Join us in celebrating our Mercy Serves AmeriCorps members (pictured above) during AmeriCorps Week!
Mercy Serves is a service-learning program in which AmeriCorps members serve a 11-month term of service with our ministry to address pressing community health needs.
Mercy Serves is celebrating its fourth year molding the next generation of civic and health care leaders. This year, members have been deployed to address unique needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the challenges of this past year, Mercy Serves members answered the call to serve. They are currently supporting Mercy Health patients and community members to achieve their best health in a variety of ways:
- AmeriCorps Members are conducting wellness calls via the phone to patients recently discharged from the emergency departments at Anderson Hospital, Clermont Hospital and West Hospital. During these calls, they offer connections to community resources such as substance use treatment, primary care providers, housing, food access, other healthcare resources and utility assistance.
- AmeriCorps Members are supporting the system-wide implementation of Advance Care Planning, and they are trained as Advance Care Planning Specialists to have conversations with patients about their health care decision makers and health care preferences.
- AmeriCorps Members are also supporting the distribution of CARES Act dollars through the Ohio Home Relief Program. These efforts provide direct assistance to the residents of Bond Hill and Roselawn who were behind on rent, mortgage, and water/sewage utilities.
While supporting patients and the goals of our ministry, these members are also gaining valuable insights into the health system’s emergency response and how to serve the whole person.
“As we reach a full year of extreme loss and suffering due to COVID-19, Advance Care Planning became a priority in the health system,” shares Alyssa Boiman, a 2020-2021 Mercy Serves member. “Due to the gravity of the virus, knowing the health care wishes and goals of care of patients is more important now than ever. Being able to directly support the Advance Care conversation and assist patients to fill out legal documents stating their health care wishes has been a humbling experience for me both personally and professionally. As a recent social work graduate, being able to work with experienced social workers in the health system has opened my eyes and allowed me to find a level of passion in an area of social work that I had not previously imagined myself exploring. Through this work, I hope to be able to take this experience gained with Advance Care Planning and carry it throughout the remainder of my career in social work post-AmeriCorps.”
“Overall, my experience working with people in the Cincinnati community to gain rent assistance was a mixed bag of emotions,” shares Parker Sullivan, another 2020-2021 Mercy Serves member. “I was inspired by the strength and resiliency, while simultaneously dismayed by the existence of such situations. However, I believe that is both feelings that will grant me strength as an AmeriCorps member and fuel my passion of closing the opportunity gaps in this country and make it a better place for all to live in peace and prosperity.”
Mercy Serves Americorps Program recruits a new class of members each year to serve from September through August. Any applicants or individuals interested in learning more about this program should contact Tamiko Mauldin, professional recruiter, at TMauldin@mercy.com.
Learn more about the health care services we offer at Mercy Health.
