Autism-friendly ER 3 Executive changes 7 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
JUNE 1, 2019 VOLUME 35, NUMBER 10
Providence invests to yield a lifetime of well-being for troubled children Mental health program provides therapy, case management, resources to children and families
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — It is rug time at the therapeutic preschool at the Child and Family Development Center. About a half dozen children gather in a semicircle around mental health rehabilitation specialist Denise Sweeney to talk about how they’re feeling today. They can select a “happy face,” “sad face” or “mad face” out of a stack of placards. “I’m feeling happy,” says one child as she retrieves a smiley face. “Why are you feeling happy?” asks Sweeney. “Because mommy came to see me today,” says the girl. Sweeney mirrors the girl’s joy, demonstrating emotional engagement and empathy for her young charges as she does so.
David Crane/©CHA
By JULIE MINDA
Jenon Lee, a therapeutic child specialist, works with Desiree Harrington in the Day Treatment Intensive Therapeutic Preschool program at Providence Saint John's Health Center’s Child and Family Development Center. The center in Santa Monica, Calif., provides behavioral health and mental health services to lowincome families who might otherwise be unable to access care.
One by one, the children share the reasons for the emotion that dominates their psyches this morning. All of the children have behavioral issues that can manifest in
emotional outbursts or extreme withdrawal. Sweeney helps the children to process complex emotions and experiences. In this exercise, called community meeting time, she
does so by simply modeling how to identify and speak about feelings. Many of the children who attend the therapeutic preschool or receive therapy at the center have experienced trauma and upheaval that has derailed their sense of safety and well-being. They may have witnessed or suffered violence at home. They may be living in a foster home or shelter. They may manifest their anxiety, frustration and powerlessness by lashing out or shutting down. They and their families have been referred to this center to receive intensive intervention, to heal from their trauma and begin a new trajectory. The Day Treatment Intensive Therapeutic Preschool is one of nearly a dozen programs and services offered for children and their families, and for adults at the Child and Family Development Center, which is part of Santa Monica’s Providence Saint John’s Health Center. The mental health facility’s focus is on children and parents in low-income families, including immigrant families. Continued on 4
Benedictine Health uses Bon Secours expands its volunteer ministry for recent college graduates virtual reality to build Participants plumb the empathy in those caring spiritual in themselves and for cognitively impaired in their chosen vocations By KATHLEEN NELSON
By KEN LEISER
Beatriz Rogers is a math teacher in her mid-60s whose mental acuity slowly gives way to Alzheimer’s disease — a neurodegenerative disease that afflicts about 5.5 million Americans. During a virtual reality lab that tracks her decline over 10 years, caregivers and others have a chance to experience her cognitive impairment. Employees of Benedictine Health System’s Saint Anne of Winona, Minn., and Madonna Living Community of Rochester, Minn., have completed the interactive training module that features the fictitious Beatriz. The module was created by Embodied Labs of Los Angeles. Dr. Neal Buddensiek, the chief medical officer of Benedictine Health in Shore– view, Minn., said the virtual reality offering is recognition that many nursing home residents live with some level of cognitive impairment or dementia and that its stafftraining content needed Buddensiek an upgrade to support compassionate, empathetic interactions with these patients. Training is offered to members of the interdisciplinary team — from “culinary to environmental services to the frontline care providers,” Buddensiek said. “A lot of it was on an e-learning platform,” Buddensiek said of the traditional staff training materials used by Benedictine Health. “It was a lot of lecture. It was a lot of PowerPoint presentations. It was a lot of Continued on 3
Chris Dethlefs graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in mathematics and an acceptance into medical school at the University of Nebraska. Rather than jump immediately back into studies, though, he committed to a year of faith-based service where he could focus on patients as people rather than diagnoses and explore healing as a vocation. “I wanted to work on the relational aspects of care, practicing empathy and compassion, before the stresses of medical school would consume my time,” he said. Dethlefs works with patients in a special unit of Bon Secours Richmond Community Hospital in the East End area of Richmond, Va. The unit cares for people whose conditions require them to spend a month or more in the hospital. He takes patients for
Chris Dethlefs plays bingo with a patient at Bon Secours Richmond Community Hospital in Richmond, Va. Dethlefs is using his time in the Bon Secours Volunteer Ministry program to work on the relational aspects of health care before beginning medical school.
walks, plays cards with them, talks a little and listens a lot. Dethlefs is one of five young adults who
are extending the mission and charism of the Sisters of Bon Secours in Richmond Continued on 6
CHRISTUS doctors get coached on how to connect with patients By PATRICIA CORRIGAN
When some accomplished physicians in the CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Health System of Tyler, Texas, repeatedly rated low in communication skills on patient satisfaction surveys, Dr. Scott Smith proposed a program designed to enhance those skills and improve patient service. “All of us were a little embarrassed,” recalled Smith, a senior vice presiSmith dent of CHRISTUS Trinity Clinic. The CHRISTUS Health-owned
specialty physician group practice is a notfor-profit organization. Its doctors work at CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital and in its medical offices in Northeast Texas. “I said let’s take our top communicators and teach them how to coach other physicians and advanced practice clinicians,” Smith said. Smith, who came to CHRISTUS Health four years ago, had faith in the coaching program, which he had observed in practice when he worked at Kaiser Permanente in Colorado. “Good communication skills provide a quality experience for patients and providers alike, and a good experience also is a quality indicator for better health out-
comes,” said Smith, who is also vice president of primary care and clinical operations for the CHRISTUS Health system. In 2015, CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital–Tyler initiated the coaching program; and, after a bumpy start, the results have been impressive. Last year, 82 doctors at the hospital received perfect scores from the agencies that track consumers’ assessments of satisfaction with their medical professionals. Before taking part in the program, Smith said, some of those doctors had ranked in the 50th percentile or below on their patient-rated communication skills. Continued on 6