EDITOR’S NOTE

My sister Cathy just sent me an article from Chicago. It’s about red-winged blackbirds in flight near Lake Michigan barreling into joggers as the birds try to protect their nests. Several years ago, we visited the Lincoln Park Zoo, a place with birds with fancy names like blue-gray tanagers, blue-bellied rollers and the like. We saw a small group of people in the parking lot looking at a tree on the zoo grounds and laughing from time to time.

What are they looking at, we wondered? Turns out it was a red-winged blackbird that was swooping down on unsuspecting visitors, pecking them on their heads and flying back to its nest. How funny, I thought, that this bird is upstaging all the animals and birds that are actually part of the zoo’s collection. We walked the zoo some more with other family members, rounded a bend, walked past a tree, when — PECK! — that bird launched at me from behind, tapped me on my head and flew away again. I wasn’t hurt, and we were in hysterics. As were those spectators still in the parking lot.

If there’s one thing I haven’t had much of during this pandemic, it’s those unexpected moments with family. My hope for us as more people get vaccinated against COVID-19 is that we have more of the time we used to take for granted, more of the moments that aren’t occasions, but do become memories.

As we worked to put together this issue of Health Progress about families and the pandemic, we thought about all that has changed in the past year and a half. The articles take up a number of ways that our families are linked to our physical, emotional and spiritual health. They detail how to better safeguard and ensure the health of family members, from prenatal and maternal care through old age. They explore challenges that come from caring for family members with mental and physical disabilities. They consider how we can ensure patients have opportunities to be with their loved ones in health care settings whenever possible.

Authors look at how much has changed in education and what that may mean for our schools and the social supports they provide. Many arti-

cles consider health disparities, the gaps that previously existed but have been highlighted by the pandemic. The articles delve into the importance of grounding our work by always thinking about what we can do for our most vulnerable brothers and sisters, both domestically and globally. And the writers talk about our church and health care BETSY ministry families, those who think deeply and speak from a place of faith as we work toward sysTAYLOR tems of care that better serve patients, their loved ones and one another. While I have been at the Catholic Health Association since 2013, this is my inaugural issue as editor of Health Progress. I’ve always been a firm believer that it’s right and good to ask questions and to be OK with not having all the answers. I hope Health Progress readers will continue to see this publication as a forum for sharing ideas, inspiration, challenges, expertise, queries and lessons of faith. I believe every publication is as good as its contributors, so please feel free to contact me, especially if your health care environment is doing work that may spark improvements or change for other individuals, facilities or systems. Throughout the pandemic, we at CHA have spoken to and listened to our membership, trying to gauge what was most needed from us and to match people to new articles, resources or other members who may be of assistance. I’m mindful that people are having very different experiences during this pandemic, and that many of our readers work daily to save the lives of those sick with COVID-19. Thank you. We appreciate you. And my hope is that you have time with your own families. Just keep an eye out for those blackbirds.

The editor thanks Mary Ann Steiner, Kathleen Nelson and Karyn Williams for their work on this issue.

HEALTH PROGRESS®

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EDITOR BETSY TAYLOR btaylor@chausa.org

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2021 AWARDS FOR 2020 COVERAGE

Catholic Press Awards: Best National Magazine, First Place; Best Special Issue, First Place; Best Layout – Scholarly Magazine, Second and Third Place; Best Color Cover, First Place; Best Column – General Commentary, Second Place; Best Pandemic Coverage, Third Place; Best Essay – Professional and Special Interest Magazine, First and Third Place, Two Honorable Mentions; Best Feature Article, First, Second and Third Place; Best Feature Article on the Election, Second Place; Best Feature Article on Racial Inequities, First and Second Place; Best Writing Analysis, Second Place and Honorable Mention; Best Reporting on Social Justice Issues on Option for the Poor and Vulnerable, First Place and Honorable Mention; Best Reporting on Rights of Workers, First Place and Honorable Mention; Best Title and Lead-In, Third Place. Association Media and Publications EXCEL: Feature Article, Gold; Feature Article Design, Silver.

Produced in USA. Health Progress ISSN 0882-1577. Summer 2021 (Vol. 102, No. 3).

Copyright © by The Catholic Health Association of the United States. Published quarterly by The Catholic Health Association of the United States, 4455 Woodson Road, St. Louis, MO 63134-3797. Periodicals postage paid at St. Louis, MO, and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices per year: CHA members, free; nonmembers, $29; foreign, $29; single copies, $10. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Health Progress, The Catholic Health Association of the United States, 4455 Woodson Road, St. Louis, MO 63134-3797. EDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Kathleen Benton, DrPH, president and CEO, Hospice Savannah, Inc., Savannah, Georgia Sr. Rosemary Donley, SC, PhD, professor of nursing, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh Fr. Joseph J. Driscoll, DMin, director of ministry formation and organizational spirituality, Holy Redeemer Health System, Meadowbrook, Pennsylvania Marian Jennings, MBA, president, M. Jennings Consulting, Inc., Malvern, Pennsylvania Tracy Neary, regional vice president, mission integration, St. Vincent Healthcare, Billings, Montana Sr. Kathleen M. Popko, SP, PhD, president, Sisters of Providence, Holyoke, Massachusetts Laura Richter, MDiv, system senior director, mission integration, SSM Health, St. Louis Gabriela Robles, MBA, MAHCM, vice president, community partnerships, Providence St. Joseph Health, Irvine, California Michael Romano, national director, media relations, CommonSpirit Health, Englewood, Colorado Linda Root, RN, MAHCM, chief mission integration officer, Ascension Michigan, Warren, Michigan Fred Rottnek, MD, MAHCM, director of community medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis Becky Urbanski, EdD, senior vice president, mission integration and marketing, Benedictine Health System, Duluth, Minnesota

CHA EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS

ADVOCACY AND PUBLIC POLICY: Lisa Smith, MPA COMMUNITY BENEFIT: Julie Trocchio, BSN, MS CONTINUUM OF CARE AND AGING SERVICES:

Julie Trocchio, BSN, MS

ETHICS: Nathaniel Blanton Hibner, PhD;

Brian Kane, PhD

FINANCE: Loren Chandler, CPA, MBA, FACHE INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH: Bruce Compton LEADERSHIP AND MINISTRY DEVELOPMENT:

Brian P. Smith, MS, MA, MDiv

LEGAL: Catherine A. Hurley, JD MINISTRY FORMATION: Diarmuid Rooney, MSPsych,

MTS, DSocAdmin

MISSION INTEGRATION: Dennis Gonzales, PhD THEOLOGY AND SPONSORSHIP: Fr. Charles Bouchard,

OP, STD

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