A Faith Community Nursing program launched last year by
Mercy Health – Springfield is breaking down barriers between medical and faith circles, giving local congregations the knowledge and resources to meet their health needs.
“The end goal, of course, is to bring health and healing to the community of Springfield,” says Tina LeFaive, the local Faith Community Nursing coordinator.
Faith Community Nursing is a specialty that focuses on the intentional care of the spirit, LeFaive says. In Springfield, that means establishing health ministries within faith centers that are designed to decrease health disparities by partnering with other institutions within the city.
“A lot of times, the faith community does not know what’s out there, or they’re leery,” she says.
The program aims to build trust between medical and faith groups. Faith Community nurses – or a health minister who also receives special training – work within their own congregation to help them receive the health services they need. The nurse or health minister is already someone who is in that community and knows its bylaws and people, she says.
Last year’s pilot program started with five churches, and it has now expanded to 11 communities. They include the Church of Jesus Family Worship Center, Clifton Avenue Church of God, Fellowship Christian Spring Hill, First Church of the Open Bible, My Church, St. John Missionary Baptist Church, and St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Joseph, St. Raphael and St. Teresa Catholic churches.
Faith communities that join the program complete a congregational assessment. They collect information – including the ethnicity, age, gender and education level of the population – in order to learn about their needs and concerns.
For example, a church with primarily black members may want to learn more about hypertension, because it is more prevalent within that community, LeFaive says. Other focuses within different faith communities have included prostate care, tobacco cessation, anti-vaping and more.
Faith Community nurses and health ministers also are meant to be a help to pastors who often are overworked, she says. Nurses and health ministers can, for example, visit congregants in the hospital. And when they return home, these nursing partners can help ensure they have the appropriate medication, food and follow-up appointments. In the process, they help prevent repeat visits to the hospital.
“It’s the intentional care of the spirit,” LeFaive says.
Tina Cotto has been a member of Clifton Avenue Church of God for almost 15 years and became a Faith Community health minister through the program. When LeFaive “shared her vision and her heart,” Cotto supported the mission.
Most of the members of her church are 50 years or older and are looking for information and support for seniors who are aging, she says.
Cotto, who is an addiction therapist at Mercy Health Reach Services, says the program empowers and encourages families, and it pulls back the curtain to show community members that they aren’t alone.
“I think this Faith Community Nursing can assist in tearing down the reluctancy that so many people have about getting checked up,” Cotto says.
While Faith Community Nursing isn’t unique to Springfield, the program here is special, LeFaive says. That is in part because the program here is actively enlisting faith communities to participate, as well as because of the program’s long-time support. The Mercy Health program is in partnership with the Clark County Combined Health District and, soon, The Nehemiah Foundation.
“I think that the difference is Mercy Health and the health department had this vision for a while now, and we’re just making it happen,” she says.
While different denominations have different beliefs, she sees the program connecting faith communities. They are unified in their knowledge that Jesus Christ wants health, healing and a caring spirit, she says.
“We can all agree on a holistic approach to health and healing. We can all go forward wanting to care for our fellow man in that way. But we don’t have to adopt other philosophies that come along with it,” she says.
Faith Community Nursing bridges the gap between medical professionals and faith communities, she says, and it uses the “gifts and talents that God has given” each congregation to build a trustworthy relationship and partnership.
“We are servants of our community, and we need to serve each church,” she says.