Health & Lifestyle

Occupational Therapist Diane Messer helps a patient with strengthening exercises during a visit to his home.

Story by Marisa Lavine

Adventist HealthCare’s Home Health division has once again been recognized as one of the top performing home health agencies in the nation for quality care.

The Home Health division has been named a Top Agency of 2017 HomeCare Elite®. This is the seventh year in a row that Adventist Home Health, part of Adventist HealthCare’s Home Care Services, has received this award, which is presented to the top 25 percent of agencies in the United States.

Photo by Geralt on Pixabay

Story by V. Michelle Bernad

What might Ellen White, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, say to addicts today? Cheri Peters, founder of True Step Ministries, recently edited White’s classic book Steps to Christ with what she thinks is the answer to that question. “It’s crazy that nobody has done it before,” says Peters, who aimed to update the book into modern language and added specific recovery jargon to the text.

Editorial by Josh Voigt

Addict. It’s a word we don’t like to use to describe ourselves. But at age 17, I was addicted to alcohol and cigarettes, and a user of marijuana, PCP (Phencyclidine) and other drugs.

I cannot place blame for my poor decisions on my parents or upbringing, as I was raised in a loving Seventh-day Adventist home. I became addicted through peer pressure and my inability to say no. I wanted friends to like me, and never wanted to look like I was too afraid to try something. 

Photo of Norman Carter by Kevin Cameron

Story by Tamaria L. Kulemeka

Norman Carter, a member of Allegheny West Conference’s Temple Emmanuel in Youngstown, Ohio, is also on the frontlines of the drug crisis. 

“[The opioid crisis] is a beast that’s been unleashed. … In order to stop it, you have to stop drugs, and we know that is not going to happen. I think that all we can do is be prepared to provide services to those in need,” says Carter, who kicked his crack cocaine habit nearly eight years ago, and three years ago founded the Carter House, a transitional residential program in Youngstown. 

Photo of Darcel Harris by Kelly Butler Coe

Story by Tamaria L. Kulemeka

Darcel Harris is thankful for the success her 12-step group, patterned after the Regeneration model, has experienced for nearly three decades. Harris, a middle school Language Arts teacher, psychology professor and author in Westminster, Md., says the group grew out of Chesapeake Conference’s Westminster (Md.) church, where she is a member. Today they meet every Friday night and during a branch Sabbath School service called True Vine. They also operate a non-profit called Grow, which enables them to provide resources and minister to the needs of homeless people, drug addicts and the less fortunate in the community.