The Faith and Health Perspective
November/December 2022
National Family Caregivers Month:
#Caregiving Happens

By Krista Westervelt, Associate Director for Healthy Aging, PHW

November is National Family Caregivers Month and the month’s theme #CaregivingHappens helps bring awareness of the day-to-day experiences of the family caregivers in our communities. While caring for a loved one can be rewarding in many ways, it can also bring with it a host of challenges, including economic challenges and risks of mental and physical health concerns for caregivers themselves. 

National Family Caregivers Month provides an opportunity for us to consider ways we can work together to support the health and well-being of family caregivers in our congregations and communities. Here are some tips to get started:

  • Offer a listening, non-judgmental and confidential ear for both caregiving’s blessings and its struggles. 
  • Engage your health ministry and/or caring ministries to assist with errand-running, meal preparation, and other tasks for family caregivers to help share the load.
  • Reach out to family caregivers in your community to gauge their needs for support and other services. Be sure to include family caregivers of parents, spouses, grandchildren, and other relatives. 
  • Create a variety of ways for caregivers and those they care for to engage with your faith community, even if they may not always be present for services.
  • Take steps to become a dementia-friendly congregation. 
  • Check out and share the PHW resource map to find local aging services providers in your community, many of which offer family caregiver support groups and classes (including for grandparents caring for grandchildren), as well as respite services and legal aid resources (for advanced care planning). 
  • Provide your feedback on the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers created by the RAISE Family Caregiving Act and the Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Act. 

Does your faith community have a caregiver support ministry? What needs do you see in your community? Do you have your own tips to share? We’d love to hear from you! Reach out to Krista Westervelt. 
Harvesting Healthy Lifestyles

By The Rev. Dr. Arlecia Simmons, East Regional Associate Director, PHW

Evaluating the results of the program or project submitted for consideration is one of the features of the PHW Collaborative Mini-grant application process. It is only with solid plans and effective execution that it is possible to yield their stated results. As it is with our faith communities, so it is in our personal lives.

As we approach the final days of 2022, it’s a great time to assess how we can maintain our health behaviors and continue harvesting a healthier lifestyle even being surrounded by holiday tins filled with scrumptious homemade treats. I know things have gotten busy, and meal prep has morphed into more drive-thru visits than some envisioned in January 2022. But the great thing about it is that you don’t have to wait until January to pick up the pieces you declared would be in place this year.

After relocating to North Carolina, I thought I had devised a system to sustain the healthy lifestyle I have struggled to maintain for years. Before I began my work in the morning, I got up and walked at a nearby park or drove a mile away to a local gym. As I began settling into work and the temperature changed, I noticed my fitness plans soon became a distant memory. Thankfully, the messages I share with others often return as a boomerang. And I am reminded that health and wholeness are a lifestyle I must steward daily regardless of the weather or if there’s a trendy fitness program on social media. Likewise, for our collaborative partners, it’s an initiative to focus on even beyond the PHW grant cycle.

As I prepared for my holiday travels, I packed my workout gear so I could visit gyms in my network or take walks in the communities where I will visit with my family. By planning before I start fa-la-laing, I hope to yield the results I seek.

While holiday celebrations are often associated with movie watching and extended naps after dinner, consider how your family can incorporate physical activity throughout the season. Although some family members may not be able to participate in foot races or long walks, consider activities that all can participate in.

Hosting others can be a mammoth task, which may require being intentional about securing quiet times for meditation and prayer. It may be helpful to center yourself or meditate before your planned activities. Looking back, I have hosted friends in my home, and I spent more time refilling cups and checking food temperatures instead of sharing in the laughter and storytelling surrounding me. One day I realized that instead of hosting activities with a larger group of people, it was best for me to host more intimate events where I could sit and enjoy time with friends.

As you consider the days ahead, be sure to check in with yourself to consider how you can adjust things individually as well as communally so you can continue your health and wholeness journey without regret and limited stress.

Taking Care of Ourselves During the Holidays
Register Here
By The Rev. Jessica Stokes, Co-Director, PHW
 


We are now in the full swing of the holidays and with that comes many joys, expectations, busyness, and stress. It is a time of many feelings, sometimes conflicting ones. Thankfully, there are ways that we can protect our energy, support ourselves, and support one another in healthy ways. We can model beneficial mental health practices that will offer peace to those around us but more importantly, center us. 

We are grateful to learn from Travis Jeffords LCMHCA, NCC, MS, MDiv for our Sacred Conversation: “Moving from Frantic Doing, to Sacred Being: How to Find Rest in the Holidays and Beyond”. Travis is joining us tomorrow, December 1, at 11 a.m. on Zoom. More information and registration is here. If you are not able to attend, the recording will be available soon on our Youtube page. 

Travis will offer concrete ways for us to be empowered during this chaotic time. I hope that with a plan, anyone can participate in the goodness of the Advent season. Here are some ideas on how to take care of yourself and stay balanced during Advent.

  • Boundaries are crucial during the holidays. If we feel maxed out, we can practice declining various invitations or requests. We can avoid feeling depleted by saving our energy for what will help us in this season.
  • Go to events that will bring comfort and solace. Even if we are feeling taxed, sometimes there are invitations that will be good for our souls and worth it. Try to make it to those events even though it can be hard to leave home. This will also help with the isolation so many feel during this season.
  • Attend a service or special Advent event at a different faith community from the one you usually attend. Sometimes a fresh setting and a new experience during Advent can help us. For instance, some faith communities might offer a type of service that you have not experienced before, such as a Lessons & Carols service, Longest Night Service (Blue Christmas/ Mental Health Service), community caroling, or a children’s Christmas pageant.
  • Build a routine that includes helpful practices for you. Perhaps begin the morning with an Advent devotional by a favorite writer, breathing exercises, meditative coloring, being outside, exercising, or any other daily routine that gives your day a sense of grounding.
  • Develop productive self-talk. Often we have guilt or feel a burden that originates in the way that we believe the holiday season should look like. We can change this by practicing self-grace and compassion. Reading the Advent scriptures with the ancient practice of Lectio Divina. This practice helps us read, meditate, pray, and contemplate the scripture.

During the holidays, it is helpful to remind yourself that you are loved as you are by our God. You are not alone in the multitude of feelings and stress that this time brings. However, with intentionality and grace, hopefully you can enjoy this Advent season too.

Staff Pick Recipe: Easy Tomato Soup Recipe

Submitted by Elizabeth Brewington, Associate Director, Overdose Response & HIV Advocacy, PHW

My family has the tradition of eating soup the night before Thanksgiving. Here is an easy tomato soup recipe from Natasha's Kitchen to share with your family this holiday season. - Elizabeth Brewington

You'll need:

  • 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • 2 yellow onions, (3 cups finely chopped)
  • 3 garlic cloves, (1 Tbsp minced)
  • 56 oz crushed tomatoes, (two, 28-oz cans) with their juice, preferably San Marzano
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, plus more to serve
  • 1 Tbsp sugar, or added to taste
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper, or to taste
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, or to taste to combat acidity
  • 1/3 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus more to serve

STEP 1
Heat a nonreactive pot or enameled dutch oven over medium heat. Add butter, then add chopped onions. Sauté 10-12 minutes, occasionally stirring, until softened and golden. Add minced garlic and sauté 1 minute until fragrant.

STEP 2
Add crushed tomatoes with their juice, chicken stock, chopped basil, sugar (or add sugar to taste), and black pepper. Stir together and bring to a boil, then reduce heat, partially cover with lid and simmer for 10 minutes.

STEP 3
You can leave your soup with a chunky consistency, but if you like a blended/creamy soup, use an immersion blender to blend the soup in the pot to desired consistency or transfer to a blender in batches and blend until smooth (being careful not to over-fill the blender with hot liquid), then return blended soup to the pot over medium heat.

STEP 4
Add 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese and return to a simmer. Season to taste with salt and pepper if needed, and turn off the heat.

STEP 5
Ladle into warm bowls and top with more parmesan and chopped fresh basil.
Staff Picks: Sign-On Letter Opportunity

North Carolina has a Good Samaritan law that is supposed to encourage people to call 911 in the event of an overdose. North Carolina’s current Good Samaritan law is one of the most limited in the country, and it does not provide adequate protection for the law to be effective. We need your support to improve North Carolina’s Good Samaritan law to help reduce the number of people who lose their lives to a drug overdose. 
Sign-On to the Letter Here
Collaborative Events:
Save-the-Date
Inclusion Plan Webinar
Tuesday, January 24, 7 pm, Zoom

PHW is introducing Inclusion Plans to support your health ministry. Come learn about concrete steps your faith community can take to be inclusive in the areas of mental health and healthy aging. Faith communities who commit to the PHW Inclusion Plans are eligible for additional incentives for their health programs. Details soon!
Past Event Recordings

Check out our most recent event recordings above, or visit our YouTube page to browse through our complete collection!
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