LOUISVILLE — Covenant Presbyterian Church, an African American congregation in Durham, North Carolina, is doing its part — and then some — to raise awareness and outcomes on health equity and health education.
Last month, reports Sue McLaurin, a ruling elder at Covenant, the church offered a successful gathering for seniors at the church and in the community, building on its THESES Project, for Tele-Health Equity, Spiritual and Economic Survivorship.
“More and more seniors will need to become responsible for making decisions about their health as they communicate with their health care providers,” McLaurin said. “When information received from medical professionals is not well understood and a person is unable to share their health care needs with family or friends, it may result in poor health outcomes.”
Covenant, whose membership is more than 50% seniors, hosted a luncheon last month attended by more than 50 people. Organizers based the event on 1 Cor. 6:19-20: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”
Each of eight tables had a table tent with a topic such as “Talk back to the doctor,” “Community resources for seniors,” “Health literacy,” “Spiritual activities for seniors,” “Choosing and using information,” “Senior mobility: staying alive,” “Grandparents’ love,” and “Happiness is … .” Lunch guests sat at the table with the topic they wanted to discuss.
Event organizers collected feedback, which included “share information on various and sundry senior resources in Durham,” “bring an advocate with you to ask questions if you don’t feel capable,” “find an activity that you can commit to and stay committed,” and “being content and grateful and finding joy in what you have.”
According to McLaurin, responses were collated into groups that included interaction and topics. The former group included “communicating with groups on ideas on spirituality,” “hearing comments from senior citizens with experience” and “great opportunity for interaction with other seniors.”
The latter group included this feedback: “topics were relevant to seniors,” the importance of “choosing and using information items” and “the different points of view on how to deal with special health issues.”
McLaurin also provided some background on how Covenant has been working on health equity and health education. In 2020, the church received funding from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to address health equity among Durham’s Black and brown population, which comprise about half the city’s population of about 288,000 people.
Covenant used some of the funds to increase the community’s Covid vaccination rate. That was the genesis of the THESES project, she noted.
“As things are changing dramatically at the federal level regarding the elimination of federal funds, we have increasingly raised concerns about this as well as caution, as it relates to providing outreach to populations who are most affected by these proposed changes,” McLaurin said.
Covenant continues to collect data from the recent gathering. “Based on the summary statements from [the] participants, it is quite informative, especially from an African American population where health disparities are well documented,” McLaurin said.
When participants were asked how future gatherings might be improved, the response, according to McLaurin, was, “continue to have them!”