Saves Nine
This is an old saying that I have not heard recently. I wish I were hearing it a lot.
Putting a stitch in a garment at the right time will save the one sewing nine stitches later, after the garment falls apart. Prevention is better than crisis management.
That is a good and proper attitude but it seems to have fallen on hard times recently. I do not know why but my profession and the dramatic increase in miracle drugs and massive rescue programs may be partially responsible.
There is no doubt that researchers have developed many "miracle drugs" over the past century or so. The findings about anti-psychotic and newer classes of anti-depression medications are stunning and have emptied the old psychiatric hospitals that once dotted our landscapes.
Perhaps no place have we seen the practices of prevention applied and forgotten more than in the fields of personal health. The "Biggie Sized" meals and buffet bars found in every city in America has led me and millions of others to overeat and gain weight. But hold on a minute. There must be a "miracle drug" I can take to make me slim again.
Nope, the rule is this same as it has always been:
"A second on the lips and forever on the hips."
In my professional field, mental health and spiritual maturity, prevention has also been largely forgotten. Prevent my problems? Nope, I'll just wait until a good doctor with a powerful pill can cure me of my ADD and my kid of ADHD. Self discipline and developing peaceful habits of prayer and meditation with God is too difficult.
For example, we know quite well how to prevent major problems and reduce divorces. The church can develop required premarital preparation classes and teach what we know, but almost no Protestant churches do it. Or, if they do the curriculum fails to include that which we know to work. Why?
In Hamilton County over 40 Million Dollars is spent each year on Mental Health and Mental Retardation. Over 99% of that goes to professionals to treat the smallest group of the most impaired people. Almost nothing is spent to do prevention. It is much harder to get people excited about prevention but we can always raise money for the group that functions most poorly. What about putting in a stitch or two to save nine or so million?
Several churches and pare-Church groups have banded together recently to set up an inner city treatment center. It is very expensive and will touch only those already most deeply mired in difficulties. Would prevention and building personal and family strengths be a better use of time and money?
During my trip to Kenya East Africa I saw prevention at work in a wonderful way. Several years before I arrived a couple from Seattle who saw the terrible health problems of the people living in the bush and decided to do something to help them.
Tim Fairman, a Presbyterian Missionary from Pennsylvania, had been evangelizing and doing medical/social work with the group for several years. He had the trust of the tribal leaders.
Tim wisely asked the couple to meet with them to discuss the best course of action. Those meetings went on and on while the Chiefs, Tim and the authorities thoughtfully considered how to proceed. The couple flew in annually to carry our small projects among the people.
Many strategies were considered. A new medical office; visits from medical personnel; A new church building; etc. After several years the decision was made. "We will run a water pipe from the mountain ten miles away to the village."
When considering options for health care we must always think about available resources. To put it bluntly, how do we get the "Biggest bang for the buck?" By treating the sick we can help stop many children and adults from dying but it requires a great deal of money and professional expertise to accomplish.
Water, however, that is fresh, free of bacteria and easily used by both animals and people will solve numerous problems and prevent many diseases. Women are the burden bearers who had to walk ten miles each week to carry water back to the village. Now that back breaking and inefficient work was unnecessary. Now cattle can be raised for they have water for the first time. Crops can be irrigated.
This was a relatively cheap intervention that solved many problems and prevented many more. And, the tribe decided they needed to pay for the project in order to really "own it". Fresh food, meat, eggs and so forth could be marketed. Women were not only saved from a terrible job they had time to better rear children and perform other economically positive tasks.
Unlike professional interventions after sickness develops or a government handout that requires constant upkeep and money, it is a one time expenditure but lasts a long time.
Programs in churches that prevent spiritual, mental, emotional and family problems are easily implemented, inexpensive, long lasting and have many payoffs for all concerned. Why not try it?
posted by Gary Sweeten @ Sunday, August 20, 2006
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