Neighborhood Survey

This summer we were gifted with the services of Jessica Speares (pictured painting a neighborhood face at our Block Party), a premedical student at Roberts Wesleyan College who gathered a team and conducted a health resources survey of leaders and residents in the neighborhood. She was delighted with the reception she received and the results she was able to gather.

In her report to the community on August 21st, Jessica reviewed the results of her study which revealed a need in our neighborhood for increased youth services, especially for teenagers, and easier access to counseling and referral services. We're going to be actively working with her and others to find some solutions this coming year.

Her full report is available as an online PowerPoint presentation as well as in a written outline. If you'd like to help, just give us a call!

Greetings from BT

BT writes from Jerusalem:

I recall well my first impressions when I moved to south Lebanon in 1984. It was devastated by years of warfare. By the time I left in 2000 the area was prospering with many improvements and new shops and homes. Although I did not see all of the reconstruction of Beirut, I had traveled throughout the country and saw the great efforts of Lebanon to recover from the years of civil war. I had to leave with the families of the former South Lebanese Army, allies of Israel, but it was with great sorrow as Marjayoun in south Lebanon had been my home for sixteen years and I left many friends behind. Since May 2000 I have been living in Israel, working on behalf of the Lebanese families who fled to Israel when the Israeli army withdrew from south Lebanon, but I have also followed news of Lebanon with great interest and fondly remember my friends, neighbours and all the people we served at the Marjayoun Dental Clinic.

Click here to read her full report.

MD Breakfast/Retreat

On Saturday morning, September 23, medical students and community physicians will be converging on Rochester from the Western NY region to kick off our first Upstate MCCF Retreat with a stimulating day of feasting, fellowship, and education. The day will start at 8:00 am with our Fall Christian Physicians Breakfast where Dr. Daniel Fountain, MD, MPH, will begin the first in a series of 5 informative and discussion-provoking sessions on the provocative topic:

"What's wrong with US health care and how can we fix it?"

Schedule

8:00 Registration and Breakfast (note early start)

9:00 Problems with the biomedical model and the US health care system

10:00 Restoring wholeness to medicine from both scientific and biblical perspectives

11:00 Wholistic approaches to common psychosocial problems

Noon: Lunch, Medical Student Gathering, and Discussion

1:30 How to do a personal and spiritual assessment

2:30 The logistics of forming a care giving team

3:30 Retreat ends

The Retreat will be hosted at The Meliora (Faculty Club) on the University of Rochester River Campus and includes lunch. We'll be wrapping up by mid-afternoon on Saturday to allow those participating to return to their full lives without undue interruption.

Physicians will be eligible to receive up to 5 hours of Category I CME credit for their participation in the Saturday sessions. This promises to be a wonderful time of spiritual nurture and growth and will be an ideal opportunity to welcome medical students to a regional fellowship of faith.

Cost? $50 for practicing providers and $25 for students for all sessions and meals. 5 CME credits are available for an additional $50 fee. You're warmly encouraged to participate in as many of the retreat events as your schedule will allow, so please mark your calendars and sign up now!

Expanding Spiritual Care

Those of you that are familiar with the medical care provided at Grace Family Medicine know how we integrate prayer into patient visits, believing that faith is an integral part of the recovery process. In some difficult cases a rekindling of faith may be the only real answer to the patient's symptoms. For the whole body to function properly there has to be a clear balance of all the systems that the Lord created, and if one of those systems is not functioning properly then illness is more likely to present itself. One of the most profound and least understood systems in the medical community is that of our spirit or spiritual nature. Very often there are things that influence our spirit that are undetectable with modern science and thus cannot be treated using the scientific method alone.

Dr. Fountain pioneered a similar vision to whole person medical care in Africa while Dr. Morehouse was pioneering the approach here in America. The two of them have connected, and their vision is to see "spiritual care-givers" planted in medical practices all over the country. His Branches is looking for a spiritually mature, Bible believing Christian person who is interested in working alongside our doctors to offer spiritual counsel and prayer to individuals with maladies that modern science alone can't treat.

Jesus was the Great Physician, and we believe that a team approach to medical care that includes this new position will enhance our ability to impact and influence the health of our community.

Whole Person Workshop

While in Rochester, Dr. Fountain will also be conducting a 3-day workshop on "Caring for the Whole Person" at Roberts Wesleyan College, September 25-27. Dr. Morehouse will be assisting him again this year. The course is open to pastors, counselors, students, and health professionals in our region and offers up to 21 hours of Category I CME credit for physicians who attend.

Dr. Fountain has authored numerous books in English and French on community health, primary health care, and care for the whole person and served as a missionary physician in Kenya for 35 years before returning to the States where he currently serves as the Director of the Center for Global Health at King College. Click here to view a PDF Brochure for the Workshop.