The first You-Turn follow-up meeting to the Azure Hills You-Turn program that ended back in March was scheduled to meet on Sunday, Aug. 20, at 4:00 p.m. at the Elias Community Center at Azure Hills Church. Unfortunately, Hurricane Hilary had other ideas and threatened to cancel it. Undaunted, the group went with Plan B and met on Zoom, and thankfully experienced no power outages during the almost 2-hr meeting.
This was the first meeting since the passing of Dr. Hans Diehl, the creator of the You-Turn program. Since Dr. Diehl requested to not have any kind of public memorial service for him, a good portion of the time was spent sharing what Dr. Diehl meant to the participants and leaders of You-Turn and C.H.I.P. programs, his first creation.
Over an hour was spent listening to stories of how people’s health was improved. One lady was on so many medications but by the time she finished, she had stopped many of them. Many participants talked about Dr. Diehl’s ability to speak to hundreds of people and then focus on just them and remember them. He explained things in a way that was easy to understand. He was a great motivator for change. Everyone who spoke mentioned that they knew Dr. Diehl cared for them, and would go out of his way to help them.
Some of Dr. Diehl’s volunteer leaders also shared what they learned from him. He was a mentor to many, sharing his techniques, planning, and organizational skills with them. They now feel equipped to carry on his legacy.
This tribute time for Dr. Diehl was recorded on Zoom and shared with the Diehl family. His wife, Lily Diehl, said she “…greatly appreciated the tribute video…” and sent her thanks and blessings to us all.
The rest of the meeting was spent dividing the participants up into four breakout groups, each facilitated by a Loma Linda Univ. School of Public Health graduate student studying health coaching. Each health coach talked with the people in their group to see how they were doing, and to find out what further services and help they needed to maintain the changes learned in the You Turn program. Many of the participants want to continue working with their health coach one-on-one in the future, so arrangements have been made for this to continue.
With that, the first Azure Hills You-Turn support group meeting ended. While we had to go with Plan B, we were not going to let Hurricane Hillary stop what Dr. Diel wanted us to do, and that is to carry on his legacy, which we plan to do. It was a very nice opportunity for people to share about Dr. Diehl, and to come together as a community and grieve together and find closure. Everyone vowed to carry on what Dr. Diehl started in each one of them.
The next support group is scheduled for November, in person. Stay tuned for more updates on that. For more information, contact Dr. Ernie Medina, Jr., Azure Hills Health Ministries Director, emedina@llu.edu.