After Katrina, a New Vision for Health Care

The morning before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, my youngest son Jeff and I packed our family's most precious possessions in our Toyota 4-Runner and along with our dog Corky joined the exodus of thousands of people to safer ground. As the platoon of cars crossed the Mississippi border, I approached an overpass on which a sheet was hung saying "God bless you on your journey." With a lump in my throat and a heavy heart, I drove to Memphis to the safety of my family living there.

Upon receiving news of damage to my son's school, our home, and our neighborhood in suburban New Orleans, we decided to spend the fall school semester in Memphis. We were among 45,000 evacuees who experienced an outporing of kindness and generosity from the Memphis community. Answering a call for volunteers and being a community health nurse, I was assigned to work at the Church Health Center in Memphis. Founded twenty years ago by Dr. G. Scott Morris, a physician and minister, its mission is "to reclaim the Church's biblical commitment to care for our bodies and our spirits." It was built and continues to be supported by the faith, business and health communities.

The clinic helps the working uninsured and their families. Its waiting and exam rooms were filled from early morning until 9 at night with people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds. I was taking calls from patients and offering instructions on maintaining health and managing chronic illnesses. It was gratifying to be working with devoted health professionals meeting the needs of hard-working people struggling to support themselves and their families. From the construction worker with diabetes, to the college student with a broken arm, to the office worker needing a breast biopsy, all patients were treated with dignity and respect and with concern for their spiritual, emotional and physical well-being.

In retrospect it was perhaps prophetic that during my stay I was given the opportunity to attend one of the Center's quarterly replication workshops which train people from across the country how to found a faith based health center like the Church Health Center.

When I returned to New Orleans, I saw a devastated city. I visited a close friend who was in the process of ridding his childhood home of the mold- and dirt-covered family heirlooms and possessions accumulated over a thirty-year marriage. Nearly delirious, red faced and sweating profusely in the heat and humidity, he expressed delight in having recovered his wife's rosary beads behind the headboard of their crumbling bed. I felt empty and powerless to relieve his pain. All I could think was why were so many people affected by the devastation and yet I was spared?

I thought back on a lifetime of admiration I have had for the work of Dr. Tom Dooley, the medical missionary in southeast Asia, who worked with CARE/Medico. He used his gifts to impact the health of many. I then knew in my heart that I was one of the people charged with lifting up those who were suffering such hardship.

I began to look at this time in New Orleans' history as an opportunity to begin health care anew and introduce the innovative faith based health care delivery program I had seen in Memphis. As with the Church Health Center, it would provide working uninsured with a medical home and continuity of care as well as offer them the educational tools and support to help them to be responsible for their own health and that of their family members. These were and continue to be the people who are helping to re-build the city, including small business owners and their employees, hotel and restaurant staff, domestics, construction workers, students and entrepreneurs Kaiser-Permanente

With the support of Catholic Charities leadership, two years ago we applied for and subsequently received a Baptist Community Ministries planning grant to develop what is now known as New Orleans Faith Health Alliance (NOFHA). Since that time we continue to be "blessed on our journey" as this God-driven effort evolves and develops local and national support including funding from Catholic Charities USA and Kaiser-Permanente . We anticipate the center opening early next year. As New Orleans continues to deal with the aftermath of the worst natural disaster to strike this country, this program will play an important role in the restoration and new beginning of the city.

Janet DiLeo Wade is a nurse and health consultant for the New Orleans Faith Health Alliance.

By Janet DiLeo Wade |  August 21, 2008; 11:43 AM ET
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