TODAY'S TMJ4

Four Your Health: Spiritual Care

GREEN BAY - We all express our spirituality in different ways. For one Green Bay family, 'keeping the faith' helped save a life.

Inner peace. It's something Kathryn Lambrecht didn't have for a long time.

"It was coping for me, people may not understand it, but it was a way--when I'm so dead, dark, and empty inside, and I don't know where God is, I chose to go internal," Kathryn recalls.

Three years ago Kathryn stopped eating, and stopped praying after losing her father and an unborn child. She says, "I stopped asking why God, why me, why now--I couldn't do it anymore."

Kathryn's husband Marc was scared for her life and her faith. "There were times I thought maybe she wouldn't make it, and we'd have to figure out another way to get it done, but we don't talk about that very often," he says.

That's when the family turned to Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc. Rogers is nationally recognized for its behavioral health care services. Christine Dawley is the Spiritual Care Coordinator at Rogers.

"Our patients come to us, and they're suffering." She adds, "They're, to put it lightly, they're not at their best, and they want to be."

The hospital decided to add a Spiritual Care Program just a few years ago. Carol Jefferies is a chaplain at Rogers, and helped develop the Spiritual Care program about 5 years ago. She explains Spiritual care helps fill a void left by traditional treatment. "Issues like forgiveness, or hope, or purpose and meaning in life are philosophical issues that aren't necessarily touched on in a therapeutic setting."

Patients can find their inner peace in the campus gardens and chapel, or they can travel to a nearby church for weekend services.

"Spiritual care is always voluntary for our patients. It's always their choice, basically tailored to them--very individualized, very personalized," Dawley says.

Kathryn says that program was the key to 'bringing her back'.

"I finally was able to release those tears, that were so needing to be released," Kathryn exclaims.

Today-- Kathryn is singing again, and enjoying her local church where her husband plays bass in the band.

"I knew if she put her mind to it she'd be able to get healthy," he insists.

The family also has a new addition on the way. Kathryn is pregnant again!

"To find out that we're pregnant was such a miracle," she says.

The pregnancy has been difficult, and Kathryn's mother is now sick. However, Kathryn knows she must stay strong for her family, and their unborn child. Kathryn stresses, "I can't go back to the disorder, I won't go back to the disorder."

She's counting on the faith she re-discovered at Rogers to get her over the hurdles ahead.

"We're just a vehicle to help load the trucks, but God does the driving," Jefferies explains.

Kathryn adds, "For my mind to finally open up, and no, I'm not to punish myself--that's never what God's intention was."

The Spiritual Care workers at Rogers see about 80 patients a week, and the program is always growing. The program is funded through a foundation, so it does not cost extra for patients to take part.

The staff at Rogers treats children, teens, and adults.