Chris’ Story

Chris Zachry had been on pain medication for a year and was scheduled to have double hip replacement surgery, when suddenly he lost his job and health insurance. Walking with great pain and the help of two canes, he managed to find another job, but remained uninsured. He’d been a Church Health Center patient 12 years ago and once again turned to the Center for care.

“It was a tough transition for me,” Chris says.

“I’d lost hope I was going to get the care I needed, and if it hadn’t been for the Church Health Center, I might not have made it.”

Church Health Center Medical Director Dr. David Jennings referred him to Dr. Greg DaBov, head of orthopedics at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis (The Med), and Chris was quickly scheduled for surgery. Today, Chris’ confident stride and wide smile have returned. He once again has the firm handshake and swagger of a salesman. “Now I don’t even limp,” he says proudly. “I walk around like a regular guy.”

It would be easy to see Chris’ recovery as simply a great story of his receiving care for his broken body. But the Church Health Center cares not just for the body, but the spirit as well.

“When you’re in horrible pain and have nowhere to turn, it can be a hopeless, depressing situation,” says Chris, who has also seen Church Health Center Pastoral Counselor Ron McDonald as part of his healing journey. “The Church Health Center’s counseling services are as outstanding as its medical and dental services. The Church Health Center truly cares for the body, mind and soul.”

Now in charge of a community garden and driving horse-drawn carriages in downtown Memphis, Chris also volunteers his time to serve others in need. “For working people in this city, there’s no greater resource than the Church Health Center,” he says. “I’ve used just about every service the Church Health Center provides, and I couldn’t have asked for better care. I don’t know where I would be without the Church Health Center. The Church Health Center stepped in to help me when no one else would.”

Our walking programs set spiritual growth in motion

Different formats offer something for a variety of congregational needs
By Marvin Stockwell

Jesus and other figures from the Bible walked, a lot. They talked with others, took action and then they set out to walk somewhere else.

Walking is so basic to the way God designed us, and it can serve many purposes besides just getting from point A to point B. We can walk alone to contemplate and pray, or we can take a walk with a friend and have a heart-to-heart conversation. The beauty of walking is that it can serve all these purposes and it can help keep us healthy!

To make the most of this synergy, the Church Health Center has developed several walking programs for congregations, and we hope you and your congregation will step forward and join the thousands who are already taking healthy new strides.

You can choose from two six-week walking journals – Walking with Jesus and Walking with Abraham and Sarah. You get a pedometer and a mediation journal, which includes scriptures, meditations, health tips and a map showing the travel route of Jesus and other biblical figures. The program is designed to help you meet the following daily goals: Walk an extra 2,000 steps (about a mile), trim 100 calories out of their diets (about half a can of soda) and consume three low-fat dairy servings.

Six weeks is a good start, but if you want to keep moving, our Walk & Talk program is designed for congregations that want a year-long walking Bible study. Each month has a different theme and each weekly walk as a group takes up questions about that theme. Each congregation is different and has different needs, so Walk & Talk was designed with this in mind. You can easily tailor the program to take up the topics that best fit your needs.

Why focus on walking?

“It’s the simplest form of exercise, most people can do, it doesn’t require special equipment and it follows the model of scripture,” said Rev. Stacy Smith, who leads curriculum development efforts at the Center. “The disciples moved to go preach the Gospel. We wouldn’t know the scriptures if the disciples didn’t move.”

There are also devotional walking guides on Chreader.org, the Church Health Center’s faith-and-health site, such as Walking to the Cross, a Lenten devotional, and Praying through Advent, which are developed by our Faith Community Outreach Director Butch Odom. These devotionals have generated a lot of traffic for the site, in part, because they are linked to Textweek.com, a popular site for many preachers and other faith community leaders.

“Every time Jesus sends out the disciples he charges them to preach, teach and heal. TheChurchHealthCenter helps congregations answer this call to discipleship,” Odom said. “Our walking programs offer ways to combine spiritual growth within a context of exercise and movement.”

Odom recently started wearing a pedometer as a way to challenge him to walk more. He found that he looked forward to walking his dog as a way to increase his number of steps. So far, he’s lost about 10 pounds just by adding a regular walking routine to his life.

“We’re working to take all that the Church Health Center does and make it relevant to congregations,” Smith said. “What has been tested and proven to be effective, we want to make accessible for use in congregations nationwide.”

For more information about our walking programs, call our Faith Community Outreach office at (901) 261-8833 or e-mail fco@churchhealthcenter.org.

Water and the Spirit

By Susan Palwick

Part of my self-care regimen for depression, and also for a slightly unhappy back, is almost daily exercise. I usually manage to get to the gym six days a week; on the day I don’t go to the gym, I’m on my feet for four hours, volunteering at the hospital. Because I’ve always been slow and uncoordinated, I wouldn’t describe myself as athletic, but I have gotten to the point where I’m reasonably fit.

I alternate walking – since weight-bearing exercise helps prevent the osteoporosis for which I’m at risk – and lap swimming. Both activities are also prayer disciplines for me. For years now, I’ve had a set of mantras that I say to myself in three-three waltz time, matching the tempo of my steps or strokes. The mantras have changed somewhat over the years. I currently use a set of eight.

“God is good/light, life, love/I am a/child of God.”

“Come, Holy/Spirit come/Holy life/work through me.”

“Turn my fear/into faith./Turn my pain/into praise.”

“Turn my grief/into grace./Thank you, God/for all good.”

“Help me help/all you love,/you who love/all that lives.”

“Help me dis/cern your will/help me walk/in your ways.”

“Loving God/make me an/instrument/of your peace.”

“Make me more/loving, God/let me walk/in your peace.”

These phrases have become so automatic that it takes effort for me to swim or walk without saying them. They transform my workouts into a kinetic rosary. I repeat each phrase for five minutes: long enough to bring whatever present situation it evokes into full consciousness, but not long enough for it to become boring. The mantras keep the workouts from becoming dull, and the physical effort required by the exercise keeps my mind from wandering away from the mantras. The three-beat pattern keeps the entire process balanced, ensuring that the stress of each phrase falls on alternating steps or strokes.

When I walk – outdoors, or on a treadmill or elliptical at the gym – I often imagine that I’m a pilgrim toiling up a mountain, an effect heightened by my hilly neighborhood and by the steep incline I set on the treadmill. Walking is my second-choice activity, though, because there are so many distractions: friendly dogs and their equally friendly owners outside, people I know stopping by at the gym to say hi, and the wall of television screens, each set to a different channel, on the exercise floor.

In the pool, I’m completely immersed, both physically and mentally. I find swimming more automatically calming and centering than any other activity, with the possible exception of knitting. (If it were possible to knit while swimming, I’d surely achieve instant transcendence.) I’ve always loved water, especially the ocean.

I have fond memories oflong beachwalks in Montauk,New York; of snorkeling with sea turtles in Maui; of watching the sun set over the Pacific fromOceanBeachinSan Francisco. The ocean – with its depths and currents, beauties and terrors, shallows and depths – has always awakened in me a visceral sense of the presence of God.

A swimming pool, especially when it’s crowded with fellow lap swimmers and watercise classes, is a far cry from the ocean, of course. But even in this confined space, the feel of the water flowing over my body reconnects me to my love for wider, wilder water, and for its Creator. The patterns of sunlight dancing across the bottom of the pool remind me of the suntracks I’ve seen glittering across Long Island Sound andPyramidLake, Molokini and theMississippiGulf.

In 1988, I attended the World Fantasy Convention (an annual gathering of writers and readers of fantasy and horror literature) inLondon. After the convention, I took the train up toEdinburgh,Scotland, where I stayed for a week, the grateful guest of renowned author Jane Yolen and her husband. Jane and David both had work to do, so every day, I set off happily by myself to explore the city.

On one of these rambles, I walked the Royal Mile, which ends atEdinburghCastle. The walk took me along narrow streets bordered by buildings: it was a fascinating journey, but an enclosed one. When I emerged into the parking lot of the Castle, I found myself looking over a low wall at a far expanse, and my eyes filled with tears without my knowing why.

When I blinked away the tears, I looked into the distance and saw sunlight glittering on the Firth of Forth. My body had responded automatically, instinctively, to that vision, even before I consciously understood what I was seeing. Almost twenty years later, I still think of that moment whenever I swim, whenever I repeat the phrase, “Thank you God/for all good.”

Sit and Knit group delivers therapy and comfort

By Natalie Martin

Cindy joined the Sit and Knit group at Church Health Center Wellness more than four years ago. Soon after, she became a leader of the group, stepping in when Faith Community Relations Coordinator Sunny Ross wasn’t available for meetings. “She blended in with the spirit of the Church Health Center like a duck takes to water,” Sunny said. “God was calling to her to do this.”

Cindy attended meetings religiously, never missing one until her son passed away from a long battle with cancer. Sunny remembers Cindy saying, “you are my therapy,” about the group, which had grown very close after spending so many Monday mornings together knitting, crocheting and praying. Cindy has no medical background to link her to the Center, but she still identifies with the people and the mission. “We call her our angel,” Sunny said. Cindy often asked, “Where will they go if not for the Church Health Center?”

After Cindy’s 49-year-old son died, the group sent a sympathy card, but they wanted to do more for Cindy and her family. They decided to pull their resources together and purchase a rosebush for the Meditation Garden located outside of Church Health Center Wellness. After some help from one of our Master Gardeners, there is now a beautiful rosebush planted in the garden that honors the memory of Cindy’s son.

Sit and Knit was started six years ago by an intern, who originally called the group Unfinished Projects. It was designed for anyone to come and work on their unfinished craft projects in community with others. They met each week and worked on their projects in our Child Life area, sitting on child-sized chairs. After two semesters of running the group, the intern returned to school and the Unfinished Projects group decided to form Sit and Knit. “We had graduated too,” said Sunny. “We needed bigger chairs!” Over the years, the group has grown from the eight original members to 25 members that meet every week.

In the beginning, Sunny lead the group, but it soon became overwhelming with her busy schedule. Her work with the Center takes her outside of the office visiting congregations and churches throughout Memphis, making it difficult for her to meet on Mondays. Thankfully, Cindy stepped up to lead when Sunny wasn’t available, allowing the group to never miss a meeting.

“It’s a blessing to be facilitating this,” Sunny said. “We enrich each others lives”.

The members of Sit and Knit create an average of three prayer shawls a week to be donated to those in need of prayer. They don’t have group funds, so the members rely on donations of yarn, patterns, needles and crochet hooks. While most of the members knit, there are a few crocheters in the group as well. “Their shawls sometimes look like Joseph’s Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat of many colors,” said Sunny.

For the members of the group, it’s not about using expensive yarn or perfectly matching colors, it’s about the prayers that go into each stitch as they’re knitted.

People request prayer shawls frequently, and the group gives without hesitation. Each shawl is prayed over and given with a prayer attached to it for the recipient. The members pray as they knit and they all come together to lay hands on each prayer shawl before it is given away. The members range in ages and some have arthritis or vision problems, but they are all dedicated to their craft. “No human could have done this, this is God’s hand that works with us,” said Sunny. “We know each others pain as much as their joy.”

When the group began, 90 percent of the members weren’t knitters, according to Sunny. But now working together over time they’ve become “dynamite knitters” creating more than just prayer shawls. Aside from their regular projects, the members have also created squares for Haiti quilts, caps for MIFA and LeBonheur, and scarves and hats for the homeless.

Churches large and small have their own knitting ministries that Sit and Knit has connected with, and staff members of the Church Health Center have also joined in by donating and knitting.

Center needs more space to meet growing need for subspecialty care

The Church Health Center needs to grow, but not just because more people are seeking our care.

We also have more and more subspecialists volunteering to see patients at our clinic. That’s a very good thing, and we need even more volunteers, but we are running out of exam rooms for them to use!

Moving our dental clinic a few blocks away to 266 N. Cleveland Ave. will help – 17 exam rooms will become 27 – but it’s only a stop-gap solution.

“We need to grow, and this reconfiguration will help,” said Assistant Director of Integrated Health Jenny Bartlett-Prescott. “But it will fall short of preparing us for what we ultimately envision is possible.”

Many of our subspecialist volunteers see patients in their own offices, so there is no impact on our physical capacity. But when an offsite volunteer retires, many of them want to continue volunteering but no longer have an office or support staff. Volunteering on site is the only option.

Currently we have 30 subspecialty clinics operating at the Church Health Center– cardiology, gynecology, dermatology, gastroenterology and others – and there is a waiting list for almost all of them.

“Depending on the specialty, the wait can be two to four months to see an onsite specialist,” Bartlett-Prescott said. “We are literally to a point where if a volunteer wanted to come see patients on Tuesdays, we’d have to say ‘I’m sorry, we don’t have a place for you.’ ”

And as much as it is about space, it’s also about maximizing efficiency by optimizing workflow. A doctor can see more patients if he or she can work out of at least three exam rooms. Nurses check patients in and out of two exam rooms allowing the doctor to move more quickly from one patient to the next.

In a recent one-month period, there were 60 instances of a medical provider having to work out of two exam rooms instead of three.

“It reduces our productivity when we have to ask our providers to work out of two exam rooms,” Bartlett-Prescott said. “Some of our providers really need four exam rooms because they work so fast. We ask our own staff to make the sacrifice before we ask that of our volunteers, and we sometimes ask our own staff to take days off to accommodate subspecialist volunteers.”

Converting the clinic’s west wing from dental to medical will create an additional 10 exam rooms, but exactly how they will be configured has not been determined.

“What would be ideal is if we could dedicate several of our exam room to subspecialty care,” she said. “If we could specialize, then we could realize efficiencies that come from having a team dedicated to supporting our subspecialty volunteers.”

Beyond the fact that we simply need the space for more volunteers to meet the growing need, there are advantages to having primary care doctors and subspecialists working together.

“It allows the primary care doctor and subspecialist to consult as needed and carry out the plan for the patient’s care with fewer follow-ups,” Bartlett-Prescott said. “It provides better synergy, makes the best use of everyone’s time and saves money.”

Because of the way insurance works in a typical clinic setting, specialists are given monetary incentives to have the patient come back to them for the follow-up appointment instead of coordinating with the patients’ primary care doctors. In turn, the primary care doctor often gets cut out of the informational loop.

“In the specialist-consult model, the primary care doctor continues to manage the patient’s overall care,” Bartlett-Prescott said. “Care is coordinated, not fragmented, and it keeps primary care physicians and specialists doing what they do best.”

Church Health Center Director of Integrated Health Michaela Sturdivant said that with more space, we can accommodate more and more subspecialists and make the most of this type of coordinated care. In fact, if we can find the space, she said she envisions being much more proactive about recruiting subspecialists.

“In the future, we would like to recruit subspecialists who feel called to care for the population we serve to come to Memphis and work side by side our primary care doctors on a daily basis,” she said. “These would likely be people who have recently completed their residency or fellowship and feel called to the mission field or it might be someone who is well established in his or her practice who feels called to serve the population we serve.”

Sturdivant said beyond the space limitations, the Center is also working on a plan for educational loan reimbursement for those who have just completed their education.

Diabetics making measurable strides at the Church Health Center

BlueCross Healthy Living Grant helping Center document success of intervention.

The Church Health Center’s longtime focus on helping diabetics get healthier got a $238,000 boost recently from a BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Health Foundation grant, which allows the Center to document the efficacy of the intervention.

Almost 100 diabetics have signed up for the 18-month program, called the Diabetic Obesity Weight Loss Pilot Program, which consists of health coaching, diabetic education, counseling by dieticians, and exercise assessment and planning. Participation also includes access to Church Health Center Wellness, the Center’s Certified Medical Fitness Facility.

Center staff measures participants’ weight, hemoglobin A1C value (HBA1C), cholesterol, aerobic capacity, waist-hip circumference and body fat. Participants are also asked to report on their knowledge of diabetes, their exercise and eating habits and their quality of life.

“The primary goal for the participants is weight loss,” said Church Health Center Assistant Director of Integrated Health Jenny Bartlett-Prescott. “We want to identify the patient profile of those who are successful so we can see what works best.”

So far, the results are encouraging. Those participating in the program for six months have
experienced an average of 8.5 percent weight loss, a 9 percent improvement in HBA1C values, an 18 percent reduction in cholesterol and a 15 percent increase in aerobic capacity.

“Diabetes affects almost 12 percent of adults in Tennessee,” said Dr. Inga Himelright, vice
president and chief medical officer for BlueCross. “This chronic condition negatively impacts not just the individual but society at large. So, it’s encouraging to see programs like this one at the Church Health Center help diabetics live healthier and more productive lives.”

 

Attentive ears, giving hearts lead to everyday miracle

By Jeff Hulett

What do you remember most about being a kid? Most people think about playing outside with friends, eating ice cream and thinking life is easy.

For Church Health Center patient Katie Lipsey, she doesn’t remember life being easy at all. Instead, she remembers the pain of watching her parents get divorced, losing her father to renal-cell cancer and being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, which did not run in her family. All this before her 10^th birthday.

“After the shock of my parents’ divorce and losing my father to cancer, I found myself with this new medical problem I had to learn about and live with,” Katie said. “It’s not something a 9-year-old should have to go through, but those are the cards I was dealt.”

How do you tell a child they can’t enjoy candy on Halloween, or cake and ice cream at a birthday party? Worse still was Katie having to explain her disease to her classmates, who teased her endlessly.

“It wasn’t easy explaining why I had to have frequent shots, eat snacks often and sit out of P.E. class if I wasn’t feeling well,” said Katie. “Kids can be cruel when you’re different, so it was no surprise when my friends were hesitant to play with me for fear of catching my diabetes.”

Katie’s hardships didn’t stop there. She lost her mother in 2005 to a very preventable staff infection following heart-valve replacement surgery.

Over the years, she learned to manage her health and educate herself and others about every aspect of her diabetes. Katie, now 26, credits a lot of her diabetes education and training to Church Health Center volunteer diabetes educator B.J. Cline. In fact, Katie is even considering going into diabetes education as a career.

Living with diabetes is difficult, but there are tools that help make dealing with it easier. Insulin pumps are expensive, but they help manage blood glucose levels and deliver what is referred to as a bolus dose of rapid-acting insulin to help the body process a meal or snack.

Katie received the first of several insulin pumps at age 15 and grew to rely on them to help her maintain her diabetes. To her, having an insulin pump meant having freedom. “I hated taking needle shots, so to be able to leave them at home instead of sticking myself in public was a blessing, not to mention the freedom to eat and bolus at will was something I always wanted,” said Katie.

Last year, Katie’s insulin pump started acting up. At first, it wouldn’t allow her to change the batteries without setting off an alarm. Then, the buttons started sticking, which made it nearly impossible to give herself a bolus dose.

She called the company to see about getting a replacement, but her warranty had just expired. The company told her she could have a loaner pump, but it had to be returned in three months.

“There was a lot of red tape involved in applying for the loaner pump, and the stress of finding the money to pay for one or the thought of going back on needle therapy was enough to make me crazy,” Katie said. “I was depressed and on the brink of giving up.”

At the Church Health Center, we try our best not to let our patients leave with a problem they can’t solve, and we pride ourselves on being good listeners. RN Case Manager Jean Reed overheard Katie telling volunteer endocrinologist Dr. Sonia Guerra about her troubles, and she was filled with compassion. Jean had worked with Katie before, so she knew how much she depended on her insulin pump. Maybe, just maybe, we had one in storage that someone had donated, she thought.

“I asked a couple of Clinic Assistants to check our storage space across the street,” Jean said. “We welcome donations of any kind and, while I thought it was unlikely we would have one, it was worth a shot.”

Amazingly, they found a brand new insulin pump.

“It’s as if the planets aligned for her, and with God’s guidance, helped it all happen for her,” Jean said. “Plus, Katie did her part, making phone calls to the company and following up as instructed.”

Some people call it fate, and others call it luck. We at the Church Health Center call it God’s grace, and you don’t have to work here long to see it, or be a conduit for it.

A kind person thinks to donate an insulin pump. A staff member gets to know a patient’s story and looks for a way to be helpful. Then, a woman in need who hasn’t caught many breaks in life finally gets one when she needs it most.

“When I heard the good news, I felt the weight of the world come off of my shoulders,” Katie said. “That was the biggest feeling of relief and gratitude I’ve felt in a long time.”

“God won’t put something in front of you that you can’t get through, and I’m so thankful for the family of healthcare professionals who came together and made this miracle possible,” she said. “I would like to thank Jean Reed for listening to me and helping me, B.J. Cline for checking in on me, Dr. Guerra for managing my insulin pump orders, and all of the other folks who played a part in this. This is a true blessing, and I will be forever grateful.”

With your continued support, we will continue to care for people like Katie and help them get through life’s problems. We will continue to be a place where people listen and allow God’s everyday miracles to take place.

If you have any unused medical equipment that you would like to donate to help change someone’s life, please call (901) 272-7170 for more information.