We need policy changes to deliver for the sick

In the Pope’s message for World Day of the Sick on February 11 2025, he touches on one of the most difficult topics that I, and I think many Catholics and Christians alike, struggle to wrestle with; the experience, and role of suffering.

It is not a topic Pope Francis has ever shied away from. In 2015, one of his most powerful addresses was when meeting the families of gravely ill children and he asked the question why the innocent suffer. It was powerful not necessarily because he answered the question, but rather because he didn’t. There is a certain mystery to the suffering many in the world experience that even our theological leadership cannot fully comprehend.

But in this year’s Message, he delves into how suffering can be a call for response, an opportunity for encounter, and an occasion to remind us all of our shared enrichment, when it is answered with care, accompaniment and hope. He goes as far to talk about the gifts of suffering, something that on first read, can be hard to stomach. The hope and closeness to God that is likely to be found in the darkest of places.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher also spoke of the understanding he gained about Jesus’s suffering, from his own battle with Guillain-Barré Syndrome which rendered him temporarily paralysed. “My own hands and feet, if not nailed to a cross, were certainly as ineffectual as he found his. I learned something more about what he’d been through, something he allowed to happen for the sake of my salvation and that of the world.”

This forms the basis of Catholic Health care’s mission not just in Australia, but globally. Suffering may be a human condition, but we do not have to accept the isolation, despair, and hopelessness that can permeate it. We all can respond.

My social media is flooded with requests for prayers and assistance lately, whether they be friends or community groups. Many people are struggling with the rising cost of living, the provision of affordable housing, the mounting bills and the family strains these can manifest. At Catholic Health Australia, we know that these struggles are deeply entwined with community health and wellbeing.

Our own advocacy has had to become far more wide reaching to address the systemic struggles being faced by many. Our services could, for instance, treat an infection and provide good pastoral and spiritual care, but if a person is returning to unstable housing arrangements, unable to afford medication, such a treatment is temporary at best.

People are generous where they can be. As Margaret Thatcher once famously said, the Good Samaritan did not only have good intentions, he had money as well. But with the growing pressures being faced by so many, a comprehensive response must be systematic. This requires policy changes and reframing that recognises our interconnected nature, and places the pursuit of the common good, and those who are vulnerable, at the centre.

In the upcoming federal election, CHA will be advocating for systemic policy changes. Policies can sometimes seem like a complicated jumble of government words when you’re trying to pay your bills, but they have real impacts on our ability to respond as we ought, to those who are suffering and vulnerable.

More than 70 private hospital services have closed just in the last five years. We need to ensure that our hospitals remain viable, so that the necessary services that are provided are accessible to people when they most need it. This includes outreach services that are funded to support those most at the margins.

We need to ensure that private health insurers are not capitalising on illness for their own profit, and that more money is going back into the provision of these necessary services.

We want to ensure that people have options when they are ill and suffering.When patients can be safely treated in the familiarity and comfort of their own home, they should be able to make that choice.

We also need to ensure that our workforce is supported. That they have the financial means and accommodation to live close to where they work, and can remain in the jobs that they are dedicated to, accompanying those who are ill and suffering.

Australia is facing an alarming rise in mental health needs, with many young people bearing the brunt of this pressure. Community-based mental healthcare must be included in private health insurance products to cover outpatient care, crisis intervention and rehabilitation services. The waiting period for mental health services for under 30s must also be removed to improve access and prevent an escalation of mental health issues.

These are just a snapshot of Catholic Health Australia’s advocacy platform ahead of the 2025 election. Suffering may be a human experience, but systemic changes could help drive the hope and gifts that Pope Francis has called on us this World Day of the Sick to deliver.

Brigid Meney is Director of Strategy and Mission at Catholic Health Australia. This article first appeared in The Catholic Weekly on February 20 2025