetts General Hospital sends clinical social workers along with police responding to 911 calls where children are present. The social workers provide immediate counseling and intervention to kids who have witnessed or are victims of violence, to help reduce trauma.
Umbdenstock says the report stems from the gun control debate waged earlier this year following several violent incidents, and from calls for the AHA to take a stance on the issue. Guns and violence is a complicated topic that's different in every locality, and the organization wanted to find a way to provide guidance to hospitals while also avoiding getting involved in such a polarized discussion.
"Rather than try to jump into that gun debate, which is so highly political, it was more prudent for us to look at the manifestations, the outcomes of gun violence, and then we started to say, 'Well, we really ought to look at violence in general,' and that's where this set of case studies came from," he says. "It's a way in which we can play an appropriate role and not get bogged down in what are some seemingly never-ending debates across our vast American society."
The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the policy of Health Forum Inc. or the American Hospital Association.
Complete credit for this interesting and timely article is directed to Bill Santamour. It is used as a basis for discussion in graduate classess. REH
A Good Word About Old Age: 'Compression'
By Bill Santamour H&HN Managing Editor
September 03, 2013
Living more years with chronic illness, but fewer with disabilities.
Every time I passed my neighbor Otto walking down the block in that tentative, arthritic gait of his, he would shake his head, smile ruefully and feed me that old chestnut: "I'm warning you, Bill, getting old ain't for sissies." Otto was in his 70s by then, and he had a number of infirmities beyond arthritis, including heart and circulation troubles. But he was no sissy. He was the primary caregiver for his wife, Marcy, who suffered from Alzheimer's. Into his 80s, he kept his own house, ran his own errands and carried on with the photography that was his life's work, producing striking, black-and-white images in his own tiny darkroom.
Every day, 10,000-plus baby boomers reach age 65 and the proportions of Americans older than 70, older than 80 and older than 90 are ballooning; health care policymakers worry how in the heck we as a society are going to cope economically and otherwise. Providers foresee a tidal wave of patients with multiple chronic conditions and other needs that will require a support system built around IT and staffing models that are still evolving.
But a recent report from Harvard and the National Bureau of Economic Researchcontained a bit of hopeful news on the aging front. The report challenges the assumption that old age necessarily means diminished quality of life. The study discovered "a compression of morbidity" among older Americans, which means that while more people are living longer and have multiple chronic illnesses, they are, as the National Journal puts it, "both living more years disability-free and fewer years disabled." In other words, the period in which quality of life is diminished occurs in a more compact time frame, closer to death.
"People have more diseases than they used to, but the severe disablement that disease used to imply has been reduced," the researchers said. My neighbor Otto was an example of that phenomenon. He became unable to care for himself only near the end of his life.
Optimism about old age is reflected in the second annual United States of Aging Surveyreleased in late July. Among respondents older than 65, 84 percent said it is not very or not at all difficult to perform regular activities independently. More than half (58 percent) with one or more chronic conditions are very confident they can manage their health so as to reduce their need to see a doctor, up from 44 percent of senior respondents in 2012.
The survey does contain some alarming findings. While 65 percent of seniors report having at least two chronic conditions, fewer than one in five has received guidance in the past year to develop an action plan to manage their health. Twenty-six percent of seniors exercise less than once a week for 30 minutes or more.
"Maintaining good health as we age requires being proactive, especially for people with chronic health conditions," said Richard Birkel, senior vice president, healthy aging, and director of the National Council on Aging. "We must seize opportunities across local communities to empower seniors with the skills they need to stay healthy." The NCOA conducted the survey with UnitedHealthcare and USA Today.
The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the policy of Health Forum Inc. or the American Hospital Association.
