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Chattanooga: Doctor, UTC nursing students widen foot-care ministry to homeless clients

By: Clint Cooper
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Chris Segier

As Earlene Roshell Baker had lotion rubbed on her feet at Chattanooga Community Kitchen earlier this week, she practically cooed.

“Girl, that feels so good,” she said.

Ms. Baker was one of 11 homeless clients that day of the agency’s weekly foot-care ministry.

The ministry was started more than five years ago and continues to be run by Brother Ron Fender, a member of the Episcopal Brotherhood of St. Gregory and the Community Kitchen’s outreach case manager.

Now, Chattanooga podiatrist Dr. Chris Segler, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga nursing instructor Lisa Muirhead and UTC nursing students will partner in the duties each week, offering the same human touch but also medical care and referrals for those clients with more serious issues.

“There’s a great need (of assistance) for people that need care for their feet,” said Dr. Segler, “particularly people who walk all day long oftentimes in ill-fitting or completely worn-out shoes.”

The podiatrist, a Chattanooga native, first began volunteering at the agency about two years ago after hearing a presentation by Mr. Fender at Church of the Good Shepherd-Episcopal. He recently changed his practice hours at the Ankle & Foot Center of Chattanooga to accommodate the additional treatment.

Dr. Segler, who worked with homeless populations in Houston and San Francisco during his medical training, said foot care is often neglected by homeless people. Offering more extensive medical care, he said, may keep them from getting lost or disappearing.

Charlie Hughes, executive director of the Chattanooga Community Kitchen, said the foot-care ministry helps identify medical problems and gives clients a sense that someone cares about them. The ministry has been important in breaking down barriers with the homeless, he said.

“Once we develop a relationship (with an individual), we can talk about other things,” he said.

The ministry has become so important, Community Kitchen officials said, that it will be given a dedicated and expanded area in the agency’s day-center expansion.

The new space “will be a huge leap for us,” Mr. Fender said. “I think Chattanooga should be very proud of that because ... there are very few cities with actual foot-care centers for the homeless.”

He said the ministry has served as many as 20 people a day. His services traditionally have included washing, massaging and inspecting the feet.

“You know, when I came, it was me and a bucket,” Mr. Fender said.

Among the first people to be examined last week was Ron Bettis, a diabetic who had been seen by the St. Gregory brother since he began the ministry.

Although he nearly lost a toe a year ago because of his disease, the client’s feet were healthy when a UTC student nurse looked at them.

Mr. Fender said agency officials weren’t sure how the foot ministry would be embraced when he began it. The homeless clients showed immediately appreciation, he said, and agency officials and the public were soon on board.

“It touches people,” he said. “Everybody can relate.”

The ministry’s partnership with the UTC nursing program grew out of a homelessness unit created for the community nursing class, Ms. Muirhead said. As part of the unit, Mr. Fender was invited to speak at a forum at the university.

Then, in May, registered nurses who were getting their bachelor’s degree took on foot ministry as a complement to what the Episcopal brother was doing, she said.

In addition, Ms. Muirhead, as part of her doctoral program with the University of Alabama at Birmingham, hopes to create an integrated best practices model, with health solutions to disease prevention, of foot care for the homeless.

“Our students have really jumped into this effort,” she said, “and hopefully we can champion this cause with a best practices model.”

The partnership among the Community Kitchen, UTC and Dr. Segler is important, Ms. Muirhead said, “so we can build an infrastructure that can continue ... access to health care combined with high quality care.”

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