The Sozo Health Ministry is in the midst of a lot of new things. In the past few months, we’ve begun several new collaborations and we’ve hired a second staff person to help John Rich manage the program. Katie Loehrlein joins John as the Associate Health Minister and the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Specialist.
Katie has spent the last few weeks becoming familiar with the morning programming at Patchwork, meeting our regular guests, helping John organize supplies, planning salves and balms to offer our guests, and providing foot soaks to help weary feet feel better.
Katie had this reflection after her first weeks at Patchwork:
I had never given a foot soak before I gave one to one of our guests. One woman volunteered to let me warm up some water, add some Epsom salts, and soak her feet. She soaked her feet for about 15 minutes and then I massaged her feet with foot cream. Her heels were cracked from walking everywhere. Recently she walked from her home near Patchwork to the Eastland Mall! She said she was bored and so she decided to walk. Thankfully, some of her friends bought her two new pairs of shoes. I massaged her worn out ankles, feet, and toes. She said I was too gentle, so I applied more pressure, but then she started to feel ticklish. We laughed together, and she told me a little about her life, like where she grew up. It was a pleasurable time getting to know this long-standing guest of Patchwork. My favorite thing about all of it was after I put her socks on and wished her a great day, I realized I love what services I get to provide to our community, feeling fulfilled by the care I get to share with others at Patchwork.
In addition to the foot soaks, we’re also thankful that Nurse Practitioner Jane Kratochvil is now volunteering with us and has started offering additional foot care to our clients on Thursday mornings. Many of our clients experience foot problems for various reasons (diabetes, constant walking, inadequate footwear, etc.) and it is wonderful to have a nurse practitioner with us on a regular basis who can provide nursing care for these problems.
Other recent Sozo collaborations include:
- The Deaconess Family Medicine Residency Program is sending its residents out to gain experience with multiple community nonprofit organizations, and Patchwork’s Sozo Health Ministry is one of their sites.
- Due to the recent outbreak of syphilis in our community, the Sozo Health Ministry partnered with the Vanderburgh County Health Department to be a site for syphilis testing and treatment.
- We conducted our “First Fridays with Patchwork” at the Central Library in November and December of 2021, though now the service has been temporarily suspended while local covid spread is very high. This collaboration was nominated for a 2021 Leadership Everyone “Celebration of Leadership” award.
- John presented to USI Nurse Practitioner Residents on the topic of “Health Care for Homeless and Marginalized Populations.”
- USI Nutrition students will be making educational hand-outs on pertinent nutrition topics for participants in Patchwork’s Arts & Smarts, Food Pantry, and Sozo Health Ministry programs.