The News Report Below Highlights PSFHS Partnership with Tri-Lakes in Providing Annual Health

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The News report below highlights PSFHS partnership with Tri-Lakes in providing annual health fairs. TriLakesNews.com Partnership provides healthy opportunities ByNicole Chillino | Friday, September 25, 2010

Most people value their health, but checkups can be expensive, especially without insurance.This year’s Tri-Lakes Health Advocacy Partnership health fair will give area residents a chance to check up on their health through screenings and educate themselves about managing health problems. The partnership’s ninth annual health fair from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Tri-Lakes YMCA, will look different than it has in the past.

“This year we’re focusing on what we have to offer to the community,” said Jackie Sward RN, Penrose-St. Francis pastoral nurse with Tri-Lakes HAP. This year’s fair will include a 28-panel blood test, prostate cancer screening and colon cancer screening from 9Health Fair.

Of those who do the 28-panel screening, 11 percent have something show up in their tests that needs to be addressed, said Tri-Lakes HAP president Mark Ennis. He added there is a tremendous value in being able to offer a screening as comprehensive as the one offered at the fair this year.

9Health Fair organizes health fairs all over Colorado, but this is the first year it will be helping with the Tri-Lakes fair, Sward said. The organization not only provides the tests at the fair, it processes them and follows up with anyone who has abnormal test results to make sure he or she has access to a health care provider to provide treatment for the problem, such as high cholesterol and diabetes. In addition to the screenings offered by 9Health, free hearing screenings will be made available in the Rampart Sertoma van. Flu shots, blood pressure checks, skin cancer, vision and nutrition screening and much more will be available at the event, Sward said. “Other informational and educational participants include AARP, Al-Anon, Tobacco Education and Prevention, Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging, Child Health Plan Plus, Child ID, Southern Colorado AIDS Project and many more,” said Larry Lawrence, a Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce board member who is helping coordinate this year’s fair.

Those without insurance can go to the fair to get a variety of screenings and health information for a reasonable price, she said. Those who are suspicious about a health problem but are nervous for one reason or another to have their regular doctor do the test can also benefit from the services offered at the fair.

Tri-Lakes HAP is looking for people in the medical field to volunteer to work with Sward both at the health fair and with clients who come to see her at her office in the Tri-Lakes Cares building, he said. Sward has been seeing an increasingly large number of patients in the past few months.

Sward prevents emergency room visits by seeing patients before conditions associated with illnesses such as colds and flu, chronic diseases and long-term care needs before their conditions warrant a trip to such a facility. Additionally, she has been working with Penrose-St.FrancisHospital to conduct community blood drives at Tri-Lakes Cares once every two months. Upcoming drives will be from 3 to 7 p.m. Nov. 17 and on Jan. 19, March 16 and May 18. The health fair is one of many ways the health advocacy partnership benefits the community.