Social Welfare Board entering ‘new era’ of leadership

By Jenna Wilson

St. Joseph’s Social Welfare Board is turning a new page in 2024, with changes to its leadership model and a new executive director.

The Social Welfare Board recently announced it will be returning to a nurse-led leadership model for the clinic, meaning it will now be managed by registered nurses and clinical nurse specialists.

“The Social Welfare Board had been led by a nurse or group of nurses for 47 years,” said Linda Judah, former executive director of the Social Welfare Board. “If you read through the history, historically speaking, that’s when really the most change and impact has been made over the years. So fortunately, we were able to find Latha Varghese to fulfill that role.”

Social Welfare Board staff said by implementing a nurse-led clinic, they’ll be able to better understand their patients along with their needs, which is why the board decided to hire Varghese, who’s been a nurse practitioner at the clinic since 2016, to be the new executive director.

“We want to be able to look at things from the perspective of a nurse,” Varghese said. “Just like during bedside care, we are there 24 hours with the patients so we kind of understand them in a holistic way. Not only just focusing on medical care but also the other social determinants and other needs. It ties with our patient-centered medical home model.”

Varghese is a full-time faculty member at Missouri Western State University for the nursing program and completed her thesis for her doctorate on trauma informed care.

Leaders are confident that Varghese’s education, experience, skills and beliefs align with the mission of the Social Welfare Board.

In addition to changes with how the board will be run, the Social Welfare Board will also undergo a name change.

In honor of the late Dr. Robert Stuber who volunteered over 20,000 hours at the Social Welfare Board over two decades, the clinic will now be named the Stuber Health Clinic.

Staff referred to these changes as a “new era” and hope the name change will also take away the negative connotation that can sometimes be associated with it.

“I think the name change will bring about a new perspective of what kind of care we are providing,” Varghese said. “We do provide quality health care, which is not well identified in the community. For example, in the west side clinic, we provide Title X, affordable family planning and similar services, which, I think in the community, sometimes it brings about a negative connotation, so this will hopefully resonate with the public that we are doing more than they may think.”

Despite the Social Welfare Board seeing many changes, patients can still expect the same services to be provided moving forward.

These changes will be effective on Feb. 6, 2024.