Northwestern health care workers, Cary nonprofit, Rotary group team up for medical mission trip to Jamaica

Every year, a team of volunteers transforms a church in Negril, Jamaica, into a medical center filled with different stations, makeshift patient rooms and plenty of supplies. This year, with the help of three Northwestern Medicine health care workers from McHenry County, the team was able to provide free health care services to more than 500 patients.

The Cary-based nonprofit the Joshua Mission has organized an annual medical mission trip in February for the past six years. Its goal is to provide essential care, including critical medical, dental and mental health needs, along with medical and wellness education, to those with little to no access to health care. The Joshua Mission was founded by nurse practitioner Susan Bartsch and her husband Greg in 2016.

Access to health care in Jamaica is direly scarce, Susan Bartsch said. With the nearest public hospital almost 20 miles away, the mission’s efforts are the only form of health care many of their patients receive, according to a Northwestern Medicine news release.

This year, the organization gathered a team of about 30 people from all over the U.S. and Canada. Many are nurses, dental hygienists and physicians, but people who don’t have medical experience also join.

“It is getting bigger every year,” Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital cardiology nurse Judy Wett said.

This was Wett’s second time visiting Jamaica with the nonprofit. The Crystal Lake resident first heard about the mission through a friend who’s a dental hygienist. With a drive to help others, she’s now also on the Joshua Mission board.

“That’s why I do what I do at the hospital,” she said. “I know I can give people ideas to get healthier.”

Bartsch became connected to Jamaica because her husband visited the country regularly as a cabinetmaker for decades. She started helping out medically with a family whom her husband grew close with over the years. Word quickly spread, and people started lining up to see her.

Bartsch got the name for her organization from her first patient, a man named Joshua with dangerously high blood pressure. In February, he stopped by to see her again, Bartsch said.

“He said, ‘I know I wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for you,’” she recalled.

Dr. Nathan Kakish, a Northwestern Medicine Huntley and Woodstock primary care physician, described the health system in Jamaica as dismal with little supplies or staff. During his visit, Kakish checked the blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol of patients, and from there, treated them, educated themabout managing their conditions and tried to “plug them into the local health system,” he said.

Kakish helped a couple of kids who came in with wheezing and asthma symptoms. He was able to use paper cups to make spacers for inhalers, or the cylinders used to make sure the right amount of medicine is inhaled. He said he remembered learning the tip years ago at a medical seminar.

“This stored bit of desperate information that I learned many years – that I never, ever thought would come in handy – came in useful,” he said. “It worked.”

Kakish has always made it a priority to offer his services. He has been volunteering at the Family Health Partnership Clinic in Crystal Lake, where he’s from, for almost 20 years. Inspired by a fellow volunteer at the clinic, his trip to Jamaica was his first international mission.

“I’ve always held that health care is a right for all, and everybody has the right to good, quality health care,” he said. “It shouldn’t break people’s budgets. They shouldn’t have to tap into their 401(k)s.”

The Joshua Mission also donates multiple barrels of medical supplies to clinics and fire departments. The group was able to bring in medicine, vitamins, gauze and an EKG machine.

This was the second mission trip for Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital wound care nurse and Algonquin resident Kate Brania. This year, she got to work closer with the local medical clinic that had “devastatingly” low supplies. With the donated items, she got to teach the staff how to use the new supplies.

“They’re really managing symptoms, as opposed to healing people,” she said.

If she’s able, Brania said she plans to go every year. The weeklong mission is a lot of work but rewarding, she said.

“It kind of reminds you why you became a nurse,” she said. “Yes, you’re tired, but you feel really good about what you did and what you may have offered to somebody.”

The Rotary Club of Fox Valley Sunset, which includes the Crystal Lake, Algonquin and Elgin areas, also joined the mission and helped renovate a rural medical clinic. The club has renovated a library and helped widowed women in past years.

With the help of volunteers and donations, the Joshua Mission aims to visit Jamaica every year. Here is where you can find more information on the Joshua Mission: thejoshuamissioninc.org.