With dozens of booths staffed with excellent and attentive medical professionals, Methodist Hospitals in conjunction with Indiana University Northwest hosted its 2024 Spring Community Wellness Fair on Saturday. The fair held at Indiana University Northwest’s Savannah Gymnasium was also aided by Marram Health and Community HealthNet. By working together these local organizations provided the community with information on health as well as providing free health screenings.
“This is a wonderful wellness fair,” said Brad Lukas, Manager of Marketing and Corporate Communications at Methodist Hospitals. “It's a partnership between IU Northwest, Methodist Hospitals, Marram Health Center, and Community HealthNet. It really is an opportunity for all of us to get together and provide a day of health screenings to our communities that we serve.”
Over the course of their many times doing this fair, the partnerships have been a wonderful thing that has helped Methodist Hospitals be able to use to make it a success. In the last several years Indiana University Northwest has been working on its strategic plan. Community engagement is a big emphasis for Indiana University Northwest and for its Health Information Management Program faculty member Patricia Johnson. Johnson organized the event on Saturday.
“Reaching out to the community is one of those pillars and health care is how we reach out to the community and is part of our strategic planning,” said Johnson. “We are partnering with Methodist Hospitals and Community HealthNet to deliver all these services to the community. The event is very well attended so we're very happy and very fortunate to be able to provide that to the community.”
In addition to the staff from Marram Health, Methodist Hospitals, and Community HealthNet there were Indiana University Northwest students helping. Fostering community engagement is also a value that Johnson and the university wants to teach their students.
“We want to foster that community engagement with the students,” said Johnson. “That's part of the goal for my students, the nursing students, and all of the College of Health and Human Services students. My main goal here is to foster that community outreach. We want them to go out and yes, have a successful career but have that in their mind to have community outreach as part of their pillars as well.”
The fair featured health screenings such as lab tests to measure blood sugar, cholesterol, A1C and PSA levels; blood pressure checks, heart attack and stroke risk assessments, a-fib checks and dental screenings.
Additionally, several area social service and other organizations were on hand to provide information about available community resources such as the STAR Center at Methodist Hospitals, which promotes sexual assault awareness and recovery, and Humana and Legacy Foundation, which both help connect patients with affordable medical providers.
There was also the Gift of Hope organ and tissue donor network with a QR code that attendees could use to sign up to be an organ or tissue donor. The Cascade Program was also there with a quiz game and information on resources for sickle cell care.
Other vendors on hand to help connect community members with needed resources included NorthShore Health Centers, AARP, the City of Gary’s Health Department, Gilda’s Club Chicago, WorkOne, and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. All vendors were united for one mission: ensuring community health.
“It is very important for our community to be healthy,” said Etha Lasenby, Community Outreach & Insurance Enrollment Coordinator at Marram Health. “Every year, we all get together to provide screenings, testing, and community resources to let the public know what's available in their community.”
For Community HealthNet and Dr. Ben, chief operations and innovation Officer at Community HealthNet Health Centers, getting screened is very important which is why Saturday’s event is so important. Preventative care is really important to the health and well-being of everyone.
“Getting screening is very important,” said Dr. Ben. “We always say in the public health world prevention is the first key step to treatment. We want people to get out here, get tested, get the necessary precautions that they need in order to start the treatment from an early standpoint.”
Large numbers of people attended the event which made it a perfect day to better the community.
Methodist Hospitals will also host another fair later in the fall this year.
For more information about Methodist Hospitals, please visit www.methodisthospitals.org.
For more information about Indiana University Northwest, please visit northwest.iu.edu.
For more information on Marram Health Center, visit www.marramhealth.org.
