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Franciscan Spirituality Center
920 Market Street
La Crosse, WI 54601
608-791-5295

https://www.fscenter.org

Steve Spilde: Joan Filla is a friend of the Franciscan Spirituality Center, and also a personal friend. She has attended many events at the FSC, and she has done presentations for us on the healing of trauma. Joan is a physician at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, and she has been on the front lines in the battle with COVID since the pandemic arrived in our community. Today, it is my honor to invite Joan to share her unique perspective in this traumatic period in all of our lives. Welcome, Joan.

Doctor Joan Filla: Thanks, Steve. I’m happy to be here.

Steve: You work as a physician for Gundersen Health System. What’s your medical specialty?

Doctor Filla: I am an Internal Medicine Hospitalist, which basically translates to I take care of sick adults who require hospitalization. I describe myself as the quarterback. I’m kind of the one that organizes things and needs to call in the specialist, when needed, to take care of a patient’s needs.

Steve: Take us back 18 months ago prior to the pandemic’s arrival. What were your thoughts about what might be coming? And when did you know that we would be affected here in La Crosse?

Doctor Filla: I have to admit that my first response and reaction was based out of naivety. I remember having conversations with my colleagues saying, ‘I just want to get this infection, get it over with, and be able to move on with my life and deal with other patients that have it.’ I quickly realized I did not want this infection. I was not caring for the first patient that we had at Gundersen; that was one of my colleagues who has gone on to become as what I would refer to as our local hospitalist expert on COVID. It was with that patient, even though it was one patient, that I realized just a little bit of what the magnitude of this could be. That one patient where we really had no … there was really no guidance. We had no idea how to treat this other than to be supportive. We couldn’t ask any specialist because nobody really knew a whole lot more than we did. I’m speaking for him and feeling what my colleague talked about, [and that] was it felt very lonely [and] very fearful. And then the family is afraid, [and] the patient is afraid. Patient and loved ones are separated. That patient changed me. It made me afraid to go down there, to go into the unit.

Steve: That was the first patient you encountered, and then talk about, when was that, timewise?

Doctor Filla: April of 2020. I don’t remember the exact date. I was hearing about COVID kind of secondhand from my colleagues. I didn’t work in the unit, I don’t think until May when I actually took care of my first COVID-positive patient. At that point, we had a few hospitalists, docs, and physician assistants who had sort of gravitated there and become as much as we could the local experts. It’s hard to say ‘experts,’ but when you don’t know a lot, that’s literally what you are. I walked in as the physician leader for that team being one of the least experienced ones, which is also interesting. It’s relying on a lot of past history [and] past knowledge of working with patients, and book learning, which it’s been a long time since I’ve had to rely on book learning. It’s been more based on experience and knowledge and actually taking care of people with issues. The first week of encountering patients, I wish I could say was the hardest, but it wasn’t. If anything, it was a … there was some professional excitement because it was new. It was different, it was challenging. In some ways it was freeing, but it was also terrifying.

During that week, I cared for the first COVID patient that I took care of that died. He’s there, delirious...

HealhFirst Network
216 South 3rd Avenue
Wausau, WI 54401
(800) 246-5743

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Karen Zimmerman, a WIC specialist from health first networks talking with this the third time we've had a chance to talk in this podcast, which great this almost focus on breast-feeding. How does WIC and breast-feeding go hand-in-hand to doesn't seem like they would be in conjunction with each other. So, how we feed our babies is one of the main components of what the WIC program is breast-feeding is the gold standard for how we should feed our babies now a lot of moms haven't had very much support in their own histories and own lives to be successful at that, even if that is what they want to do because none of their people that they associate with have ever done that one of the things that the WIC program has is called a breast-feeding peer program and what that is is we have moms who have breast-fed their own children and have been involved in the WIC program. They connect with our new moms to be there support person. Oh, that's cool. One of the aspects of it as a peer is that they need to speak the same language and be of the same culture as the mom. So in our population. We have like 30% of our population is mom so we have a Monk's woman who is breast-fed her babies that can speak among that can call those moms and chat or be that support person for them to call back to and how it works. The moms are connected via text or phone call and we just reach out to them and say hey here a.m. if you have troubles. If you have questions. I'm here to help you is your typical? It all depends on the mom situation. If there's no problems then you talk about what to expect and what's normal baby behavior. In the beginning, but if there are troubles or the mom just has questions like is this normal or is my baby getting enough to eat. This doesn't seem like he's growing good enough or how do I breast-feed my baby when I have a two-year-old. That's also running around ripping the house apart right so those kind of just mom kinda conversations in support is what the program is all about is your such a thing as breast-feeding classes. Oh yes, yes, most definitely. That's another aspect of our program that we offer moms breast-feeding class that is available to them in in the last month or two before they are scheduled to deliver their babies and things that we talk about in that class we cover things like what are the benefits of breast-feeding. How do you get started. What can you expect from a normal healthy baby in the beginning what's normal newborn behavior and as a new mom. How do I know if my babies okay and what can I expect the baby to do or not do. And then if these symptoms show her this behavior shows then that's worth a call to reach out to somebody. It really helps moms be prepared so they're confident going into having this baby whether there breast-feeding or decide after they get going that maybe that it isn't working so well, but they have the ammunition then to do the an informed decision about what and how they feed their baby going forward. So, certain certification, the staff has to go through yes all of the counselors for the WIC program are certified to some level of breast-feeding certifications and there's varying levels of that all of the counselors have had additional training on breast-feeding and be certified and one of our breast-feeding counselors is in the process of becoming an IBC LC certified lactation specialist and that stands for international Board of certified lactation consultants, and that's the highest level it's a certification that's geared towards medical care professionals who undertake the clinical management of breast-feeding in support and education. So for those moms that are having more difficulties. She will be able to help them in a very specific way because of all this extra training that she said in the testes is quite involved. One of the goals with having her at the certification level. Besides being that extra asset and resource for all of us and our WIC population is that we'd like to open that up to the general population so that we can serve as a resource for that within our community. The local healthcare systems have very limited numbers of this level certification with in the hospital and primary care systems in our communities and so we've identified that is a lack and were trying to fill that void with this certification here so Karen, it seems to me that health first networks wants families and moms and babies to be successful, and that's why you guys are helping a staff member get through and get certified as IBC LC. It seems like you guys are working toward something that a lot of other people are pushing away. Yeah, I guess we really saw that there was a void in our community. So supporting our staff member to become an IBC LC we feel that this is just a way for us to support moms and I'm more complete way better resources for a moms to be successful at breast-feeding

Franciscan Spirituality Center
920 Market Street
La Crosse, WI 54601
608-791-5295

https://www.fscenter.org


Steve Spilde: Today, it is my honor to welcome as my guest Sister Rose Elsbernd. Rose is a teammate, a mentor, and a friend. She serves as a Spiritual Director at the Franciscan Spirituality Center, and is a longtime supervisor in the Spiritual Direction Preparation Program. Recently, five FSPA sisters and staff traveled to volunteer at a facility on the border in Arizona. Rose joins me to talk about her trip and her efforts to respond with compassion to those seeking asylum. Welcome, Rose.

Sister Rose Elsbernd: Thank you, Steve. It’s good to be with you today.

Steve: You recently came back from a trip to Arizona. Could you tell us where you went?

Sister Rose Elsbernd: We went to, as a response to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, had put out an asking for volunteers for people to work at the borders, partly because they were really in a need for volunteers. Many of the people who were helping during the winter were gone, and the students weren’t yet back from college. As most of these facilities depend almost – I would say 95 percent – on volunteers, there was a need for us to go down. We Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration wanted to respond to that, and there was a number of us that just volunteered to go. Only four of us could go with our Justice and Peace person, Pat Bruda, who has gone a couple other times. We went to Tucson with the intention of coming to a knowledge of what’s going on, because there’s so much that you don’t know, and you almost have to sort through the facts to know what it is. We were in Tucson. We did visit the border at two different places, and [we] went into Mexico twice. But mostly, we volunteered at Casa Alitas, which is a Catholic Charities-sponsored program that receives people from the border crossings, basically, either from Nogales or Yuma, and they have the paperwork. They have a file that’s maybe an inch-and-a-half that they carry with them. At this point, they’re legal to come into the United States.

What they do as they come into this Casa Alitas is immediately they get water, they get some soup for nourishment, and then they begin to make them feel comfortable enough, and they stay maybe one or two days until they can get transportation out to where their sponsor is. If they can’t find a sponsor, they start looking for one. There’s a lot of navigation that they have to do to get them on the road and out, but most of the time it’s a day or two. However, that’s very different from on the Mexico side. They might have been waiting on the Mexican side for a year, year and a half, or even two [years], to get the papers for asylum that they need. It’s kind of an interesting phenomena of how people are so desperate to get to a better life.

Steve: So you went to this facility that serves as kind of a welcome for immigrants. These are legal immigrants [and] they have paperwork, but they’ve come to the border waiting to get in. They were waiting for a year or two on the Mexican side, and then they come in. But many of these immigrants really don’t have anything as they arrive, correct?

Sister Rose Elsbernd: No. What they get, of course, while they’re there, they will get products they need for just hygiene, and then they get a backpack. Maybe they get a pair of shoes if they need it, [and] definitely shoelaces, because all the shoelaces are taken out of the shoes in Mexico – even the children’s which is kind of like … They say it’s for their safety, primarily, so they can’t run. They get shoes, socks, a couple pair of underwear, two shirts, and usually one pair of jeans or something like that. That’s what they carry onto the bus or the airplane as they leave.

Steve: So...

HealhFirst Network
216 South 3rd Avenue
Wausau, WI 54401
(800) 246-5743

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Justin public relations and education specialist at health first networks. What is helpers network do for the schools that you are involved with. So we provide education within the schools and most of the counties we serve. We either provide in tandem with the curriculum that they are providing. Or we might be there main point of education for the students and we either provide education on STI's are sexy transmitted infections and/or on contraceptives as well. So in one of the schools, in particular, we are one of many community partners that come in so we provide as a set on STI's in contraceptives and then they also have other community partners come in and talk about other things related to healthy relationships. Sexual activity and the law and things of that nature wears other schools. We are there main point of education and maybe the only education that they are receiving as far as contraceptives or STI prevention to deliver school presentations. We do we do a lot of school presentations and then we can adapt our presentations to fit whatever grade level were presenting to so for talking with middle school students that might look a little bit different than if we are presenting to seniors and we can really tailor it as well to what the school is looking for. So if they've already covered STI's are contraceptives we can provide the opposite, or if they are looking for something more in that middle school level. I've presented on things such as healthy relationships and consent and communication and focusing more on that piece before we dive into some of those heavier topics so health first network is a lot of things of network means that you're probably involved a lot of different things a lot of different people a lot of different organizations. How are you working with some of the other organizations in the area to help out the students and help out the population as a whole so we work like you said in coalition so we have the tricounty coalition in our southern counties. So in Sauk Juneau in Adams County. We work with different organizations with different health departments talking about the topics that are important to the communities that we serve and the clients that we serve or hope to serve. We are part of coalitions in our northern counties as well and different workgroups in different counties who try to be involved in all the counties again that we serve. Making sure that we are working with our community partners determining how we can help serve those individuals making sure that they are aware of our services that we can serve as a resource we can provide education, we can help provide care at a lower cost or no cost for those who are in need of that. So, although we serve one kind of niche were able to help a wide variety of people at different points in their life know you should care what you mean by care care could be annual visits. It can be STI or sexy transmitted infection screening. It could be pregnancy testing, and referrals for prenatal care or adoption services. It could be for our WIC programs so women, infants and children, and that's our nutrition program so there's a lot of different facets of what we provide. You can find all this information on our website as well. Justin is one or two but you know when you're talking what kids in school so click that I hear about kids texting and doing things like, you know that they shouldn't be doing online on texting you know on different social media sites is that something that you work with students on it as well. It is so that is something that we are starting to see more and more of they will get referred to us. So if they have minor fence and this is their first offense they get referred to us for education so we can provide education on not only the STI's in the contraceptives and things like that to help them take care of themselves or to help them be healthy, but in addition to that we talk to them about the laws in Wisconsin and how partaking in these certain activities are going to affect them or could affect them if they get caught doing those things. So in addition to us again community involvement. We also work with other community organizations that provide education as well. So it's really a group and community effort to ensure that these students are getting the education that they need to hopefully get them on the right path should just be one of the other things that he is working with with the community projects and the involvement that health first networks is in. I'd heard that just recently guys started working with Special Olympics Wisconsin. So in addition to working with special effects Wisconsin. We are working with Special Olympics international as well so they are working to create a curriculum with another organization and then in addition to that we are working on a clinic experience guide that we can provide to the athletes and their caretakers, and through that those individuals will be able to use this guide to help those individuals understand what those reproductive health visits that they might have what those all entail what to expect. What sorts of medical equipment and supplies they might see during that visit just to be able to prepare them for that. So they aren't surprised when they get asked certain questions are not surprised when they're asked to do certain things. So just helps take away some of that fear factor that individuals might have walking into an appointment if they're not sure what two of the anxiety you about is amazing. You know it's it's probably overwhelming to some people, absolutely. And this is geared for special-effects athletes. But really, we see that a lot of individuals it's just sometimes the fear of the unknown whether it's reproductive health or anything in life, so anything that we can do to ease that fear and make people more aware and provide the education that really helps to empower them to come in and be able to advocate for their own health

Franciscan Spirituality Center
920 Market Street
La Crosse, WI 54601
608-791-5295

https://www.fscenter.org

HealhFirst Network
216 South 3rd Avenue
Wausau, WI 54401
(800) 246-5743

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Jesse Scharfenberg is the Chief Executive Officer and health first network in Wausau, Wisconsin in nine counties usually all over the place, which is great and my favorite times of the year's planting started gardening a couple years ago and I love gardening. I love the fresh vegetables and love the fresh fruits that love the chance to get out there and see what other people of harvested and farmers markets are huge thing farmers markets are a good thing you see them everywhere there every day of the week in every county and they're just a great access points to fresh fruits and vegetables. Some of the really cool things about the WIC program is that in the summer between June 1 and October 31. Individuals will receive farmers market check you can go to the farmers market and get fresh fruits and vegetables with the WIC program so give you a lot of variety of the early-season versus the late seasons on the October timeframe. The key to go to apple orchards and get fresh apples. So depending on the year. Individual families will get between 30 and $35 worth of farmers market checks. One of those little differences with this is that mostly with the WIC program. Each individual within the family gets their own food package to farmers market. Checks are per family. Okay, so it's not that each person is been received, the $30-$35 at each family will receive what you get a lot of things in the farmers market for 30 but you can get all have fresh fruits and vegetables, which is really great because it's an extremely important part of the diet but also supports local farmers by giving back to them by using their fruits and vegetables what we do is kind of a twofold so we work with the local farmers that the farmers market to see if they want to accept WIC checks so they have to go through a training program and then when you are actually a shopper at the farmers market. You probably see a bunch of yellow signs on different vendors and that you will find means that they accept WIC benefits. Individuals with the farmers market. Checks can go to the farmers market and the checks are for five dollars each so that you can go to different vendors so you can only use one check per vendor.

Franciscan Spirituality Center
920 Market Street
La Crosse, WI 54601
608-791-5295

HealhFirst Network
216 South 3rd Avenue
Wausau, WI 54401
(800) 246-5743

Transcription for SEO purposes only

We talked about a lot of different programs with health first network and Suzanne plot check. During this time talking about food families and for families, ties in with the WIC program which makes sense because you're with dietitian and you soon taking over the WIC program here correct. Yes. So the for families program is a program that we do in conjunction with the WIC program it's geared towards 2 to 4-year-old children and potentially their families. The program is one that focuses on childhood obesity and preventing childhood obesity. So what the program does is families choose a goal, something that they want to work on and then we help them achieve that goal. Over the 13 month time. So how do you do that the families to the goal that they like to work on it could be something from decreasing screen time, increasing physical activity increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables they consume in a day or changing the beverages that they drink we set a goal with them and then work with them on a monthly basis by either texting, calling or emailing them and checking in with them to see how their goal is going and then giving them tips and suggestions on how they can better achieve that goal they mentioned was 13 months why 13 months rather than like six or 12 or you know that the typical time link that usually think of something going sir. So we collected starting data we get BMI from the family and then we ask some of the questions regarding how much screen time how much fruits and vegetables they consume and then we wait, that full year to make sure that you know we've captured all the data we can and then we re-ask the same questions at the 13 month mark to see what changes they made, or if there's been improvements in certain areas with use of the data for the state that family program analyzes that data they have a separate team that analyzes it and then they send back reports annually that tells each program how they've done in terms of improving the fruit and vegetable consumption in children or decreasing screen time

Franciscan Spirituality Center
920 Market Street
La Crosse, WI 54601
608-791-5295

Steve Spilde: Today it is my extreme pleasure to welcome John McHugh. John is a longtime presenter for the Spiritual Direction Preparation Program. He has presented Biblical Spirituality to our participants and does an amazing job. Beyond that, John is a very popular presenter at the Franciscan Spirituality Center. [He is] a wonderful Biblical teacher [and] a wonderful representative of what it means to embody spirituality in life. Welcome, John.

John McHugh: Thank you. Steve. It’s good to be here.

Steve: Just to say a few things about John, John had a part of his life where he was very involved in ministry. Then for the last 16 years he’s been part of the senior management team for Kwik Trip, who is a big employer in the area surrounding La Crosse, Wisconsin. That area continues to grow, and you’ve been part of that growth. How would you describe your current job?

John: Steve, that’s a great question. I have a lot of different things I do, and none of it fits into a single title. Officially, I’m the Director of Public Relations, but on a broader scheme, anything to deal with culture in our company. [That includes] making sure that we live our mission and values as a company. [I] oversee a lot of what happens in our training program. I work with the family members who come into the company, [meaning] the third generation and the grandkids now coming in to work with them. I make sure that they get on the right foot, and I spend a lot of time out in public talking about our culture at Kwik Trip. We’re listed as a top workplace in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. This last year, even Glassdoor nationally [ranked Kwik Trip] the 79th-best company to work for in the country, which is pretty huge for a small regional company like this. A lot of places want to know how you create that kind of culture, so I’ll go out and give keynotes and addresses about that.

Steve: Knowing you, you really do identify what you do as a ministry. How would you draw the parallels between more traditional forms of ministry and what you do in the business world?

John: I would say this. As a matter of fact, when Don Zietlow, our CEO and owner, hired me 16 years ago, he knew that I did a lot of public speaking [and] adult education, a lot in the gospels and in religion. Officially, he said, “When I hire you, I’m going to bring you on deck and you’re going to tell the same stories you’ve already told. But sometimes you’re going to take out the name Jesus.” I have former students in mind from Aquinas who are now here at Kwik Trip who say, “I remember when you told that story back at Aquinas, and now you tell it here.” It really is telling the same stories, but in a way that helps all of us realize that no matter where we’re at in life, the gospel is alive and well and keeps us going.

HealhFirst Network
216 South 3rd Avenue
Wausau, WI 54401
(800) 246-5743

Transcription for SEO purposes only

One of the question with a lot of people that are sexually active have is how to prevent having a sexually-transmitted disease or infection you know what. Since this is such a big topic to both you guys here Jesse Scharfenberg is the Chief Executive Officer of health first network and just the entity is the public relations and education specialist. It is a much of STI's are scary. What can we do to prevent them. Use a condom that the number one thing is to use a condom and we don't see individuals using condoms anymore. Why is that so there's many reasons that people don't use condoms anymore. One thing is that we have really great access, birth control methods so they know that if their partner is on a birth control method there's no risk of pregnancy. So we kind of forget about the STI side of things and preventing those. The other aspect is we have some really great resources to prevent HIV in a taxi take medication that's prophylaxis so that you could have sexual intercourse with someone with HIV and not get HIV. So now that were not wearing about preventing HIV as much because there's other medications that are working for that people kind of forget about having to use a condom to prevent chlamydia and gonorrhea and herpes and warts because those aren't thought as long term diseases or a consequence infections. Here's a question, although still viable diseases. Yes, we are seeing large numbers of chlamydia still occurring gonorrhea for the last five years we have seen increases in STI's across the United States in all categories. So this isn't something that is even plateauing or that were seen going away by any means not just the Jesse mentioned using condoms is that as an educator. Is that something you have to teach people how to do, how to use a condom. Yes, absolutely. So when we go into education for students or we are doing outreach in the community. We make sure that we let folks know about condoms how to use them and we can provide demonstrations as well so we are able to show how to use internal and external condoms, or more commonly known as male and female condom okay you got me there. What is an internal condom. So an internal condom is sometimes still known as a female condom but that is a condom that can be used internally as the name would imply, so that could be utilized in someone with of the China they would insert the condom internally and it would provide protection that way. So you would use either the internal or external condom, but you would not use them both together to use one or the other and that internal condom can also provide some additional STI prevention externally. So when were thinking of those STI's that can be spread through skin to skin contact. The internal condom can provide some additional protection by having some of that condom outside of the body as well much in my stupid for not knowing what those are. No, but I feel that a lot of people don't know what they are. They're not commonly used is something that we encourage and we give out to all of our clients on a normal basis is using the internal condom should be used. It should be widely known but it's not. We think there's a lot of education that just focuses on the external or the male condom and when education occurs. They just forget about the internal condom. The other great thing about the internal condom is that it can be used for a no sex as well and exit points. The annual cavity. So one thing that we talk about. STI prevention ever it is that all penile to the badge. No sex will actually STI Xerox you can get Estes and Uranus. You can get it on your penis or in your Regina. So when were talking about. STI prevention were talking about. If you're having oral sex, wearing a condom to follow it out. That is why there are flavored so we went to the Reading is coming. We don't know that there are flavored condoms so if you are having oral sex and the penis is going into your mouth that individuals should be wearing a condom. There's also what we call dental dams, which are they got almost like a piece of plastic that would go over the national area that an individual could put there over the penis just so that there's for the protection from the skin to skin contact so that were not transmitting infections between individuals just review offer both of these types of condoms at health first network. Yes, we have both of these and all of our clinics available for anyone who's looking for them so people can pick these up regardless of sex, so again as we said for the internal and external condom with health first network to talk about. STI prevention. What about if you know you had unprotected sex and you're worried about you know, did I catch something or did so in noted something slick by the combo Maury got a bit your burner. It is your testing available yes. So we do testing for STI's and just as you said it whether someone has had unprotected sex, and even if they had protected sex, condoms work really really great at preventing STS, but since they aren't 100% we do recommend getting screened routinely for STI's. If you are sexually active, so at least once a year on the everyone should be getting screen for STI's, and if you are having a change in partner. If you have multiple partners then we would likely recommend getting screen more routinely so you can talk with one of our providers and then they would be able to let you know how frequently to be screened for that at health first. We test for chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, HPV genital herpes genital warts trichomoniasis or sometimes known as trick and HIV is there like a shot or vaccine or something that that somebody could take to prevent STI's there is a vaccine is called got a cell and it will protect you against nine of the most common cancer causing strains of HPV, which is the human papilloma virus. So what we see is that human papilloma virus is There's a lot of people out there that have cervical cancer that don't know that they have it or have the precancerous cells for cervical cancer correct. Yeah that's very true. So that is why when individuals come in for their annual exams. They are on schedules to have their Done and then we also do eight what's called HPV Co. testing. So we are taking samples of the cervix to be looking for the HPV virus as well. As part of the FP OS and is part of the family-planning only services or F because so with the Gardasil vaccine in the annual exams that Pap smear the HPV co-testing all of that is covered FP OS so individuals are getting these services at zero cost and were do we go about getting appointments. You call 1-800-246-5743 in nine counties in north-central Wisconsin