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Rising Freshmen Gear Up for High School Health Careers!

August 26, 2010 By Erin Leave a Comment

Twenty-six rising freshmen from the Gear Up Program at Fairfield University participated in some rousing games to gain knowledge about health careers. They played a game of Health Careers BINGO, discovering the names and general responsibilities of various medical specialties, such as Cardiology, Audiology, and Podiatry.  Health Careers Jeopardy was played with such categories as No Bones About It, First Aid, Health Careers, and Safety, forcing students to recall information from previous studies and make conjectures about things they will learn in the future.

Students were also given a quiz to test their basic knowledge on the passing of germs and the importance of hand washing.

Do you know how many bacteria and viruses are there on a human hand at any given time? There are 5,000!  Pretty gross!

Students then studied and practiced the proper hand washing techniques and a black light was used to show the germs that were left behind, even after washing their hands!

Many of the students now show an interest in health careers!  There are some future doctors, nurses, and various technicians in this group of students, and AHEC will continue to work with them during their high school years.

Want to learn about careers in Health Care?

August 6, 2010 By Meredith Leave a Comment

Do you think you’d like to have a career in health care?   But, you don’t know about all the various jobs available?
Consider taking a course at Housatonic Community College this fall called: “Investigations in Health Careers” – HLT 103.    Look for this course at the other Community College campus’ too!

Investigations in Health Careers Fall 2010 – Housatonic CC

Keeping young children up to date with their vaccines

August 3, 2010 By Erin Leave a Comment

Keeping young children up to date with their vaccines. . . A significant public health concern, this is one of Southwestern AHEC’s primary program areas.  Under a contract with the State of CT Department of Public Health, Southwestern AHEC supports local pediatric and family practices in their efforts to make sure that children receive their vaccines according to the schedule recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.  Many of these vaccines are also required for day care, school and even college entry.

Southwestern AHEC staff members Joan Lane and Millie Seguinot are currently working with several pediatric groups that have requested “late lists” of their 2 year old patients who are not currently up to date with vaccines, according to the CT Immunization Registry and Tracking System (CIRTS).  Millie and Joan are pleased to be part of this very important effort to keep our community’s children protected from many preventable diseases.

CT DPH Immunization Program

AHEC Displays Dedication Through CHW Training

July 28, 2010 By Erin Leave a Comment

Mid-June, AHEC’s Community Health Worker (CHW) Project Coordinator, Millie Seguinot, succumbed to a debilitating knee injury, and underwent surgery.  Only five days later, she  was conducting a mini-training to new Community Health Workers from two local Community Health Centers.  The training consisted of a review of the curriculum used to conduct the initial training of 28 Community Health Workers from 9 Federally Qualified Health Centers, MCOs, and staff of CHCACT and Southwestern AHEC.  It was very beneficial to have so many minds sharing thoughts, ideas, questions and concerns, generating feedback to each other that helped clear up many doubts.  Millie’s dedication to the community through CHW is infallible, and AHEC is lucky to have her!

High School Seniors Take the First Step Toward Obesity Prevention

July 28, 2010 By Erin Leave a Comment

Upward Bound students 2010On Monday, July 26th, Health Careers Coordinator Bobbi Kulas concluded a five week summer program with Upward Bound at Fairfield University. Twelve high school seniors spent those weeks creating, researching, and delivering a Learn & Serve project, centered around “Childhood Obesity and Nutrition” to 64 YMCA campers.  By bringing in speakers, and creating games and activities to engage them with, students were taught an immense amount of information on the hot topic these and were able to share what they learned with younger children from their community.  The hands on activities they conducted with the campers showed the youth how much fat is in fast foods and how much sugar they consume by drinking soda and fruit juices.   The campers were taught how to take their pulse at rest, and after playing a rousing game of Simon Says. The youngest campers had a coloring activity focused on identifying various fruits and vegetables. Hopefully, this has been the kick-start all students and campers needed to the correct their food choices now and in the future to make a small dent in the increasing obesity rate our youth today faces.

First-class Service: Bridgeport and Stratford Teens Go Above and Beyond!

July 12, 2010 By Erin Leave a Comment

The Southwestern AHEC Youth Health Service Corps (YHSC) Class of 2010 raised the bar of service to a whole new level.  This year, the YHSC curriculum focused on service learning projects, as opposed to individual volunteerism as it had in the past.  Four local high school Corps – Stratford, Bunnell, Central and Bassick – created, developed and implemented 6 outstanding service projects to enlighten and engage their communities.

The six projects – Risky Behaviors Health Fair, Don’t Let Your Life Go Up In Smoke Campaign, Prom Safety Campaign, Pennies for Patients,  Health & Wellness for the Aging Population , and Healthy Kids Day (partnered with the Bridgeport YMCA) – took the collaborative efforts of 174 students from the schools and targeted populations such as middle schoolers, Stratford Community members, other high school students and the elderly.

In total, students completed 6,892 service hours in just 10 short months.  In order to complete the YHSC program, 50 hours are required per student – but most of them do not stop there.  In fact, 13 students  met the requirements for the President’s Volunteer Service Award this year.  Of those 13, nine were recipients of the Bronze level (100-174 hours) – Alessandra Legaspi, Chanel Noblin, Colen Dyer, Eric Diaz, Jennifer Le, Joselyn Vazquez, Kourtney Zando, Lyneisha Dukes, and Shawn Boahene -  and four were recipients of the Gold level (250 hours+) – William Villa, Jessica Barragan, Pratibha Dhakshinamurthy and Robery Reilly.  Our top volunteer was William Villa with 350 hours of service!

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Bunnell Students at Flood Middle School for the Risky Behaviors Health Fair

Central High Students at the Aging With Grace program

Central High Students at the Aging With Grace program

Stratford students picking up cigarette-related waste in area parks

Stratford students picking up cigarette-related waste in area parks

Bassick students kick off their cancer fundraiser!

Bassick students kick off their cancer fundraiser!

ORBIT Celebrates Its STARS! May 18th

May 17, 2010 By Meredith Leave a Comment

Click on the link!

ORBIT Stars invitation-1 pg-FINAL

Southwestern AHEC’s Immunization Team Receives Kudos from State!

May 5, 2010 By Joan Leave a Comment

Southwestern AHEC’s Immunization Action Plan team – Community Outreach Coordinator Millie Seguinot and Director of Programs Joan Lane – were recognized by the State of CT Department of Public Health  for having “improved both the Bridgeport immunization rate from 75% in 2008 to 77% in 2009″, and having increased “5% in their ability to find and update children in the city who were at risk for being under-immunized.”  The letter of commendation states: “This makes the Bridgeport IAP [Immunization Action Plan] program the most improved IAP area in the state.”

The current statistics are even more dramatic when measured against those in effect when Southwestern AHEC assumed responsibility for the Bridgeport immunization program in 2004.  At that time, the percentage of children up to date for their shots at age 24 months was just 63% (compared to 77% in 2009).

“Our success is possible because of the excellent collaboration we get from other local agencies, and the cooperation of Bridgeport’s pediatric and family practices,” according to Millie, who has lent her outreach expertise to the program since 2006.  “In particular, the WIC office [Women, Infants and Children program] is a critical part of the process of identifying the physicians of children ‘lost’ to the CT Immunization Registry and Tracking System.”

Southwestern AHEC’s Executive Director expressed her delight with the recognition, adding, “We look forward to continuing to work with the medical community to attain the State’s targeted 81% immunization rate for 2 year olds.”

Now Accepting Patients for Feb 2010 “Give Kids A Smile” Program

December 17, 2009 By Joan Leave a Comment

Do you know a child in need of dental care?  Southwestern AHEC is now accepting phone calls for Give Kids A Smile 2010.

Give Kids A Smile is the American Dental Association-endorsed, annual volunteer initiative to provide free dental care to children in need.  Dentists and dental hygienists from the Bridgeport Dental Association (BDA) volunteer their services, so that children with no dental insurance can receive both preventive care and treatment for oral health problems.

2010 will be the 4th year that Southwestern AHEC and the BDA have partnered to conduct Give Kids A Smile.  In February 2009, donated dental services valued at more than $139,000 were provided by 48 dentists to 323 children.  More than 50 dentists have already signed up to participate in February 2010.

For information, contact Oral Health Care Coordinator Vani Anand at (203) 372-5503 ext 12.

Young patient receives free care during Give Kids A Smile day 2009

Young patient receives free care during Give Kids A Smile day 2009

Community Health Outreach Worker Training

November 17, 2009 By Milagrosa Leave a Comment

A Program of Southwestern Area Health Education Center

Southwestern AHEC has the opportunity to return to a successful program it last conducted in Bridgeport in 2004. Under a contract with the Community Health Center Association of CT (CHC ACT), Community Health Outreach Workers will be trained to be integral members of the health care delivery team, providing appropriate services to underserved clients and diverse communities, such as immigrants.

The overall goal of this initiative is to increase the percentage of eligible children who are enrolled in HUSKY, the State’s Medicaid program for children. Community Health Workers (CHWs) who are familiar with the community and can present the HUSKY opportunity in a family-friendly manner are often most successful in meeting this goal.

Some of the specific objectives of the Community Health Outreach Worker training curriculum are to:

  • Develop effective communication, advocacy, and culturally appropriate outreach and enrollment services.
  • Learn data collection and documentation procedures.
  • Learn to develop goals and treatment planning necessary to impact communities served.
  • Become familiar with community agencies as referral sources and collaborative partners.
  • Develop teamwork skills.

Southwestern AHEC’s Community Health Worker Curriculum further developed when serving as a Technical Assistance partner in the Community Health Worker National Education Collaborative, www.chw-nec.org from 2005 – 2007. This allowed us to participate in sharing best practices for educating Community Health Workers with others across the USA.

CHW-NEC Meeting - December 2004

Carl Rush, Consultant - Community Resources, LLC, E. Lee Rosenthal, Ph.D, MS, MPH, Assistant Professor, University of Texas, El Paso, and Yvonne Lacey, Promotores in California working on the framework for education of Community Health Workers

Graduation of the Community Health Worker Class of 2003 with Mentors

Graduation of the Community Health Worker Class of 2003 with Mentors

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