The following cover letter and document were part of the assignment for the Community Teacher program we participated in this year.

March 30, 2026

To Whom It May Concern:

This document was produced by health professions students as part of their Community Teacher interprofessional course, which is part of the 1Health curriculum for the University of Minnesota (z.umn.edu/cteacher).  The 1Health Community Teacher course is an educational experience that pairs medical, pharmacy, occupational therapy, health coaching, and nursing students, with a volunteer Community Teacher (CT). The CT is an individual from the community who volunteers to share their healthcare experiences and learn about their healthcare issues through the collaboration of students and faculty facilitators. Students working in interprofessional teams of 3-4 students are paired with a CT volunteer, and they all meet together three times during the academic year.

The primary purpose of this course is for students to develop a working/professional relationship with their CT and learn from their CT’s health and life experiences. Students will get to know their CT volunteer over the academic year by engaging in meaningful conversations and exploring ways in which interprofessional teams can collaborate to better understand the CT’s strengths, needs, and opportunities to enhance well-being and gain insight into their pattern of health care utilization. Better understanding these three factors can help both students and the CT volunteers understand how a care plan may need to be modified to fit into a patient’s/client’s life. CTs will also have an opportunity to better understand the variety of health professional roles represented in their group, and how those professions interact with one another.  

For their final assignment, the students have written this document about their CT, sharing their learnings about his/her health situation and possible recommendations for addressing any strengths, needs, and opportunities to enhance well-being identified over the academic year. The students also share their reflections about the experience in the same document. The CT is given a copy of this assignment and may choose to share it with their primary care provider, someone on their health care team, a family member, etc. The CT is identified only by first name and last initial in the document, and the students will only share a copy with the CT directly, in addition to submitting a copy for course credit; it is not shared with any outside parties. 

We encourage you to contact us if you have any questions about this program: cteacher@umn.edu.

Sincerely,

Chrystian Pereira, Pharm.D, BCPS
Assistant Professor
University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy
Community Teacher Faculty Lead

Introduction

We had the privilege of working with our community Steve H., who has been bravely grappling with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) since his diagnosis in 2022. We worked closely with Steve and his wife, Sheila. Since Steve is no longer able to speak, we mostly spoke with Sheila and would look to Steve to clarify non-verbally or with his typed AI generated voice. Steve and Sheila as a pair helped to educate us on the course of his disease, showed us the strengths of their support system, and described all of the technology and resources in use to help Steve maintain as much independence as possible.

Our names are Emma Kellgren, first-year master of nursing student, Alysha Kruger, second-year occupational therapy student, Ryan Leriche, first-year medical student, and Connor Veldman, first-year medical student. This document is an assessment of the current health situation of our community teacher volunteer, Steve H., whom we have met over the 2025-26 school year. Our assessment is in two parts: part one provides a summary and feedback on our Community Teacher, and part two is a reflection of our group’s experience during this course and working with our community teacher.

This assessment is being provided to both Steve H., as well as being submitted for course credit. Please refer to the cover letter from Dr. Pereira for more information about the purpose and background of the Community Teacher course.

Summary

Steve H. was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2022. Since then, he has moved from Minnesota to Kentucky to be closer to his family. He currently resides in Kentucky with his wife, Sheila. Steve’s background has been in technology for over 30 years, which has led to him adeptly managing the use of assistive technology to help him as his disease progressed. While he is now confined to his bedroom and uses a tracheostomy, the use of this assistive technology has aided him in staying comfortable, communicating, and engaging in the activities he enjoys like reading and playing games. He has also used his experience with navigating ALS to build a website with a plethora of resources for other individuals going through what he’s gone through, covering everything from general advice to assistive technology. Steve has stated that this has helped give him purpose and a goal. Additionally, Steve is part of an ALS Association support group in the state of Kentucky, and since he is further progressed in his disease now, he helps other individuals with finding resources and questions they have as they begin their journeys with ALS.

Assessment

Steve’s biggest strength is his resilience and belief in God’s larger plan; he is hopeful in the face of pain and the progressive illness that he lives with. He emphasizes that he has a purpose to pursue each day, one that includes exploring his hobbies and laughing with family. His adaptability is admirable, too: as mentioned above, he has integrated many different technologies into his life that have helped him to live with a better ability to do what he enjoys. His interest and ability in this regard has paid dividends in his life, and sharing about what he has done through his website has helped many people to better live with and understand ALS, our group included. Further, on his website he reflects on his career and includes powerful scriptural reflections. He maintains his hobbies by “focusing on life, not just the disease” and continues to read a book a week, watch YouTube videos to learn about technology, and play games virtually with his loved ones.

Steve’s needs at this time are primarily healthcare system based. The local hospital in Frankfort lacks the ability to offer meaningful care for Steve, which means they have to travel to Lexington, which is a thirty-plus minute drive. An example Steve shared is that the ER in Frankfort cannot change his tracheostomy tube as they do not have the right tools and tubing on hand, calling for them to travel to the further hospital. They also recounted stories of how there were not always open beds at this hospital, and how transport can cause issues and stress as he typically needs to be transported by an ambulance. There were times where an ambulance wasn’t available, and he had to be transported via helicopter, and Sheila was not allowed to ride with him. Another of Steve’s needs at this time is a work around for his catheter changes. Lately, the changes have been needing to be made more frequently than medical professionals are around home, which is understandably problematic for him. Thankfully, Sheila’s niece, who is a nursing student, is around often enough to check things over and make changes if needed. Both Sheila and their niece have provided a critical care taking role in filling in this gap in medical care themselves.

Steve’s opportunities for enhancing well-being are largely subjective for him. Even despite the severe and progressive nature of ALS, his outlook is still very positive. However, he and Sheila reported him wanting to spend more time with family and friends, especially those from church. Perhaps, inviting more people to visit could be a great opportunity to provide more social interactions and connections.

Recommendations

Over the course of our meetings, our group consistently reveled in the fact that Steve and his wife, Sheila, were so incredibly well-adjusted given the circumstances. In the light of a progressive disease, they were fortunate enough to have the strength to find support systems in their new community after moving and to implement technology for Steve to continue to learn, speak, and continue with his passions after his diagnosis. What we honestly recommend to Steve and Sheila is to continue on exactly how they have been living. They both have wonderful, optimistic attitudes, citing many of their blessings due to what the church has given them, and their support systems with two of their kids living in Kentucky to be closer. Steve has done an incredible job integrating modern technology, such as the eye-gaze technology, into his daily life in order to maintain his ability to communicate, work on his website, and read to learn.

The one concrete recommendation that we would make to Steve and his family would be to set up visitation hours to be able to connect with people from the church more regularly. Both Steve and Sheila have contributed huge amounts of support that have come from the church, but as Steve is now confined to his home, it is more difficult for him to reach the people who have been so supportive and helpful to Sheila as a caregiver. What this looks like would be individualized to what they need from the church, whether it be prayers, reading scriptures, or something entirely unique, but there is always some grade of isolation that occurs with being confined to one area. By setting up a system for support systems to come into the home, this could help Steve see more people from a community that was incredibly beneficial to him and his family.

Student Reflections

We came together very naturally in providing a person-centered approach. As a group we came up with general questions beforehand, but focused on following the flow of conversation and going back to general questions only when the conversation slowed—which it rarely did. One challenge of a person-centered approach was getting to know Steve’s needs since they are always changing with ALS. This is true in both of the terms of the new technology he’s adapting to and the disease progression. Something unexpected we learned about resilience and the importance of finding purpose in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. In terms of interprofessional collaboration, we mostly came together as all having more or less similar roles—rather than the predefined roles we’ll find ourselves in our careers. Considering the CT experience altogether, our team organized around Steve’s narrative during interviewing by intentionally taking turns in question asking. The expectations of our visits were general (e.g., where the patient is from, diagnosis, experience in health care), but we focused more so on Steve’s difficulty navigating the healthcare system after noticing we did not know that part of his story.