Health Progress Current Issue

Summer 2024 | VOLUME 105, NUMBER 3

New Approaches to Mental Health Aim to Benefit Patients - Health Systems Rethink, Expand Services

ROBIN ROENKER

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Recognizing that whole-patient care hinges on the availability of services for both body and mind, many Catholic health care systems have directed renewed focus to their mental and behavioral health delivery — particularly since COVID-19.

10 Actions Hospitals Can Take to End Maternal Mortality in the U.S.

CHRISTINA GEBEL, MPH

The U.S. has a problem with maternal mortality, and it is not getting better. The trend has been even more alarming in recent years. According to CDC data, in 2021, the maternal mortality rate was 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, which was up from 23.8 in 2020 and 20.1 in 2019.

Striving for Spiritual Wholeness When Caring for Patients

SARAH A. NEELEY, PhD, STEPHEN MURRAY, MPS, MTS, and ANDY NAVARRO, MHCM, JD

As a Catholic health ministry, we are called to the sacred work of caring for those who are acutely sick, seriously injured or facing a significant life transition. These realities challenge, shape and potentially transform the spirituality of those receiving and providing care.

Pain Management Takes New Forms to Curb Opioid Epidemic

KELLY BILODEAU

When the patient arrived for her first palliative care appointment to address her chronic pain, she was hurting, angry and guarded, a mood that lingered through the first part of her session.

Prioritizing Relational Health to Address, Prevent Trauma

ERIN ARCHER, RN

What if we had a set of interventions that could reduce rates of depression, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heavy drinking and unemployment? They might already exist. Many clinical researchers argue that these tools are already being developed and used, and that some answers to these conditions lie in the prevention and treatment of trauma in our patients, workplaces and communities.

Lifestyle Medicine Takes an Expansive View of Well-Being

ABIGAIL McCLEERY, MPH, RDN, DipACLM, LISA McDOWELL, MS, RDN, DipACLM, and KELLY WILSON, RDN, DipACLM

Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan, creates groundbreaking programs that connect the medical facility with the community.

The Prime Meridian and the Resurrection: Charting a Path

TREVOR BONAT, MA, MS

I felt a profound sense of awe wash over me as I stood on the prime meridian at the Royal Observatory in the London borough of Greenwich while on a college trip for my daughter, Jane.

Striving for Spiritual Wholeness When Caring for Patients
SARAH A. NEELEY, PhD, STEPHEN MURRAY, MPS, MTS, and ANDY NAVARRO, MHCM, JD

As a Catholic health ministry, we are called to the sacred work of caring for those who are acutely sick, seriously injured or facing a significant life transition. These realities challenge, shape and potentially transform the spirituality of those receiving and providing care.
Pain Management Takes New Forms to Curb Opioid Epidemic
KELLY BILODEAU

When the patient arrived for her first palliative care appointment to address her chronic pain, she was hurting, angry and guarded, a mood that lingered through the first part of her session.
New Approaches to Mental Health Aim to Benefit Patients - Health Systems Rethink, Expand Services
ROBIN ROENKER

Recognizing that whole-patient care hinges on the availability of services for both body and mind, many Catholic health care systems have directed renewed focus to their mental and behavioral health delivery — particularly since COVID-19.
10 Actions Hospitals Can Take to End Maternal Mortality in the U.S.
CHRISTINA GEBEL, MPH

The U.S. has a problem with maternal mortality, and it is not getting better. The trend has been even more alarming in recent years. According to CDC data, in 2021, the maternal mortality rate was 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, which was up from 23.8 in 2020 and 20.1 in 2019.
Prioritizing Relational Health to Address, Prevent Trauma
ERIN ARCHER, RN

What if we had a set of interventions that could reduce rates of depression, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heavy drinking and unemployment? They might already exist. Many clinical researchers argue that these tools are already being developed and used, and that some answers to these conditions lie in the prevention and treatment of trauma in our patients, workplaces and communities.
Lifestyle Medicine Takes an Expansive View of Well-Being
ABIGAIL McCLEERY, MPH, RDN, DipACLM, LISA McDOWELL, MS, RDN, DipACLM, and KELLY WILSON, RDN, DipACLM

Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan, creates groundbreaking programs that connect the medical facility with the community.
The Prime Meridian and the Resurrection: Charting a Path
TREVOR BONAT, MA, MS

I felt a profound sense of awe wash over me as I stood on the prime meridian at the Royal Observatory in the London borough of Greenwich while on a college trip for my daughter, Jane.

FEATURES

Effective Catholic Health Care Sponsors Are Elders, Guides and Guardians

WILLIAM J. COX AND JOHN O. MUDD

Effective Catholic Health Care Sponsors are Elders, Guides and Guardia -1127x1417

Health care systems in the United States have leadership structures comprised of boards and management. Most Catholic health care systems are unique in that they include another layer of leadership called a "public juridic person" or, in common parlance, the "sponsors." This is the entity — established under the Church's Code of Canon Law — that has the ultimate responsibility for sponsoring a Catholic health system in the name of the Church.

Ethical Challenges to Neurological Criteria for Death

BRIAN M. KANE, PH.D.

When is a person dead? This question has significance in the Catholic understanding of organ transplants from donors, both living and dead, and to recipients, because it frames our Catholic approach to how to best care for all involved.