Season 2, Episode 37 – Understanding Palliative Care
For many, including some health care professionals, palliative care is often equated with hospice care despite differences in how they apply to patients. In this episode Dr. Glen Komatsu, regional chief medical officer of Hospice & Palliative Care for Providence St. Joseph Health, Southern California, and Denise Hess, CHA’s director of Supportive Care, explain the benefits of palliative care and discuss how patients and their loved ones can talk to their physicians and caregivers about receiving care that’s designed to support the treatment of symptoms and side effects of serious disease and improve overall quality of life.
CHA Palliative Care resource page

Season 2, Episode 36 – Environmental Justice
This episode looks at the importance of environmental justice from both a domestic and global perspective. Guests Laura Anderko of Villanova University, and Susan Barnett of Faiths for Safe Water, provide fresh insights into the articles they each wrote for the 2021 Fall Issue of Health Progress. The topic of environmental justice also connects to CHA’s Confronting Racism by Achieving Health Equity Initiative.

Related Health Progress Articles:

• Understanding and Addressing Environmental Injustice and Health
• Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: Vatican, Catholic Health Care Take Leadership Roles in 'WASH' Work

Season 2, Episode 35 – Living in 63106
CHA is participating in a racial equity storytelling project that focuses on families dealing with the pandemic who live in the 63106 zip code of St. Louis. Dick Weiss, the project’s co-founder, joins resident Kim Daniel who discusses the challenges she and her neighbors face in their community. Kim also provides her personal perspective on why she is hesitant to accept the COVID-19 vaccine. 

Related Health Progress articles: 

• Two Zip Codes, A World Apart
• The COVID Conundrum

Before Ferguson Beyond Ferguson

Season 2, Episode 34 – Children's Health Insurance
The number of uninsured children in the U.S. has risen significantly in the past few years. In this episode, Professor Joan Alker from Georgetown University and Dr. Heidi Sallee from SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital discuss the reasons for this trend, the policy implications, and what Catholic health care can do to help increase coverage for kids.

» Related Catholic Health World article: Catholic health care works to reverse worrisome dip in children's health insurance coverage
» Read the podcast transcript
» Medicaid Makes It Possible

Season 2, Episode 33 – Catholic Social Teaching and the Business of Health Care
Catholic Social Teaching is at the very core of Catholic health care. But how is it applied to the the business side of the ministry, especially when tough decisions are being made? Fr. Michael Rozier, PhD, an assistant professor of health management and policy at St. Louis University, and Fr. Joseph Driscoll, DMin, director of ministry formation and organizational spirituality at Redeemer Health, reflect on this question and offer examples how these principles are put into practice among Catholic health leaders.

Related Health Progress articles:

• The Pandemic's Hidden Heroes
• A Modern-Day Parable for the Pandemic

Season 2, Episode 32 – Catholic Health's Role in Protecting the Environment
Whether it's wildfires, floods, hurricanes or a global pandemic, we are constantly reminded about the reality of climate change and the challenges we face to protect the environment. What role does Catholic health care play in shaping policy, promoting positive change and mitigating harm to God’s creation? Lois Sechrist, environmental stewardship manager at Ascension, and Rachelle Reyes Wenger, system VP of public policy and advocacy engagement for CommonSpirit, discuss what Catholic care is doing, and what more needs to be done, in caring for creation.

Read the podcast transcript

 

Season 2, Episode 31 – Aging and Long-Term Care
Many Catholic nursing homes and long-term care facilities are closing, being sold, or being reconfigured in an effort to keep them viable. Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at The Urban Institute, and Susan McDonough, the Catholic Eldercare and Acute Care specialist for Ziegler Investment Banking, discuss the various challenges these facilities face and how to pursue policy changes that improve the care our elders need.
Health Progress Winter 2021 Issue - "Aging and Long-Term Care"

Season 2, Episode 30 – COVID-19 Vaccines and Faith Communities
Amidst the public discourse about COVID-19 vaccines are questions and concerns pertaining to moral implications and religious objections. Fr. Tom Nairn, PhD, a trained ethicist and author of several books on bioethics, joins Dr. Reginald Eadie, president and CEO at Trinity Health of New England, in countering some of the myths and clarifying some of the misinformation that has arisen.
Learn more about CHA’s Love Thy Neighbor campaign
» Podcast transcript