by Katie Patrick
Have you ever called our main line at the Catholic Social Services Lincoln office? The number is (402) 474-1600. If you have called, perhaps it was to connect with a member of our team, or to make a donation, or schedule a furniture pick up, or to request help from one of our programs such as food assistance or financial assistance.
Well, whatever the case may have been, did you get what you needed? I hope so! But if you didn’t, and you were frustrated by our phone tree, and it took you multiple tries to get the person you needed, I get that, too.
The obstacle we face at CSS in Lincoln is that we have so many different staff and programs—and reasons that people reach out to us, that it can be overwhelming on the receiving end. This is why we frequently revisit our phone tree and are always looking for ways to improve it and make it more user-friendly. However, last Thursday, God had His hand in our phone tree improvement plan.
Imagine being alone at the hospital after surgery, and needing to make a phone call from your hospital bed. You buzz the nurse to hand you the phone because there is no one in the recovery room with you. You pull up the Catholic Social Services website on your smartphone, something that you’ve never had to do before. Before dialing the number, you make sure that the papers from the hospital and the denial notice from Medicaid are close by. You’ll need both when you call CSS. Once you’re ready, you dial (402) 474-1600, and when you are connected, you select the option for “Family Support Services.”
Now, here is the part where God intervened.
Since we don’t take financial requests outside of Monday mornings, our staff was using the opportunity to work on our phone tree. Marilu (who, as you may recall from her article a few weeks ago, is working remotely in Mexico as she and her husband are adopting a little girl) was directly dialing our Family Support Services number expecting Claire, at the front desk, to pick up the phone. To her surprise, when she said, “Claire?” a woman’s voice was crying on the other end. It was the woman from the hospital.
Marilu quickly learned that this woman had just come out of surgery, and was told that the machine needed to assist in her recovery and prevent infection was not covered by Medicaid. Unfortunately, she had no way of being able to afford the machine, which was roughly $500.
Imagine that. Imagine being so alone that the only phone call you can make for help to cover the cost of an urgent and important need was essentially a stranger at CSS. Marilu, in her faith, knew that this connection was no coincidence. She patiently listened, empathizing with the woman amid her difficult situation, and taking down all the details so that she could share the request with our Family Support Services committee. As Marilu ended the conversation with a commitment to follow up with her by the end of the week, the woman repeatedly thanked her for answering her call.
Requests like this woman’s are quite common. Our Family Support Services team daily encounters individuals and families going through hard times, and that is where you come in. Your charitable donations have a direct effect in alleviating these hardships, by providing households the financial assistance they need to get through it. In fact, if it wasn’t for people like you, and the gifts you give to CSS, we wouldn’t have been able to help this woman.
Additionally, your prayers raise spirits and give hope to those who need it the most. So thank you for all that you do for your neighbor and our communities. You may never meet those you assist in person, but the burden that you lift off their shoulders is real, and great will be your reward. Thank you and may God bless you and keep you always!
