SPECIAL HONORS: Volunteer
Morris Harding, foreground, is the volunteer leader for the MOVE!ing Forward support group at the McGuire VA Medical Center. (Photo by Jay Paul)
More than a third of Americans are overweight or obese. When it comes to our veterans, the rate is much higher — nearly 78 percent, according the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Morris Harding was one of these veterans.
“I was diagnosed with diabetes in 1995, and then I had two back surgeries when I was in the Marine Corps,” Harding says. “When I had to go home, I became depressed and picked up weight.”
His doctor pointed him to the MOVE! weight-management program through Veterans Affairs. It was exciting to begin to see the weight come off, he says. Harding noticed a drop in weight, reduced pain from his injuries, an improvement in his diabetes management and an end to his temporary depression.
“My family relies on me, my friends rely on me, my church was relying on me,” he says. “My life started changing because of all of these things at the VA. I wanted it — they were there to make sure I got it.”
It took a team of people, Harding says, including Christina Flory, a physician’s assistant at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center. Flory oversees MOVE!ing Forward, a complementary program for MOVE! participants who have lost around 10 percent of their weight and want to continue with a support group.
Flory has been working with Harding for four years. She’s watched him transform from a program participant into a leader. She says that as a pastor at New Beginnings Community Church, it was natural for Harding to begin to help others in the program.
“Mr. Harding is very supportive and thought of each member of the group, which reflects his occupation as a minister,” Flory says.
In the MOVE!ing Forward support group, Harding leads discussions and plans programs with each participant. He treats everyone like a member of his own family, Flory says.
“I talk with the veterans and try to bring some logic, common sense and reality to the situation,” Harding says. “We have to take some responsibility for our situations. If we don’t help these doctors to help us, then we aren’t doing enough.”
Harding helps participants move in other ways, having completed beginners and advanced training in tai chi through the VA’s kinesiotherapy department. He leads classes for veterans and also at his church. It has helped with his residual pain from surgeries and injuries and gets him moving regularly, he says.
Harding has also taken steps to help his fellow veterans in an even more in-depth capacity, recently completing a course from the VA’s Office of Patient Centered Care & Cultural Transformation in which he learned how to help other veterans in setting personal health goals and creating plans for change. He’s already practicing with his daughters and wife, who agreed to complete their own plans.
“These things helped me, so I wanted to help someone else,” Harding says.
