“Our Suffering Neighbor”: Catholic Health Care & A Moral Obligation to Address Oral Health
Sibil Shibu, University of Alabama Birmingham Medicine, Birmingham, AL, Loyola University, Chicago, IL
Throughout the history of the Western medical tradition, there has been a shift from holistic healing in health care, to health care merely becoming a “bandage” to address immediate needs. There has been a shift from divine forms of healing to the humoral theory, to Western medicine emphasizing treating specific ailments rather than a patient holistically. Holistic healing goes beyond inpatient duties, it extends to addressing the current public health crisis, due to a lack of emphasis on preventative care. Specifically, the United States spends “90% of the budget on disease treatment and their complications rather than prevention (only 2–3%) whereas many of these diseases can be prevented at the first stage”.2 Religious perspectives on medicine have been utilized throughout the history of medicine as religious practices, values, and teachings have played a significant role in the development of medical practices, hospitals, and ideologies of holistic health care. Catholic health care, influenced by the healing ministry of Jesus, embodies a commitment to serve those in the margins.
In this provision of care for the marginalized, oral health care is often overlooked. There has clearly been a lack of integration of oral health in the provision of health care in the United States which has led to a silent epidemic of oral disease. The fragmented delivery of oral health care is influenced by accessibility issues due to geographical, educational, and socioeconomic factors. These accessibility issues result in “delayed diagnosis, untreated oral diseases and conditions, compromised health status, and, occasionally, even death”.2 These accessibility issues and harms associated with a lack of access to oral health care are exacerbated for already vulnerable populations. In this paper, I will use Catholic Social Teaching to present that Catholic health care has a moral obligation to address the silent epidemic of oral disease as a way of achieving whole person nourishment as evident in the healing ministry of Jesus. Expanding holistic oral health care at the margins involves engaging various stakeholders including health care organizations, community members, religious groups, local and statewide public health organizations, and policymakers to move oral health care upstream, rather than emergent dental care being the only form of oral health care available.
Works Cited:
1. Razzak, Muhammad Imran, Muhammad Imran, and Guandong Xu. “Big Data Analytics for Preventive Medicine.” Neural Computing and Applications 32, no. 9 (March 16, 2019): 4417–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-019-04095-y.
2. Naidoo, Sudeshni. “Ethical considerations in community oral health.” Journal of dental education vol. 79,5 Suppl (2015): S38-44.
In this provision of care for the marginalized, oral health care is often overlooked. There has clearly been a lack of integration of oral health in the provision of health care in the United States which has led to a silent epidemic of oral disease. The fragmented delivery of oral health care is influenced by accessibility issues due to geographical, educational, and socioeconomic factors. These accessibility issues result in “delayed diagnosis, untreated oral diseases and conditions, compromised health status, and, occasionally, even death”.2 These accessibility issues and harms associated with a lack of access to oral health care are exacerbated for already vulnerable populations. In this paper, I will use Catholic Social Teaching to present that Catholic health care has a moral obligation to address the silent epidemic of oral disease as a way of achieving whole person nourishment as evident in the healing ministry of Jesus. Expanding holistic oral health care at the margins involves engaging various stakeholders including health care organizations, community members, religious groups, local and statewide public health organizations, and policymakers to move oral health care upstream, rather than emergent dental care being the only form of oral health care available.
Works Cited:
1. Razzak, Muhammad Imran, Muhammad Imran, and Guandong Xu. “Big Data Analytics for Preventive Medicine.” Neural Computing and Applications 32, no. 9 (March 16, 2019): 4417–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-019-04095-y.
2. Naidoo, Sudeshni. “Ethical considerations in community oral health.” Journal of dental education vol. 79,5 Suppl (2015): S38-44.