I was born and raised in Muncie, and I get to live out my passion each day serving this community as the pastor of social and mental health services at Urban Light Community Church.
Most people who come to me seeking resources have landed in their situation because of a mental or physical health problem. People living on the south side of Muncie have shown up to my church to tell me about blood in their urine or a lump in their breast.
They come to the church first because they trust the church. Many of these community members use the emergency room when they are in a health crisis because they do not have a primary care physician or health insurance.
In 2020, Dr. Jeff Bird, president of IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, came to me and said that we have certain ZIP codes not receiving health care for conditions such as hypertension diabetes, and specific types of cancer. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people living in the 47302 ZIP code on average died 12 years earlier than people living in 47305.
Dr. Bird and I knew that we had a trust issue: People of color and those with lower socioeconomic status living in these neighborhoods didn’t trust the hospital, and they weren’t seeking the vital care they needed. He specifically asked me how to reach these people with high blood pressure, and I told him the greatest population of people of color can be found at church on Sundays.
IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital provided resources through a grant to get blood pressure machines, and we started taking blood pressure readings at church on Sundays. When their blood pressure measured high, we referred them to the Family Medicine Residency Center, and it made a real difference in our congregation’s lives.
Now I don’t do anything without the help of IU Health. I feel that IU Health now has a better pulse on community health needs outside of the hospital walls.
In 2022, I started planning to rehab a house the church had purchased to turn it into a place where people could come for counseling and social services. When I explained my plan to Dr. Bird, he told me I needed to dream bigger. He suggested I apply for a grant from IU Health’s Community Impact Investment Fund, which supports non-profit organizations as they endeavor to address key social and environmental factors that negatively affect Hoosier health outcomes.
We were awarded $654,000 over three years to create the Bishop Royce Mitchell Hub. We plan to break ground on the Hub in March.
The Mitchell Hub will provide offices for health screenings, behavioral health services, community space for meetings and activities, and other social services for those re-entering the community after incarceration. The social services hub will also provide needed support to men staying in the recovery home as they work toward recovery. In January of 2023, the Mitchell Hub opened a new recovery home called The ARDY House.
Although we have only a few more months to wait for the physical space for the Hub, our goal to make people think better of health care has already seen progress. We have been joined by 32 community partners to help us meet the needs of our community.
This summer we had a block party where 28 health-care providers came to schedule mammograms, prostate screenings and blood pressure checks. We also had bounce houses, dunk tanks and free food.
At one point we looked around and saw that 90 percent of the people were at the health fair and not the carnival. We realized that people depend on IU Health to be there each year (this was the third year for the block party) and many of them were counting on getting their health-care assessment there. There really couldn’t be a clearer example that health care can successfully meet people in the community where they are. This community work could not be accomplished inside the walls of the hospital.
Another staple of the Hub’s success has been “Dinner with Docs.” This annual dinner is held just a few days after the new medical residents start work at IU Health Ball’s Family Medicine Residency Center. The new doctors come to the church to serve dinner and play games like “Family Feud” with our congregation. This night has led to increased enrollment at FMRC by south Muncie residents, and it’s another initiative that has proven to me it’s possible to build trust between our community and our hospital.
There is much work still to be done, but I am thankful that IU Health has shown me and my neighbors that they believe we’re worth investing in. I tell IU Health what we need, and IU Health always shows up.
Longevity for people living in the 47302 ZIP code has increased by two years since 2020, and I firmly believe we’re just getting started.
The Rev. Maria Wilson was born and raised in Muncie and now serves as one of four pastors at Urban Light Community Church.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Op-ed: Improving Muncie residents’ health happens outside of hospital walls
Reporting by Maria Wilson, Muncie Star Press / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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