ITEMS of INTEREST

with contributions from Dean Kahn, Rebecca Mahoney, Shera Dalin

"A Midwest pastor's vission of holistic health lives on in Whatcom Country, [Washington], where more than 60 people are working through congregations to help resident with medical problems, while not forgetting their spiritual need The 'parish nurses' and 'health ministers' are trained through a program at St.Joseph Hospital.

" 'We want it grounded in a person's faith and belief system, because that's where a person's health begins,' said Donna Gustin, the hospital's parish nurse coordinator. The Rev. Granger Westberg, a pastor of the parish nurse movement in 1983. A clinically trained chaplain, Westberg once served on both the medical and thcological faculties at the University of Chicago.

"He decided the know-how of medicine needed to be balanced with the know-why of faith,so he developed the idea of parish nurse who would work through congregations. . . . Parish nurse and health ministers don't dress wounds and insert IV lines. they help in other ways, usually for free. They host blood drives, flu clinics, and blood pressure screenings. They offer classes, train volunteers, and organize support groups. They become health counselors to congregation members. They refer families to help in the community. They visit sick people. By training and inclination, they do their work on a personal, spiritual basis. . . don't care how much you know unless they know how much you care,' [Donna Gustin] said."

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