Santa Barbara is well known for its historic commitment to health care, and one aspect of that legacy can be credited to the St. Francis Parish Nursing Program.
Playing both an essential and complex role in maintaining the availability of health care in Santa Barbara, this team of Parish Nurses has made it its mission to serve the most vulnerable individuals in our community with great dedication and care.
St. Francis Hospital was founded in 1908 with the intention of providing quality health care to individuals throughout Santa Barbara, focusing much of its attention on those most in need.
Through the creation of the Parish Nursing Program, the Catholic hospital helped to develop a standard of care for homeless and low-income individuals that has served as a leading example for other local health-care organizations.
So, when St. Francis Hospital closed in 2003, Cottage Health partnered with the hospital’s accompanying foundation, the St. Francis Foundation of Santa Barbara, to continue supporting the invaluable services provided by the Parish Nurses.
In a recent Noozhawk interview, Herb Geary, Cottage Health’s vice president of patient care services, explained that, after St. Francis was closed, “Cottage hired almost all the staff from St. Francis, all the nurses, and a lot of the managers came over to Cottage at that time. And (the St. Francis Foundation) wanted to continue Parish Nursing so they have been funding it since 2003.”
Now, with a team of six Parish Nurses working alongside Cottage Health and other community nonprofit organizations, there continues to be increasingly more attention given to the unique and challenging health concerns faced by members of our community who otherwise may not have access to such care.
Geary also emphasized that Parish Nurses “do a lot of community work, linking well to efforts in population health” by participating in “health and wellness fairs, working with PathPoint (which helps nurses get into the group and individual homes of those who need daily medication for psychiatric conditions), having a presence at PATH,” while also providing a number of other invaluable services to local churches, Catholic Charities of Santa Barbara County and low-income senior housing programs.
“A huge part of their work is really with the homeless,” Geary said. “Parish Nurses participate in the Doctors Without Walls clinics, and in the evenings they participate in what we call a community case management event every Monday, when all the various shelters and case managers meet with Parish Nurses” to discuss the needs of specific homeless individuals to ensure that they are receiving the proper care.
Geary also pointed out that, because of the role Parish Nurses play in treating homeless individuals, their presence at these multiagency meetings is essential. They are often very familiar with the needs of these individuals, he said.
“When they’ve spent all these years out on the streets with the parishes, with the homeless, they know how to talk to people, they know how to inspire them, motivate them and get them help,” he explained.
Even when care is being made available, however, it is not always so easy to provide. Geary noted that one of the greatest challenges Parish Nurses face when working with the homeless is “getting them medical attention when they need it.”
“Many of them are very paranoid, dual diagnosis — so they have a psychiatric diagnosis and an addiction diagnosis — and a lot of them are very fearful of the hospital,” he said. “Most of them won’t take food when you offer it to them. They’re challenging because they don’t acknowledge that they need attention.”
Fortunately, this is where the Parish Nurses shine, as they not only have a well-established personal relationship with many of these homeless individuals, but they have the skill, the tact and — most important — the dedication to reach out, have an impact and make a lasting difference.
It is through these relationships with individuals, nonprofit organizations and local medical-care providers that Parish Nurses have become a cornerstone in the Santa Barbara health-care community.
— Noozhawk contributing writer Kellie Kreiss can be reached at news@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkSociety, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.