Newsworthy

Dear Community Partners,

Here are today’s updates:

• Grateful for Good Neighbors
• Every Little Bit Matters

Grateful for Good Neighbors

One of the closest neighbors to Stormont Vail Health’s Topeka hospital campus is south across S.W. 10th street. It is there, at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, that a wealth of information and resources is available.

Through the years, the two organizations have worked together on various initiatives, but each also stays focused on its own mission. The similarity is that both serve the community in many ways.

The library organized its collection into “neighborhoods” and of particular interest is the Health Information Neighborhood, where books and resources on health and wellness topics are available. Library employees often direct patrons to credible health information.

A key connection Stormont Vail has with the library is through Lissa Staley, the TSCPL Community Connections Librarian, who serves as a member of our Patient and Family Partnership Council for Quality and Safety. Lissa not only provides great feedback and resourceful information, she offers a very community-oriented perspective. In addition to sharing during our council meetings, Lissa imparts her knowledge about resources in other ways, such as a blog she does for the library’s website.

Lissa recently shared information about how people can get help connecting with community resources that address social determinants of health (housing, food, etc.) through the Community Navigator Initiative. It is part of the United Way pf Kaw Valley’s GROW program and navigators are available at the library as well as East Topeka Senior Center and Fellowship Hi-Crest.

Just as Stormont Vail is reaching out to help those in the communities it serves, it takes partners like Lissa and her peers at the Topeka library, as well as many other community organizations working together to address the many needs we face in our region. It takes neighbors working together.

Every Little Bit Matters

Giving goes full circle. The Stormont Vail Foundation recently received a positive note about the impact it has on our team and community. Heather McGann, Licensed Clinical Therapist Supervisor-Inpatient at the Stormont Vail Behavioral Health Center shared with her team that the Foundation had provided the funding for the Behavioral Health Inpatient team to create 100 homeless “dignity bags” to provide to the homeless population discharged to shelters. The bags contain personal hygiene products and other basics. The Behavioral Health team also gave a portion of the kits to the Stormont Vail Mobile Clinic for them to distribute when they are out in the community. Thank you to all of our team members who helped support this effort in serving our community.

We together,

Dr. Kenagy