Catholic Charities praised for linkage to health agencies

When Catholic Charities USA cites an example of Catholic Charities and healthcare agencies working together, they point to the Albany Diocese.

Since 1994, the Albany Diocesan Community Health Alliance (DCHA) has united Catholic hospitals, schools, parishes and Catholic Charities agencies to bring crucial services to people who need them.

That can mean anything from scheduling a home health aide to visit a discharged hospital patient to making sure a needy child starting kindergarten gets all her immunizations. (The DCHA's school/health care link was profiled in more detail in The Evangelist's May 22 issue.)

Linkages

The DCHA was created by Bishop Howard J. Hubbard. A steering committee of representatives from Catholic hospitals, schools, parishes and Charities agencies meets four times a year to discuss how they can collaborate.

Sister Maureen Joyce, RSM, executive director of diocesan Catholic Charities, recalled Catholic hospital representatives being initially surprised to learn of the wide range of services Catholic Charities offers.

For example, St. Peter's Hospital in Albany found they could use Charities' language interpreters to translate for Russian employees who needed help with English. Other St. Peter's employees with green cards had questions about immigration for Charities social workers, especially since the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. tightened immigration laws.

Meeting needs

Employees aren't the only ones who use the DCHA. For example, a patient coming home from the hospital might take advantage of Catholic Charities day care for her children while she's recovering at home. A new mother who can't afford proper nutrition can be matched up with someone from Community Maternity Services, a Catholic Charities agency, to get the food she needs.

Sister Maureen called the collaboration not so much extra work for Catholic Charities as relocating where the social workers serve. If Charities employees are connected with hospitals, she said, they can serve people in need before a crisis has arisen.

"Wouldn't it be better to see people early on?" she asked. "People bring their children for a pediatric checkup; why not have someone [from Charities] arrange for nutrition programs and daycare?"

To that end, Catholic Charities has placed satellite mental-health offices in places like St. Clare's Hospital in Schenectady. While hospitals serve clients in need of inpatient mental-health care, Catholic Charities can take on those who have less severe needs, like struggling to accept a serious health diagnosis.

Two-way street

The collaboration works both ways. When New York State began to require schools to have external heart defibrillators available at sporting events, for instance, Catholic school superintendent Sister Jane Herb, IHM, called Catholic hospitals for advice. The hospitals donated several defibrillators to high schools that needed them.

"Those kinds of stories wouldn't happen if we hadn't come together," Sister Maureen said of the DCHA.

To further the relationship between DCHA members, she noted that Catholic Charities has invited key leaders from Catholic hospitals to become members of its agencies' boards of directors. That way, when one member creates a new program or task force, the other learns about it quickly.

In Troy, that communication has helped Seton Health to link with Catholic Charities' Seton Family Resource Center, which offers daycare for needy children. The children often need immunizations, or medical and dental care, so the hospitals either come to the center or arrange for the children to go to clinics.

Relationships

"We are all about the healing and the mission," Sister Maureen said, referring to the DCHA's many members. "It sounds trite, but it's a matter of establishing relationships. If you know somebody, there's a lot more willingness to pick up the phone and say, `I've been thinking about doing this [new program].'"

She foresees even more collaboration in the future. Catholic Charities and Catholic health care in particular have been on "parallel roads," she said, and by converging, "the potential is limitless."

(Contact the DCHA through Catholic Charities at 453-6650.)

Examples of linkages

Sister Maureen Joyce listed several DCHA success stories:

* In Montgomery County, the principals of St. Mary/St. Alphonsus School in Glens Falls and St. Stanislaus School in Amsterdam got together with Catholic Charities representatives and the CEO of St. Mary's Hospital in Amsterdam. The result was education for students on issues like violence and self-esteem.

* In Albany, Little Flower Intergenerational Day Care is operated by Catholic Charities, but located at Teresian House Nursing Home. Residents of Teresian House read to the children, who also tour the building to interact with the elderly.

* At Mercy House, a crisis shelter for women in Albany, St. Peter's Hospital offered health screenings for residents. St. Peter's also linked with Catholic Charities to give physicals to counselors at Camp Scully, a Charities summer camp for needy children.

* Marie-Rose Manor in Delmar is one of several senior housing complexes where Catholic hospitals and Catholic Charities representatives are on-hand to answer residents' questions about healthcare bills and transitioning to a higher level of care. On the school end, students from St. Thomas School in Delmar also teach residents about computers.

* Through the New York State Department of Labor, Catholic Charities received a grant to help people transition from welfare to work. Sister Maureen said that many people coming off welfare with no work experience get entry-level jobs and thus are the first ones to lose those jobs when layoffs are necessary. Instead, Catholic Charities is training people to become nurses' aides or practical nurses -- and by completing the program, they're guaranteed a job at St. Peter's Hospital or any of three Catholic nursing homes. The new employees are also guaranteed day care for their children. (KB)

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