Discussion

Presentation 373 NEW INSIGHTS AND INTERVENTIONS: CHURCHES UNITING TO REACH THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY WITH HEALTH INFORMATION THE REVEREND EDWIN C SANDERS II Metropolitan Interdenominational Church Abstract: Effective church-based community health programs must take a holistic approach when dealing with health problems among African Americans. Such an approach emphasizes the relationship between the physiological, psychological, and spiritual selves. These programs must also ensure the complete involvement of clergy and church members, who can participate in programs by providing a certain level of skill, thereby engendering a sense of partnership in the process. Also necessary is an emphasis on healthy living instead of a fear of dying. Rather than framing health issues in mortality statistics, church-based programs need to stress ways to improve the quality of life, in keeping with the messages conveyed by the church. By taking these approaches, health organizations will find a religious community more willing to accept health messages. Key words: African Americans, HIV/AIDS, holistic The importance of establishing relevant churdi-based community programs that deal with health issues affecting African Americans has been well emphasized by many of the conference's speakers. I have found, however, that we often find ourselves overwhelmed by persons who want to use our congregations and our parishioners for various kinds of studies. Congregations are increasingly being bombarded with health information as health professionals become more aware that churches are a resource within African American communities that allow access to and direct involvement with those who have made a commitment to establishing a better life. Consequently, church members are becoming increasingly suspicious of outsiders in terms of what agenda these persons may have. We often correctly perceive that many of these efforts are simply being driven by the source which has provided the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved · Vol. 8, No. 3 · 1997 374 New Insights and Interventions research funding, rather than being born out of a true concern for the community of which we are a part. One of the things that I have found to be important is that credibility is the key to acceptance; if the source has credibility, it will be embraced by the community. Therefore, to be able to gain the trust of congregations, there has to be an established measure of credibility between the persons who are doing the work and those who would benefit from this work. There has to be a shared understanding of the importance of the endeavor being carried out so that the results are mutually benefidal. An important consideration is to avoid compartmentalizing the various health issues that affect our community. Hypertension , heart disease, diabetes—these health problems should not be considered in isolation. Rather, they should be approached in a holistic fashion. For indeed, problems that manifest themselves in our physiological selves are often related to our behavior, to our psychological selves and what is happening in terms of our spiritual well-being. Therefore, as we develop church-based health education programs, we must first come to an understanding of how these factors are interrelated. When congregations are approached from this standpoint, I am convinced that only then can one gain a complete understanding of parishioners with regard to their beliefs and gain an understanding of the mind-set at work within the church with regard to what healthy and wholesome living is all about. A legitimate concern expressed by many within our congregation is the inability to appropriately interface with persons from the medical profession. This is related to the way in which the information is addressed, the way in which health problems are explained. Very often, the terminology used is not understandable to everyone. That inhibits our ability to have the kind of camaraderie and partnership that is necessary to do an effective job in order to have a positive impact upon our community. Forging Partnerships Our congregation has not been involved in a significant way in creating educational programs on hypertension, but we have begun to address HIV/AIDS, and to a lesser degree, diabetes. An important means of communicating these messages has been our use of a "curriculum," in which we use a study guide to allow us...