Spreading the hand of help to patients in need throughout North Carolina
By Les Gura
Rev. Dean Carter has offered pastoral care at Southeastern Regional Medical Center in Lumberton for some 20 years. He knows from experience that the health of patients involves far more than medical care, and is typically entwined with family, economic, social and behavioral issues.
Toward that end, Carter worked for several years to establish the Compassion for U: Congregational Wellness Network in Robeson County, which is one of the 10 poorest counties in North Carolina. The goal is to create a network of congregational volunteers to assist people from this diverse region who need help during their health care journey with issues such as transportation, food and spiritual support.
His work led to his being chosen as one of the first class of FaithHealth Fellows, those carrying on work of the FaithHealth movement across North Carolina.
Firsthand knowledge
Carter himself has seen firsthand how a medical crisis can affect individual and family. His wife, Angie, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012, and the couple learned recently that her cancer has recurred and is spreading.
“My wife is beginning to live with the knowledge that this is an incurable disease process,’’ Carter says. “But I don’t think you can find any stronger Christian person in your life.’’
Dean and Angie Carter met at Baptist College of Charleston, where they were music majors. Angie continues to play organ at Chestnut Street United Methodist Church in Lumberton, while Dean, in addition to his position as pastoral care coordinator at Southeastern Regional Medical Center alternates preaching Sunday services at Baptist and Presbyterian churches in the area.
Faith has always provided for the Carters on their own health journey, and Dean Carter believes it will be an integral part of the fledgling Compassion for U program, which is based on the “Memphis Model” of care that is the foundation of FaithHealth.
Building a network of support
With a population spread out in a rural area, transportation is a major challenge, Carter says. As he talks with faith congregations that he hopes will sign covenants to join Compassion for U, there’s a larger underlying message.
“Patients are flooding our emergency rooms. Southeastern Regional is the ninth busiest Emergency Department in the state, and that’s quite a claim considering the location and size of the community,’’ he says. “It’s because we’re ‘enculturated’ to come to the Emergency Department door first, as opposed to seeking out a primary care physician. Trying to change that culture is going to be a bit difficult.”
Still, he believes it’s an essential mission for 21st-century medicine to build a network of support outside the hospital to accomplish the broader goal of improved community health.
Not just educate, but persuade
He envisions a day down the road when the Compassion for U support network will include the medical center, state and county agencies, non-profits and congregational volunteers. All would be helping to take care of the broad needs of patients, and keep them from requiring a visit to the ED unless it is a true emergency.
This support network, he says, will not just educate, but persuade people throughout the community to buy into healthy living and avoid chronic health issues such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Carter participated in a seminar in Memphis put on by Teresa Cutts, now an assistant professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest Baptist. He says Cutts liked to ask: “What is faith for? Is faith what we say our crisis will be met with?”
“I tend to buy into that,’’ Carter says. “But maybe the bigger question is what faith is for in our lives; does it truly make a difference?
“I really think that economically, spiritually, financially, scientifically, faith can and will be shown to make a difference through Compassion for U and programs like it.”
FaithHealth Fellows
Besides Dean Carter, six other FaithHealth Fellows are agents of transformation in their local communities, addressing the social determinants of health to reduce health disparities and lower the cost of health care. As FaithHealth Fellows, they are deepening their skills and knowledge in serving as liaisons, navigators, translators and trusted collaborators between health systems, faith communities and the larger community. Read the story here.
