Paws for a good cause

Animal-assisted therapy teams from St. Clair County

Story by Roxann Edsall
Photos by Mackenzie Free
Submitted photos

Four paws, one wet nose, a wagging tail, and two expressive eyes can turn a day around. Just ask Anki, an 80-pound crème golden retriever. She’ll even throw in a full body hug to complete the comfort package.

Two-year-old Anki is a natural at her work. She and her human, Daniella Cook, serve as ambassadors for Hand in Paw (HIP), an organization that offers animal therapy in the Greater Birmingham area.

When Anki was just a puppy, Cook’s veterinarian commented that she was exceptionally calm for her breed. Later, as they attended puppy obedience classes, the instructor commented on how she seemed like an “old soul” in a puppy body.

“Then a cycling buddy of mine asked me if I’d ever heard of Hand in Paw,” said Cook. “Anki was just six months old at the time and the minimum age for a dog is 18 months to be a part of that organization.”

Kelli Agnew with Tessa (left) and Daniella Cook with Anki love their work as therapy teams

So, Cook used the next year to research the steps to becoming a therapy team for Hand in Paw. Successfully completing obedience classes was just the first step. “We went on to take a Good Citizen dog class,” said Cook.  “There are 10 benchmarks you must meet and if you miss one, you’re out. She got them all, despite it being an adoption day at the pet store where she performed for her final Good Citizen evaluation.”

Cook, who works in Pell City at WKW, a German company that supplies auto parts, occasionally brought Anki to work with her. She noticed the effect her dog had on others around her. “We had a plant manager who had had a really rough day,” Cook recalls. “He asked if he could hug her, and in five minutes you could see a difference in him. He asked if I could bring her in once a week.”

At 18 months old, Anki was ready to be evaluated to partner with Cook as an official therapy team. Stephanie Stoltzner is the volunteer and program manager for HIP. “We take them through a four-week workshop, then evaluate them to make sure they can deal with outside influences and the many things that can happen in the environment they would be working in,” explains Stoltzner. Anki and Cook passed with flying colors and received their new uniforms – a bright yellow bandana for Anki and a matching yellow shirt for Cook.

Cook’s face lights up as she shares details of some of the animal therapy experiences the pair have been party to. Recently the duo was sent to the Exceptional Foundation in Birmingham, an organization that provides social and recreational services for adults and children with intellectual disabilities. Cook and Anki were positioned in the center of the room, and each person had an opportunity to interact with the beautiful pup and her owner.

 “On this day, there were all adult clients,” recounts Cook. “When they saw Anki, their faces lit up, and they talked about their own dogs. One client told me how she trained her dog and asked if she could train Anki. Anki leaned into her in a hug and just made her day. I still get goose bumps thinking about it! I was just so proud to have this dog and to be able to make a difference.”

Cook and Anki are the second HIP team from St. Clair County. Kelli Agnew and her seven-year-old corgi, Tessa, have been a busy Hand in Paw team for over two years. This is Agnew’s 13th year as a volunteer for HIP. Tessa is her second therapy dog. 

Her first pet therapy partner was a Pell City animal shelter rescue cat named Asher. One of her most memorable therapy moments involved Asher and a visit to a memory care facility. “We were visiting with a lady who would not speak; she hadn’t spoken since she’d been there,” Agnew remembers. “This lady was so happy to see Asher and started making happy noises to this cat. The nurses were shocked that she was communicating with him.”

After Asher passed, Agnew spent five years as a Hand in Paw team with her corgi, Oliver, working with the child and adolescent psychiatry unit at UAB. They also participated in the organization’s delivery of the Sit, Stay, Read! program, an animal-assisted reading program for early education. This program has shown great success in encouraging reluctant readers to read to an animal companion.

Tessa, the Welsh Pembrook Corgi, greets Collier

Five years after Oliver passed, Agnew adopted Tessa, another corgi, this time a Pembroke Welsh and former show dog.  Having had experience with the animal dispositions that make for good therapy pets, she saw something special in Tessa. “You could tell from the beginning that she was going to be a great therapy dog,” said Agnew. “You take her anywhere, and she instantly goes to people. She just loves everybody.”

It’s that temperament that helps deliver effective animal-assisted therapy. In a 2008 study by the National Institutes of Health, human interaction with pets was shown to reduce stress, improve mood, lower blood pressure and to reduce anxiety.

In 1996, Beth Franklin, a Birmingham native and animal advocate, started Hand in Paw to improve the health and wellbeing of people through interaction with pets. She was serving as executive director of the Greater Birmingham Humane Society and worked with juveniles who were serving court-mandated community service.

Intended simply to provide help to animals in need, the program had an unexpected benefit. Franklin was struck by the positive behavioral changes to the volunteers because of their interactions with the animals.

In the 28 years since its founding, Hand in Paw has become a national leader in the growing field of animal-assisted therapy. They now have 92 owner/pet teams, who go out to a variety of intervention sites, including universities, hospitals, nursing homes, veterans’ homes, schools, physical therapy facilities, hospice and respite care and libraries. They also offer first-responder decompression visits.

“We’ve been to the Birmingham Police Department during shift change,” said Cook. “I’ve seen officers get down on the floor with Anki. They come by to say hello as they’re leaving to go home and as they are arriving for shift.”  Agnew and Tessa spend some of their volunteer time working with clients at the Bruno Cancer Center, Girls, Inc., and at Lakeshore Foundation.

Stephanie Stoltzner has been working with Hand in Paw since long before she worked there. She has a team of two dogs, Olive, a mix who looks like a golden retriever and Fern, another mix, who Stoltzner describes as looking like “she stuck her tongue in a light socket.” Their greatest reward as a therapy team, she says, is the people. “It doesn’t matter how bad a day I’m having,” she says. “I see the pure joy and happiness people get from seeing the dogs. Now I work here and get to work with my dogs all the time. it’s a dream.”

Anki and Tessa know that when they get bathed and fitted with their yellow bandanas, it’s time to go to work. Both Cook and Agnew say they seem to know they’re “on” and take matters seriously.

Spreading joy and encouragement is serious business. Paws down.

Editor’s note: Hand in Paw is a 501(c)3 nonprofit and survives on donations and grants. There is never a charge for their services. If you are interested in working with them or helping with their mission, contact Hand in Paw at handinpaw.org.

St. Clair Rx

Just what the doctors ordered

If you’re in need of medical services, no matter the specialty, chances are you’ll find it in St. Clair County.

That wasn’t always the case. Little more than a decade ago, an aging hospital served the community, but it was not able to keep pace with a quickly growing medical industry. A new, state-of-the-art hospital – Ascension St. Vincent’s St. Clair – soon took its place, offering everything from one-day surgeries to a comprehensive list of specialties, procedures, imaging and quality healthcare close to home.

The Col. Robert L. Howard Veterans Home, a model for the nation, and the School of Nursing and Allied Health at Jefferson State Community College, round out the medical landscape fronting Interstate 20 and serves an entire region.

Main Street Pediatrics opens in Pell City

Just announced is the hospital’s acquisition by UAB Health System, known throughout the country and around the world as a leader in medicine. The move is predicted to enhance the hospital’s ability to provide top-notch healthcare throughout the region.

Meanwhile, Pell City is home to two growing and thriving primary care practices – Complete Health-Pell City and Pell City Internal Family Medicine.  They offer much more than primary care with specialists of all descriptions providing services. Pediatric care in offered through Springville Pediatrics in Springville, Purhoit Pediatrics in Moody, and Main Street Pediatrics in Pell City, which has moved into the clinic formerly occupied by Children’s.

Complete Health also operates practices in Moody and Trussville along with its Birmingham locations, and Grandview is located in Springville.

Physical therapy services can be found in Pell City at Therapy South, ATI at PCIFM, Drayer in Leeds, Ascension St. Vincent’s St. Clair and Back in Motion in Springville.

No longer do residents have to travel to larger cities to have access to state-of-the-art diagnostics with MRIs, CT scans, colonoscopies and other advanced technology testing and imaging are available at Ascension St. Vincent’s St. Clair. Complete Health provides advanced imaging as well.

Orthopedic medicine is available through Montclair Orthopedic Surgeons and OrthoSports Associates at Complete Health and Andrews Sports Medicine at PCIFM. Orthopedists Dr. Carter Slappey and Stephen Cowley also practice in Pell City.

Birmingham Heart Clinic, located at the Complete Health campus in Pell City, offers full-time cardiac care at that location as well as its headquarters in Trussville.

ENT Associates of Alabama has just opened an office in Pell City for ear, nose and throat services, and Alabama Vision Center just joined the eye care community at Physicians Plaza in Pell City. Callahan Eye is located in that same building, and longtime vision care provider, Bedsole Eye Care, has expanded in recent years, operating from a new, larger facility on U.S. 231 South in Pell City.

For Dermatology, you’ll find a number of specialists – True Dermatology at PCIFM, Brookwood Dermatoloy at Complete Health, Southern Skies Dermatology at Physicians Plaza and Coosa River Dermatology on Martin Street South in Pell City.

Need a specialist? Check with local practices and the hospital for a complete listing of what services are available right here at home.

Growing demand for services

Therapy South adds to St. Clair medical community

Story by Paul South
Submitted Photos

High School catcher Tyler McGrady had his eye on the runner at first.

The runner broke for second. McGrady came up throwing, looking to nail the sliding runner. The catcher’s right elbow popped in pain. He knew something was wrong.

He was right.

Tommy John surgery and a year of intense rehab kept McGrady off the basepaths, instead putting him on a career path.

“I was in the therapist’s office more than I cared to at that time,” the Pell City native said. “But the impact of the therapy and the return to function drew me in.”

He elaborated. “I was drawn to medicine anyway, but just wasn’t sure which avenue I wanted to pursue,” McGrady said. “When you’re in high school or college and you’re an athlete, and you have an injury, your athleticism in that sport is kind of part of your identity as well. It’s tough to stomach that injury or being on the sideline or in the dugout.

“But just going through that process and rehabbing back, doing a lot of therapy, returning to throwing, all the way back to playing at the college level … The satisfaction you got from completing that process and being able to fully return (to baseball), seeing that firsthand is really what drew me to PT.”

Nearly two decades later, McGrady has 12 years’ experience as a physical therapist and serves as clinic director and partner at Therapy South in Pell City.

While most of us would define “athlete” within the narrow confines of the diamond, gridiron, track, court, course or pool, McGrady sees more broadly.

“There’s a saying that we use a lot of times,” McGrady said. “Everyone’s an athlete. Their sport is different. It may not be baseball or softball. It may be gardening or yardwork, skiing or whatever it is the patient wants to get back to. If we can help facilitate getting them back to something they want to do, that’s a validating feeling on our end.”

Physical therapy is a high demand, rapidly expanding profession in the United States. According to an April report from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of physical therapists is expected to grow 15 percent by 2034.

Closer to home, along with its clinic in Pell City, Therapy South also has a clinic in Gadsden. A second St. Clair County clinic is expected to open by year’s end. Nationwide, Therapy South is also expanding.

Baby Boomers are fueling the growth in physical and occupational therapy services, McGrady said.

“That’s the largest generation of people in the country that’s ever been,” he said. “There have to be enough practitioners to provide service for that many people coming through the system. That’s the growth of it.”

The profession, McGrady said, justifies its growth through evidence-based research. “What that does, is it allows us to make valid arguments to insurance companies, to physicians and to clients as well on the need and benefits of our service.”

A graduate of Jacksonville State who did his graduate work in physical therapy at Alabama State University, McGrady has also authored or co-authored scholarly articles for professional journals.

“It’s always important to learn and grow and to do more,” he said. “Any limitation of mine in the clinic is going to be passed on to my patient. So, I feel like it’s my responsibility to be up on the newer things and staying well versed so that I’m providing the best quality of care possible.”

Therapy South is an independent, faith-based, therapist-owned provider, with a nearly four-decade record of effectively treating patients in Pell City. The company now has 43 locations and is expected to grow to 46 by year’s end.

The Pell City clinic has six physical therapists and one occupational therapist.

“We don’t have any deals with anybody,” McGrady said. “We’re completely stand alone. All of our (location) owners – including myself — are still physical therapists and the majority of them treat patients in clinic every day. We really like that about Therapy South.”

He added, “We believe we’ve been given success by God, and it’s important for us to be good stewards of that success and grow and give people opportunities into the future.”

For McGrady, this work is a calling. “We’re all called to something,” he said. “If you are lucky enough to find that purpose and make a career out of it, I think that’s a really special thing.”

The company also mentors young and aspiring therapists.

“We spend a lot of time at Therapy South trying to identify younger people who will come in and do observation hours with us and try to develop relationships with them and find the right person that we want to grow with. You can teach a good person how to be a good therapist, but you can’t always teach a good therapist how to be a good person.”

In Alabama, the profession experienced a “huge” change this past June, McGrady said. In the past, physical and occupational therapists could not see patients without getting a physician referral. Now therapists have unrestricted patient access for up to 30 days.

“For the last 12 years, we could evaluate a patient, but without your physician providing a referral or providing oversight, we could not treat a patient. Now we have more unlimited access to patients.”

While technology has affected the entire medical profession in recent years – making it easier to schedule appointments, etc. – there’s no substitute for the hands-on treatment at the heart of physical and occupational therapy.

“There’s something valuable about being able to put hands on patients and really evaluate what’s going on, to provide that hands-on care,” McGrady said. “At Therapy South, we spend tons of money trying to make our clinicians the best we can so that they are doing the best they can to get our patients better as soon as possible.

“That’s the part that technology will never be able to replace,” McGrady added. “The old adage is that medicine is an art and a science. It’s tough to replace that balance with something like (artificial intelligence) or something that doesn’t have the human touch.”

In a competitive market, Therapy South is committed daily to doing its best for its patients. Most of its staff are homegrown, St. Clair County residents.

Thinking back, McGrady could not have foreseen his life’s work when his elbow blew out. But McGrady’s baseball setback provided lessons for his life and practice.

“Sports teaches a lot of lessons outside of how to throw and catch a ball. You learn how you’re going to respond to adversity. If you’re not the main guy, how are you going to respond to that? If you are the main guy, how are you going to respond to that? There are so many lessons to be learned on the field that correlate to later lessons in life. The lessons learned were more than worth it.”

His philosophy – and that of Therapy South – is simple.

“First and foremost, we’re called to love God and love people. If we treat everyone with respect, be a friend to them and listen to them … Just being able to spend time with patients is unique to therapy. Developing those personal relationships is unique to our profession.”

McGrady and his Therapy South colleagues are affirmed every day by their work, sometimes in sweet ways in keeping with small-town tradition.

“Every patient who comes in trusts you with their care. They come in four to six weeks later doing great. It’s really rewarding to improve someone’s life like that.”

New beginnings

Sawyer reopens Eden Dental after fire

Story and photos by Carol Pappas
Submitted photos

When David Sawyer was only 4, his father, Dr. Joe Sawyer, would pick him up from Avondale Mills kindergarten at noon, and he’d spend the afternoon with him in the denture lab.

“I don’t know much else but dentistry,” Dr. David Sawyer said as workmen were putting the finishing touches on his new building in Eden, replacing the facility his father and then, he, practiced in for decades.

Fourteen treatment rooms feature state-of-the-art equipment

On April 6, 2022, the Eden Family Dentistry/Affordable Dentures building fell victim to fire, and a brand new, expanded facility took its place in mid-July under the name, Eden Dental.

Within days of the fire, Sawyer was able to secure the building and practice of a retiring Pell City dentist, Dr. Sandy Lanter of Restoration Dental, and he has been operating there until the new quarters were ready. “We missed one week of work,” Sawyer recalled.

Now, he opens a new chapter with his associate of 20 years, Dr. Andrea Cibulski, as they welcome three new associates, Drs. Jennifer Reaves, Hannah McCalman Henley and her twin sister, Elizabeth Collier McCalman.

Eden Dental, now operating with five dentists, is a 7,000 square foot, all digital, state-of-the-art facility with 14 treatment rooms and an onsite denture lab. The practice includes children’s and adult general dentistry, implants, one-day dentures and soon, one-day crowns. They accept most insurance, including Delta Dental, which serves Honda.

Sawyer began his general dentistry practice in 1989. While he and his father took similar paths, they headed in different directions. The elder Sawyer started a general dentistry practice working with Dr. Bob McClung, but also worked with one-day dentures in the afternoon.

In 1976, he sold the general practice to McClung, which today is known as Pell City Dental, and worked full-time in dentures. (Coincidentally, Pell City’s one-day dentures were famously mentioned in Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg’s book, All Over but the Shoutin’.)

The younger Sawyer worked with his father, but when he graduated from dental school, he went into general dentistry and sold the denture lab. In the new clinic, dentures are back as part of the services offered, and he has hired a specialist along with nine other new employees to complement existing staff and make up the team at Eden Dental.

It’s a homecoming back to Eden, where it began for Sawyer, a native Pell Citian. He and his wife, Karen, owner of WellWay Whole Health Shoppe, are graduates of Pell City High School as are their three children. Kathryn just graduated from medical school. Hayden is a chemical engineer, and Evan is a certified financial adviser.

Sawyer points with pride to his hometown and the growth it is experiencing, noting that his expansion in terms of staff and services is aimed at serving the needs of that growth.

A passion for healthcare

Complete Health’s Joy St. John has had a lifetime desire to take care of people

Story by Paul South
Photos by Mackenzie Free

As a teen, before Joy St. John and her family moved from the Dallas County community of Tyler to Pell City, the health care bug bit her.

She was a candy striper, one of a small cadre of young women clad in red and white striped uniforms, who dispensed bedside smiles and kindness to the sick and their families.

“That’s what started everything and drew my interest to nursing,” she said. “Seeing (nurses) help people, I thought that was something that I would want to do.”

Joy’s medical assistants Heather Barnett and Angela Wolf are a key part of taking care of people at Complete Healthcare

Fast forward. St. John earned a degree in nursing at UAB and a graduate degree from the Ida B. Moffett School of Nursing at Samford to become a nurse practitioner and worked as a nurse at Children’s Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham.

Now, she’s back home in Pell City, serving as a nurse practitioner at Complete Health.

A nurse practitioner is a registered nurse who is qualified through advanced training to assume some of the duties and responsibilities once reserved only for physicians.

In Alabama, nurse practitioners are required by law to work under the supervision of a physician.

According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, nurse practitioners are one of the fastest growing professions in the United States. It was projected that the number of N.P.s in the country would grow some 45 percent between 2022 and 2032.

Increasing demands on doctors have triggered the growing demand for nurse practitioners, St. John said.

“(Doctors) just don’t have the time to see the amount of people that they have at their practice. (Nurse practitioners) are a great way to get patients in and seen, and we can actually be their primary care doctor if that’s what they wish.”

Complete Health Pell City is part of the Complete Health family of clinics in Alabama, Florida and Virginia. But while the Pell City facility is part of a larger corporate umbrella, it still cares for patients in a hometown way.

St. John works primarily in family medicine. “I’m a primary care physician for a good number of people. I diagnose problems, take care of chronic problems,” she said. “Sometimes people come in with undiagnosed medical problems. And then, we can start being their primary care provider and start doing preventative care.”

Complete Health Pell City also seeks to educate patients and their families about their condition.

As Pell City and St. Clair County have grown, St. John has seen her practice change. Complete Health has become a “one stop shop” for health care. “It’s definitely gotten bigger, with the addition of more doctors and the addition of more nurse practitioners,” St. John said.

“I have been here for 14 years. It’s been a great service to the community because we have CT scan, ultrasound and MRI, our own pharmacy, and we have a lot of specialty doctors that come in so (patients) don’t have to drive to Birmingham or Anniston to get specialty care.”

What sets Complete Health Pell City apart? “We can take care of the whole person,” she said. “We even have an urgent care that’s open seven days a week. Even after hours, they would have access to their records as far as their chronic conditions. We generally get people in pretty quick within one to two days.”

The business of healthcare, specifically navigating the huge health insurance marketplace, is the profession’s biggest challenge, she said.

“You sometimes have to modify a person’s plan of care because of insurance,” St. John said. “Their insurance sometimes won’t cover a certain medication or a certain test they need. It’s sometimes very frustrating to try to diagnose problems and take care of the patient when insurance won’t cover it. So, you have to make other decisions and talk to patients about what’s best for them.”

She added, “There’s no use in me prescribing an expensive medicine when they’re not going to pick it up (because of cost), when we can talk about it and go to another option. The amount of insurance plans out there is challenging for us.”

The presence of Complete Health and other healthcare providers has impacted rural communities in a positive way, giving those once-underserved areas better access to health care.

“Companies are able to put nurse practitioners out in rural areas where they might not be able to place doctors,” St. John said. “That’s very important for them and all the surrounding towns and cities to have access to health care.”

In the South, perhaps the most trusted people in the community are pastors and doctors. St. John has lived in Pell City since the 11th grade. She believes that makes a difference in terms of the doctor-patient relationship. That difference sometimes is seen in tangible ways.

“They send me cards on my birthday, send us Christmas cards, or you know, they know the details about me and our staff’s lives. It makes a difference, and they pay attention. We care about them, too.”

There are other little things that make her clinic seem like an old-time country practice that stretches beyond paying a bill.

“They bring us fruit, cakes, things like that,” St. John said. “Just like the old days. It’s one of the joys of practicing medicine in a small town.”

And, as you might expect, she often encounters her patients at the grocery store or elsewhere out and about.

“They’ll speak to me, or give me a hug,” she said. “It means a lot.”

And sometimes, they want a diagnosis for a malady among the cucumbers and collards in the produce aisle. “Sometimes they do,” St. John said. “But that’s a whole other story.”

St. John has served as a nurse practitioner for 24 years, beginning with a decade at UAB. Before that, the mother of two grown sons and a grandmother of two boys worked for 10 years as a registered nurse and nursing assistant at Children’s.

Like the candy striper experience, something closer to home deepened her commitment to a health care career – her dad, Lee Rhoden, and his last, long battle.

“When I was 26, my father passed,” she said. “He had lung cancer. I was able to offer my services. Just having someone in the family that knows medical terminology after a diagnosis is a blessing. Caring for him was a blessing. It pushed me toward the nurse practitioner part because I just wanted to do more than punch a clock every day. I wanted to really make a difference.”

 The youngest of four girls, St. John recalled one piece of advice her dad gave her, wisdom that sustains her on hardscrabble days.

“He always told us, ‘You get an education and be able to provide for your family. Don’t depend on anyone else.’ He always pushed us to set high goals. That was the beginning for me.”

For St. John across the years, a number of patient encounters affirm that she embarked on the right career journey. Those happen, she said, “all the time. I’ve diagnosed several new diseases or caught things that were missed before,” she said. “We have to take those moments and make them last until the next one. It’s the little things. People really do appreciate you.”

She added, “It’s tough not to bring things home with you. We’re human, too.”

Sometimes, she said, her profession gets unfairly labeled as not caring enough. But she and her colleagues at Complete Health Pell City are deeply committed to their patients, she said.

“This is a hard profession,” St. John said. “If you don’t love it, you aren’t going to make it. And you have to love people when they’re well and when they’re sick, when they’re mad, or they’re depressed. You have to show them empathy and sympathy. You won’t stay in this profession if you don’t love it.

“The Lord has a reason for placing us where we are,” she said. “We may be the one person who needs to tell them it’s going to be OK, and we’re here to talk about it.”

Healing Vine

New chiropractic center opens in Ashville

Story and photos
by Carol Pappas

When Dr. Steven McKinney and his wife, Janella, decided to open his chiropractic practice in Ashville, it was a homecoming of sorts.

Originally from Boaz, the couple bought a farm just outside Ashville a few years ago. They established their church home there, too. While he was practicing elsewhere, church members asked him to participate in the Ashville Health Fair that was being held there. He agreed and soon came to realize that there was a need to be filled.

A suite became available in the shopping center just across U.S. 231 from their church, and Healing Vine Family Chiropractic Center was a step away from becoming reality. He closed his Boaz practice and opened April 1 in Ashville.

McKinney shouldered much of the cosmetic work himself. The end result is an impressive chiropractic center with exam rooms, office and reception area, offering services from pediatric to geriatric. A former football player, Dr. McKinney also specializes in sports injury and prevention.

Why Healing Vine? The name comes from a piece of artwork displaying the Chiropractic Prayer given to McKinney by his daughter. It featured a vine as the art with the prayer. McKinney put the two ideas together – the healing hands of chiropractic medicine and the vine as a Christian symbol of sustenance.

By combining the two, he said, it expanded the meaning and mission as a Christian-based chiropractic center. Serving families, it is built around his own family with his wife and daughter both working there.

Since the opening, “Ashville has been really great,” said Janella McKinney. “It brings health care to Ashville it was in need of.”