Chairperson’s Christmas message 2 Ministry’s holiday greetings 3-14
PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
DECEMBER 15, 2019
VOLUME 35, NUMBER 22
Saint Joseph Mercy Health makes cancer drug trials more accessible Harle Photography, courtesy of Agnesian HealthCare
By LISA EISENHAUER
Dr. Darold A. Treffert and Temple Grandin chat with the doctor’s puppet likeness during Grandin’s October visit to the Treffert Center in Fond du Lac, Wis. As part of its work, the center identifies and develops marketable talents of people with autism. Students in video production classes learn green screen techniques. The puppeteers are, at left, Treffert Center staffer Nathan Cuellar, and student Ben Hansen.
Treffert autism center hosts author Temple Grandin Her advice: To build a skilled workforce, welcome people who experience the world differently By JULIE MINDA
FOND DU LAC, Wis. — All around her, Temple Grandin sees mounting evidence that too few people SSM HEALTH are learning to build, plumb, weld, install electrical systems, write computer code or create art. Demand
for skilled craftspeople is outstripping supply. Grandin, arguably the country’s bestknown advocate for tapping the abilities of individuals with autism, says that people with cognitive abilities outside of the norm, could master skills that require mathematical ability or visual thinking, easing worker shortages. Grandin was in Fond du Lac Oct. 8 to give a presentation at the invitation of the Treffert Center, where the philosophy is to focus on ability rather than disability of individuals with autism, a path Grandin has
hewed to throughout her exceptionally creative and prolific career. The Treffert Center is a service of Agnesian HealthCare, a member of SSM Health. Diagnosed with autism as a toddler, she earned a doctorate in animal science. A professor at Colorado State University, she’s authored or co-authored dozens of books on the humane treatment of livestock and on the ways people with autism perceive the world and how they can achieve success. Her life story as depicted in HBO’s 2010 biopic,
Over the last 25 years, Saint Joseph Mercy Health System has developed a cancer research program that its TRINITY creators say nonacademic HEALTH hospitals across the country could use as a model to give their patients access to the latest cancer trials and experimental treatments. The system’s St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor hospital leads the Michigan Cancer Research Consortium. By tapping a combination of public and private resources, the hospital and its partner institutions in the consortium have helped thousands of patients enroll in cutting-edge research programs without leaving the communities where they live. Among the trials the hospitals in the consortium take part in are those that test the latest in immunotherapy and use genomic profiling to provide personalized treatments. “Places like St. Joe’s that are committed to this kind of research, help develop the breakthroughs for tomorrow, while offering hope for today, which is a very important thing for these patients,” says Dr. Phil Stella, medical direcStella tor of oncology at St. Joe’s (the system’s nickname) and the consortium’s lead investigator.
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Ascension hopes documentary on lives of children in poverty is ‘call to action’ By LISA EISENHAUER
The movie is stark, just like the lives of the children it depicts. The setting is their West Baltimore neighborhood, where streets and alleys are strewn with trash and the windows of many buildings are ASCENSION covered in plywood. Some scenes are filmed in black and white and some in color, but the color scenes seem mostly gray given the bleak surroundings. Even at only 8½ minutes, the movie, Inherit the Earth, packs a sobering and lingering punch. Robert Fish, senior director of ministry formation at Ascension Health, says that was intentional. The film is the first of a series to be used as part of the health system’s formation work.
A child rides his bicycle down a trash-strewn alley in a scene from Inherit the Earth, an 8½-minute documentary focused on children who live in a troubled section of West Baltimore. The movie was produced by Ascension as part of its formation work.
“I wanted to put some actual experiences of poverty in front of our health care leaders to deepen the sense of solidarity with those we serve,” he says. “To whatever extent that could accelerate action, all the better.” The documentary spotlights the lived experiences of five boys and girls, who talk about the weight of growing up in an environment where drugs and blight have scarred the landscape and the residents. Early on, the camera lingers on a street pole turned makeshift memorial with snow-covered stuffed animals attached. In one scene, two elementary school-age girls carry their bookbags into a tidy home with white siding and shutters. Inside, the Continued on 2