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| For many people, the church is a vital part of their
lives. The 1993 Statistics of the United States Department of Health and Human
Services reported that two thirds of all rural elderly people attended weekly
church services. Only one third of all rural elderly people reported being
involved in any other community group and some of this number may have been
church attendees (Rydholm, 1997).
A study performed by the United Methodist Church (1998)
found that 51 percent of the residents in Wood County attend church on a regular
basis. Further, people tend to turn to their faith to interpret their
misfortunes, to summon the strength to fight illness, and to promote well-being.
Faith communities are the places where, as voluntary institutions in our
society, health and wellness can span generations and reach over two-thirds of
our population. Congregations can develop a sense of meaning, purpose, and
control in their lives by understanding the emotional and spiritual dynamics
associated with physical illness. A caring faith community with an intentional
health and healing ministry has an opportunity to fill many gaps through a
"whole person" approach to care.
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| Linda
Pape,
BSN, MS, the Parish Nurse Coordinator for Grant/Riverside Methodist
Hospital/OhioHealth in Columbus, outlines the meaning of a health ministry
program. |
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The church's healing ministry is as old as scripture,
but the current emphasis can be traced to churches that promote the use of
nurses as health ministers or parish nurses. Pioneers in this movement
envisioned religion and medicine as being related, and recognized that illness
involves the whole person. The philosophy is that something other than curative
measures is at work to keep people well; things such as hope and having
meaningful purpose in life. Individuals who identify with faith communities have
been shown to have a higher level of health and wellness than people who do not
have such a community.
According to the World Health Organization,
"Health is more than the absence of disease. Health is a state of optimal
well-being." There is a contemporary movement away from identifying
"health" as related only to the physical body, toward a vision of
wholistic health that includes the body, mind, spirit, community, and
environment.
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Thus, achieving wellness in this broader, or wholistic, sense
includes and integrates all these elements in the journey to health as
"optimal well-being."
"This understanding of health correlates with the
core values of the Sisters of St. Joseph Charitable Fund," says Sister Jane
Harrington, Executive Director. "Wellness promotion, development of healthy
lifestyles, disease prevention, and spiritual health," she continues,
"particularly for persons who are vulnerable and without access to needed
resources, are among the primary outcomes of a health ministry and our Health
Ministry Initiative."
Health ministry emphasizes wholeness of the mind, body,
and spirit in congregations of faith. Healing, health, and wellness are promoted
among congregation members and people in the wider community. It is a
cooperative effort that may include congregation members, hospitals, and
community health agencies, all interested in health and wholeness.
Research indicates that two thirds of deaths in
Americans, before the age of 65, are preventable. Early detection of disease and
intervention programs for people identified as high risk and/or with existing
chronic illnesses can make a significant difference in the outcomes that they
experience. As a way to address these concerns, health ministry programs are
being formed in congregational settings in response to an increase in health
information and desire to lead healthier lifestyles. A health ministry can be
highly effective in impacting health outcomes of congregation members and the
community by facilitating healing and wholeness through ways in which cure and
medical treatment may not be possible.
One model of a health ministry is a
Faith Community Nurse (FCN). Faith Community Nursing is an emerging field of practice integrating faith and health
while focusing on health promotion, health maintenance, and illness prevention.
It holds the spiritual dimension to be central to the practice, but also
encompasses the physical, psychological, and social dimensions of nursing. Faith
Community Nursing is practiced within a faith community and is based on the
assessed needs of that group of people. He or she is a registered nurse with additional
training, specifically in parish nursing, who assists members of the
congregation to become more aware of their health and to move toward a fuller
sense of wholeness. Most often they act as health counselors and educators,
community resource liaisons and facilitators.
A Health
Ministry can be analogized as a bridge, connecting the people in a
congregation to the information and resources they need to achieve a whole
and healthy lifestyle. Working in collaboration with the faith community,
this type of ministry can serve as an extension of the medical field.
For more information
about the
SSJCF Health Ministry Program, contact: |
Sister
Molly Bauer,
Program Director
mbauer@ssjcharitablefund.org
304-424-6080 |
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