Attendees do some light stretching exercises before the start of a Congregational Health Promoters meeting at Presbyterian Hospital. The program seeks to help local churches build and maintain effective health ministries. (Photo: Glenn H. Burkins for Qcitymetro.com)
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On a recent Saturday, about two dozen people gathered in a basement conference room at Presbyterian Hospital to talk about ways to improve the overall health of African Americans in the Charlotte region.

The attendees were not medical professionals but individuals who lead health ministries at some the many black churches that dot the city.

For more than 20 years, Presbyterian, a unit of Novant Health, has carried out some of its most basic health-education programs through local churches. Now more and more, those efforts have been focused on blacks and Latinos.

So far, more than 50 black churches and about an equal number of Latino congregations have joined the effort, dubbed Congregational Health Promoters (CHP). The churches range from those with just a few dozen members to some that count their congregants by the thousands.

In exchange for time and commitment, Presbyterian provides the churches with training and some limited resources.

Chaplin Harry Burns, who heads the African American sector of CHP, said the goal is to have churches go beyond the occasional blood drives and blood pressure screenings that are common in local congregations.

“It’s not just your blood pressure,” he told the group. “Your cholesterol can take you out.

“There are too many churches trying to do this by themselves,” he added, “and it gets frustrating because one or two people in the church are trying to do everything … We want to give you the structure. You can develop it and create it within your own congregation.”

Burns said he wants to see black churches focusing more on dentistry, support groups, care giving, anger management, divorce, retirement, alcoholism, job loss, HIV/AIDS and mental health issues — especially mental health issues.

“There are mental health issues from the pulpit to the pew,” he told his audience, which responded with a resounding “Amen.”

Expanding the model

Even as CHP expands in Charlotte, Novant is looking to launch a similar program near Winston-Salem — a program based not so much on race as geography and economics.

In Stokes, Surry and Wilkes counties, Forsyth Medical Center will partner with rural churches to reach families where access to health care is inadequate, said Susan Johnson, a registered nurse and community health educator who is organizing the effort.

Johnson noted that in Stokes County, for example, the suicide rate is especially high — the highest in North Carolina, she said.

Johnson said many of health issues in the three-county region can be traced to economics and the decline of the once-mighty tobacco industry.

“It’s like going back in time 100 years,” she said, noting the lack of jobs and economic opportunity in much of the region.

Support from the top

Burns, who shepherds a congregation of his own in a rural community near Rock Hill, said the church-based programs work best when the senior pastor is supportive.

“If the leadership does not buy in,” he said, “you are going to have problems.”

Burns also said he had seen some of his best results in small and mid-size churches.

In promoting good health, Burns does not shy away from straight talk, and he sprinkles his message with a generous dose of Christian preaching.

At the recent meeting at Presbyterian, he began the session with devotion, fresh fruit and light stretching exercises. And he encouraged those in attendance to use prayer as much as Pilates.

“You need to know how to make God a part of your life,” he said, “so the spiritual aspect is very important when you’re talking about health.”

Editor's Note: To learn more about the Congregational Health Promoters Program, visit the Presbyterian Hospital website or click here.

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