Yesterday evening, the Sozo Health Ministry was recognized at Leadership Evansville’s annual Celebration of Leadership. Sozo was the Project Award winner in the Health and Social Service category.
It is nice recognition for the work that the health ministry is doing at Patchwork with the leadership of Rev. John Rich, RN and with assistance from Mary Damm, RN. John and/or
Mary are at Patchwork every Monday morning from 9:00 am-Noon to speak with anyone who decides to stop by, to answer medical questions, to dispense basic medical supplies and over-the-counter medications, and to check blood pressures. Additionally, John spends much of the rest of the week transporting people to various appointments and advocating for patients during these appointments.
To get an idea of the impact, you can look at the numbers served so far in the first two months of 2016:
- Total Health Encounters: 83
- Transportation: 24
- Blood Pressure Checks: 34
- Administering/dispensing medical supplies: 10
You can also get a sense of the impact from these recent stories:
- In addition to caring for his clients’ physical well being, John offers spiritual counsel and healing. In one case, a client talked with John at length about her health issues. She had physical/medical issues, mental health issues, relationship issues, and
spiritual issues. All of these issues were interconnected. John gave nursing advice, offered bandages for a wound and cold medicine for her sniffles. But he also provided pastoral care and prayed with her. At the last minute, John felt moved to perform an anointing, an ancient spiritual healing ritual. Later, both John and the client said to each other that they felt a tingling during the ritual and a strong sense of peace. They both agreed that the Spirit was moving in that anointing. - John is working with a client who sees multiple specialists. One specialist wanted to prescribe a medication, but the computer flagged the medicine because it has a potential to interact with a medication prescribed by a different specialist. If this first medication were not an option for the client, the next step would be an invasive procedure. John was able to facilitate communication between the specialists. They discovered that if the dosages were adjusted, both medicines could be given to the patient safely and effectively. Without John’s advocacy, this patient may have had to undergo an unnecessarily risky procedure.