By Sandra Jordan
Health professionals gave examples and perspectives on how religion and health intertwine at the annual conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists, held recently in Atlanta.
Miriam Burnett, M.D., M.Div., M.P.H., is the connectional medical director of the African Methodist Episcopal Church worldwide. She is also president of Resource and Promotion Health Alliance Inc., which educates clergy and lay people on integrating health and religion.
Burnett discussed conducting research several years ago on the influence of African traditional beliefs and its influence on African American health practices today.
“A holistic concern of African Americans actually dates back to the African philosophy of wholeness and integration – social health, economic health, political health; educational health all undergirded by spiritual health in order to achieve physical and mental health,” Burnett explained. “Without ‘all of the village’ per se, being allied, there was no way that they felt you could have physical health.”
Burnett said that people who don’t have health insurance and have low self-esteem often feel like they are non-beings.
“People who don’t have self esteem feel that they can’t get control of any part of their life – to include their health,” Burnett explained. “In my practice, I could see that those with lower self esteem were the ones I had more problems with getting them to actually comply with whatever regimen we asked them to comply with.”
At Blue Skies Ministries in Marietta, Ga., the approach to ministering to children with cancer and their families is a one-week respite from the physical, financial and emotional difficulties to a retreat at the beach for hope and healing through spiritual renewal.
“We exist because we believe that a man named Jesus Christ walked the earth and taught us how to love and care for others and regardless of what you believe when you come and what you believe when you leave …we are here to serve you through your journey,” said Melinda Mayton, R.N., president and CEO at Blue Skies.
“We often tell them, we can’t change your journey when they get home, but for a week, we can walk beside them and take care of them. They don’t have to worry about cooking … cleaning … making beds, turning down their beds at night – and for a week, they can concentrate on being a family.”
The 12 families selected to attend are responsible for their own transportation but there is no cost for the actual retreat.
Primary care physician Monica W. Parker, M.D., assistant professor of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at Emory University’s School of Medicine, discussed health disparities and minority participation in clinical research studies. Parker is focusing on dementia evaluation and research for persons of color. She went to an African American church for an appointment to see the minister for permission to put information about her study in the church bulletin or to talk to the congregation about Emory’s Alzheimer’s disease Research Center.
“What I found was, depending upon whose door you knocked on, and if you didn’t get the right person to get the minister’s ear – you didn’t get an audience,” Parker said. “I subsequently learned to work not through the ministers, but the women’s ministries – the women’s service guilds within the church.”
She concedes that may upset some clergy, but this method has been effective for their research in the past two years.
“The Servettes guild of the First Congregation Church here in Atlanta, they have adopted the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and recruitment as one of their projects,” Parker said, adding the guild “took the time to call to people to put messages in their church bulletins, to get people to come out and hear about dementia; about healthful aging.”
As a result, Parker said Emory recruited people to come in and look at its normal aging studies.
A question was posed to the panel about how to overcome the “If I only believe hard enough, I’ll get well – I don’t have to seek any medical treatment” mindset among some ill congregants.
Burnett said she believes God called her to the practice of medicine.
“If I believe God called me to the practice of medicine, then therefore I have to believe that one of the mechanisms for healing has to come through that practice,” Burnett said. “There are multiple ways that God works and through multiple persons. “Where the healing comes from, I tell people all the time, ‘Don’t block your blessing.’”
Food served at church functions has typically not reflected a healthy eating lifestyle. One reporter asked if the food being served at the churches they are involved with have changed. All three panelists report at least some attempt at healthier foods served, sometimes alongside more typical fare and treats.
“I think one of the keys, though, is to find out who the key culture bearer is,” Burnett said.
A discussion developed about faith communities as health educators and why some clergy members are reluctant to openly talk about issues of sexuality and HIV/AIDS with their congregation.
“When you start talking about these topics, it’s the way you approach the people,” Parker said. “You have to be very sensitive to that. How many sex researchers go into a white church and start talking about HIV/AIDS?”
“Regardless of the topic, the clergy person either has to be comfortable enough with the topic – which means they have to be educated – and or comfortable enough to let someone else in their pulpit,” Burnett said.
Sandra Jordan is a health reporter at The St. Louis American.
