Partners in Faith and Health: Advocate Trinity Hospital

As a non-native Chicago dweller, I have noticed that the heart of Chicago lies in both its fight and bite.  This was materialized during the early part of the 2016 Presidential campaign when a controversial candidate cancelled his rally after his supporters and local protestors clashed.  Chicago is a town full of duality just like the old concept of Yin and Yang.  This symbol shows light and dark halves of a circle that actually complement each other.  The neighborhoods of Chicago place an importance on supporting public health resources, but the way they do so differs when you travel through neighborhoods on the North versus the South Side. 

When one drives through the North and West Sides of Chicago, you will see many non-profit entities that address public health issues.  Cooking Matters, Chicago Cares, and Respiratory Health Association are among a few of these non-profit organizations.  However, when one drives throughout the South Side of Chicago and the Southern suburbs, churches and faith-based organizations by far outnumber the non-profit public health organizations.  Why is that?  The truth is, I don't know, but I do understand that many churches on the South Side take on roles that non-profit organizations would hold in other areas.  Churches on the South Side provide housing assistance services, partner with nonprofits to coordinate re-entry programs, facilitate job training workshops, and even provide child care services.  Faith-based congregations on the South Side do a tremendous work at addressing the needs of the community.  These services are often needed due to the lack of nonprofits in the area. 

Advocate Trinity Hospital has acknowledged the bridge that churches provide between community needs and health care services.  Advocate Trinity partners with many faith based organizations to host health education events with the hope of reducing health disparities on the Southeast side.  It created the Partners for Faith and Health Network to take an active role in assisting religious institutes to strengthen and develop their health ministries.  My role as a Community Liaison was created to provide support to this network to empower and help local churches and mosques to network and strengthen their communities by hosting health screenings at health fairs, develop community gardens and have increased access to health education given by medical experts. 

One thing I have learned during my year of service is that to be effective, public health relies on the efforts of more than one group of people.  Advocate Trinity relies on the community through the'Community Needs Assessment" to develop initiatives to heal systems in its service area.  This assessment is developed every five years with community partners to ensure that the hospital is meeting the health needs of the community.  In 2011, heart disease, cancer and stroke were the main causes of death in Trinity Hospital's service area.  Risk factor surveillance data from this study documented that obesity and non-daily fruit consumption placed individuals most at risk of developing heart disease. Therefore, Trinity Advocate Hospital prioritized heart disease, cancer and stroke the following year. It is important to reduce these diseases because their death rates in Trinity's service area are higher than those found in similar communities throughout Chicago. What better way to help heal a community than by utilizing the very members which live in that area.

This post was written by NHC Chicago member Shannan Hill.

Shannan serves as a Community Program Liaison at Advocate Trinity Hospital.