Health Ministry

"I cannot recommend highly enough the 'Powerful Tools for Caregivers' training program. . . developed in Portland, Oregon."

~Gail Sheehy, Passages in Caregiving

Powerful Tools for Caregivers is a six-week educational series designed to help unpaid family caregivers take care of themselves while caring for a relative or friend with a chronic illness. Caregivers develop a wealth of self-care tools to reduce personal stress, communicate their needs effectively in challenging situations, deal with difficult emotions, and make tough caregiving decisions. You will benefit from this class whether you are helping a parent, spouse, or friend who lives at home, in a nursing home, or across the country.

Find upcoming classes here!

• Odds Are, They're Taking Your Blood Pressure All Wrong

• Protecting Ourselves Against Mosquito Bites

• Men's Health

• Discussions Decisions, & Documents for End-of-Life

Our Health Ministry, comprised mostly of health professionals, help with issues of health, healing, and wholeness. We also work with other Holy Trinity ministries to encourage and foster healthy habits for the body, mind, and spirit. We welcome any parishioners with skills in various healthcare and medical fields who are willing and able to offer their occasional expertise and service.

The Health Ministry meets on the second Monday of the month in the Fireside Room at 9:00am (after the 8:15am daily Mass). 

Fruits and vegetables add important nutrients to your diet and provide important health benefits — and they're tasty, too! Sometimes, raw fruit and vegetables can contain harmful germs that make you and your family sick, like Slamonella, E. coli, and listeria. According to the CDC, nearly half of foodborne illnesses in the United States are caused by germs on fresh produce. While anyone can get a foodborne illness (sometimes called 'food poisoning'), individuals in certain groups are more likely to get sick and to have a more serious illness than others. The CDC says that those groups are:

• Children younger than 5 years of age

• Pregnant women

• Adults aged 65 and older

• People with weakened immune systems

The CDC advises that the safest produce is cooked; the next safest is washed. Check out their infographic below for tips on keeping your fruits and veggies safe to eat, and visit their website to learn more and be alerted to outbreaks of infections linked to fruits and vegetables.

Caring for someone we love is rewarding, but it can be both physically and emotionally challenging. The Powerful Tools for Caregivers class series teaches tools and techniques to make caregiving safer, easier, and a better experience for everyone.

The next class series will be held on Thursdays from 1:30–4:00pm at the Hillsboro Brookwood Library, April 11–May 16. The class is open to any unpaid caregiver who cares for an aging or chronically ill relative or friend. The person in their care may live at home, in a facility or across the country. Click here to learn more and register.


Washington County’s Family Caregiver Support Program is looking for input from unpaid family caregivers to help inform current projects aimed to support caregivers. If you are caring for someone over the age of 60 or someone of any age with dementia and are interested in participating, please call 503.846.3090 or email Shannon Baggerman. Thank you for your willingness to support family caregivers in Washington County!

Public health officials across the country note increased flu activity. Hospitalizations are also on the rise. It is never too late to get your flu shot not only to protect your family and yourself but also to protect others.

It is worth knowing a few additional facts about the flu this year, based on an interview with an infectious disease specialist and summarized in the Wall Street Journal:

• Three to 6 feet: The distance anyone with the flu can spread the virus to another person.

• 24 to 48 hours: The time interval you can infect a person even though you have no symptoms.

• 10 days to two weeks: The time between getting your shot until the time you are likely protected with antibody.

• 60%…or less protection: Flu vaccine is not 100% protective. Yet, those who do get the flu are much less likely to progress to complications like pneumonia or death.

• One-and-a-half: This is the average number of people, on average, that someone with the flu can infect in 2019.

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) related emergency preparedness and outbreak response has become one of the most significant and crucial public health issues in recent history. Emergencies can include natural disasters (for example, hurricanes, floods, and droughts), man-made disasters (for example, chemical spills into waterways), and outbreaks (for example, infections linked to water exposure after a disaster). Creating an emergency water supply for you and your family is an essential part of emergency preparations.
 
Store at least 1 gallon of water per day for each person and each pet. You should consider storing more water than this for hot climates, for pregnant women, and for persons who are sick.
 
Store at least a 3-day supply of water for each person and each pet. Try to store a 2-week supply, if possible. Observe the expiration date for store-bought water. Replace non-store-bought water every 6 months.
 
Store a bottle of unscented liquid household chlorine bleach (label should say it contains between 5-6% and 8.25% of sodium hypochlorite) to disinfect your water, if necessary, and to use for general cleaning and sanitizing. The CDC provides specific directions on how to disinfect water with unscented household liquid chlorine bleach.
 
In emergency situations, listen to local officials to find out if your water is safe. If it is not, use bottled water if possible; bottled water is the safest choice for drinking and all other uses. If bottled water is not available, water contaminated with germs can often can be made safe to drink by boiling, adding disinfectants, or filtering. Water contaminated with fuel or toxic chemicals will not be made safe by boiling or disinfection. Use bottled water or a different source of water if you know or suspect that your water might be contaminated with fuel or toxic chemicals.