Workshops

Resilient Healthcare: A Matter of Trust

James Nelson Gingerich, MD

Maple City Health Care Center is an experiment in affordable, high quality, integrated, community based health care for a low-income, multi-cultural, immigrant neighborhood. The center’s founding physician, James Nelson Gingerich, will describe the radical, counter-intuitive, upside-down culture of trust that is at the heart of the center’s resilience and success.  This is a follow-up workshop to Saturday morning plenary session. Participants will identify and share stories of abundance and resilience.

An Introduction to Art Psychotherapy: Offering Healing and Hope Through the Creative Process

Carol Martin Johnson, MA

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Art therapists use the creative process to engage the mind, body, and spirit in ways that are distinct from verbal therapy alone. Art therapy can give form and shape to difficult feelings and experiences for which there may be no words. It can empower a person to gain understanding of the complex, the hidden, and the mysterious. This workshop will be an introduction to what art therapy is (and what it is not!). It will include an opportunity to participate in a group art making experience.

Naturopathic Medicine and Integrative Oncology

Michael Reece, ND

New Holland, Pennsylvania

Naturopathic medicine blends centuries-old natural non-toxic therapies with current advances in the study of health and human systems, covering all aspects of family health. Naturopathic medicine attempts to find the underlying cause of the patient’s condition rather than focusing solely on symptomatic treatment. Integrative oncology provides patients with safe options for combining conventional cancer treatment with natural and supportive therapies. Naturopathic doctors trained in integrative cancer care provide evidence-informed guidance on safe and effective use of natural and supportive therapies, when combined with conventional treatment.

Plain Complexity: Serving the Old Order Amish and Mennonite Communities

Janelle M. Zimmerman, RN, BA

Presented by a nurse and former horse-and-buggy Mennonite, this is a forum for healthcare professionals to explore the complexity, rewards, and challenges of serving the Plain community (horse-and-buggy and other conservative Anabaptists). The didactic portion of the workshop explores a research-based framework for understanding plain community members’ beliefs about health and healthcare and how these beliefs affect norms of decision making around preventive, emergency, and rehabilitative healthcare. The interactive portion includes time for questions and for learning from each other, focusing on co-laboring with the community to reflect Kingdom principles on earth.

Shifting Climates: Rehumanizing the Conversation About Faith, Hope, and Climate Change

Michaela Mast, Harrison Horst, Sarah Longenecker

After a year of travel, producers Harrison Horst, Sarah Longenecker, and Michaela Mast, all 2018 graduates of Eastern Mennonite University, will share about their experience producing two seasons of the podcast, “Shifting Climates.” The podcast aims to “rehumanize the conversation on climate change” by sharing stories from impacted communities. This conversation on climate change naturally intersects with a variety of health-related subfields, including the psychology of denial and justification; mental health, trauma, and grieving; and community health and resilience. Join the producers for a discussion about faith, climate, and justice. Learn how climate change went from being a paralyzing and intimidating topic to one that is energizing, inspiring, and sometimes even hopeful.

Training Community Leaders on Maternal and Child Health Services

Rebekah Maldonado-Nofziger, BSN, RN, DNP

In 2016 Strengthening Care Opportunities Through Partnership in Ethiopia (SCOPE) attained a grant to conduct an implementation science project designed to prevent maternal death: Faith Leaders Advocating for Maternal Empowerment (FLAME). This project pairs Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) priests with Health Development Army (HDA) workers at six rural health centers in the North Gondar zone to identify and meet with new pregnant mothers, and deliver education surrounding maternal health services, particularly Antenatal Care (ANC) and skilled delivery. As a SCOPE fellow, Rebekah helped develop the project and then stayed on in Gondar with the aid of a SET grant to finish her project and doctoral studies. She will discuss the importance of partnerships between educational and faith-based institutions as well as in the communities being served to improve maternal and infant health outcomes.

Personal Resilience and Spiritual Care

Clair Hochstetler, MDiv
Charlene Epp, MDiv
Susan Lanford, MDiv

This workshop combines presentation and discussion by three Anabaptist, theologically-oriented chaplains/pastoral care leaders with diverse backgrounds and skills. They will share personal models for managing or preventing stress and maintaining personal resilience with spiritual vitality. The reality is that a barrier to maintaining resilience in healthcare professions is the notion that “this is what I trained for; it doesn’t bother me; I don’t let it get to me.” But it always does. Thus self-care is a commitment and a skill which every person, regardless of age or profession, needs in order to survive and thrive. The focus will be on becoming aware of and drawing upon one’s personal and spiritual strengths in negotiating typical challenges in current healthcare practice. 

Healthcare, Healing, and the Mission of God: Transformation and Discipleship in our Professions

Grant Miller, MDiv
Paul Leichty, MDiv
Indigo Miller, RN, MPH

Presenters will reflect on the role of healthcare in the reconciling work of God and how participating in that work forms us as disciples and transforms us into the image of Christ. Workshop participants will help explore the role of the congregation, the workplace, and Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship in this process.