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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.

Southwestern AHEC Introduces SMILES Custom Software

August 26, 2010 By Erin Leave a Comment

The feather in Give Kids A Smile® (GKAS) Coordinator Vani Anand’s cap was presenting (along with Director of Programs Joan Lane) at the American Dental Association’s Give Kids A Smile® Symposium in Chicago, on July 23, 2010. Her demonstration of Southwestern AHEC’s SMILES Custom Software, as an invaluable tool in implementing an efficient GKAS, was well received. It was the icing on the cake for our GKAS program which has been recognized as the most successful in CT for the past 3 years in a row! After attending the ADA’s GKAS symposium for the past three years, it was fitting that Joan and I got to be presenters of GKAS best practices, in keeping with Southwestern AHEC constant pursuit of excellence.

It’s Health Fair Season!

August 23, 2010 By Erin Leave a Comment

Spring and summer offer Southwestern AHEC many opportunities to provide health information to the community.  Local health and faith-based organizations take advantage of the good weather to invite area residents to learn about the services available through their own and partner agencies.  Many of the health fairs include screenings as well as health and social services information.

Southwestern AHEC participates in many such events, offering information related to our programs on childhood, adolescent and adult immunization; oral (dental) health; and health careers.  This year, staff have already attended fairs at Prayer Tabernacle Church of Love, Southwest Community Health Center, the Church of God and the Cathedral of Praise, all in Bridgeport.  We also participated in a fair at Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan Islamic Center in Hamden, assisted by 4 college students involved in our health careers programs.  We will be participating in the annual health fair of the Hispanic Advisory Council of Greater Stamford in September.

Community health events are an excellent channel for Southwestern AHEC to conduct outreach into the community, as well as to showcase the breadth and success of our various programs.

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.

ORBIT Celebrates Its STARS! May 18th

May 17, 2010 By Meredith Leave a Comment

Click on the link!

ORBIT Stars invitation-1 pg-FINAL

Central Students Provide Healthy Meals & Practices to the Aging Population

April 28, 2010 By Erin Leave a Comment

Central High School’s Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA) Club students pulled together months of research, hard work and dedication at a culminating presentation event at the Aging With Grace Program at Hall Neighborhood House on April 14, 2010.  Seven students took 6 hours of the Wednesday right in the middle of their Spring Break to cater to an elderly population.  The students have worked with the group of 25 seniors in the past, helping take and record their blood pressures & pulses, serve breakfast and play bingo on March 17.  This time, however, the program – normally held at the St. Charles Urban Center – partnered with an existing program at Hall Neighborhood house to bring together over 50 senior citizens!

Throughout the early part of the morning, the Central students worked side by side two Sacred Heart University (SHU) students and their professor, to take blood pressures, pulses and blood sugar levels.   Following that, the students did an intake survey regarding the most commonly asked for and/or needed medical services for the population.

While the group munched on a healthy lunch, the SHU and Central students then did a presentation on healthy diet, the food pyramid, portion sizes and label reading.  This was followed by the Central students’ presentation of their Health Food Cookbook, containing over 30 fantastic – and healthy! – recipes for the seniors to use in the future.

After the days lesson in health, a rousing game of bingo began, as all enjoyed the delicious pumpkin bread dessert prepared by the students!  The seniors were trilled with the company the students provided, as well as the engaging presentation and cookbook to take home!

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Stratford Students Go Green for Anti-Smoking Campaign

April 28, 2010 By Erin Leave a Comment

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On Global Youth Service Day, April 24, forty-five students from Stratford High School’s Volunteer Club and BuildOn program came together to clean up two local teen hangouts.  Students gathered at 8am at Pender’s Field (Longbrook Park) and Short Beach Park to form teams and clean up as much garbage as possible during a 3-hour time span.

The event was part of an anti-smoking campaign the Volunteer Club is engaged in.  For the last 3 months, research has been done on the effects of smoking on both the environment and the human body.  During the clean up, students were focused on the percentage of waste that was cigarette-related.  Butts, packaging, plastic, matches and lighters were all placed in separate garbage bags from the rest of the waste.

Volunteer Club President, Jessica Barragan, took the initiative to partner her Don’t Let Your Life Go Up In Smoke Campaign with the town’s Beautification Committee for Project Green Sweep (May 1, 2010). The clean up on April 24th was dubbed the “kick-off” event for Green Sweep, and as its part of the collaboration, the Town agreed to have all community participants separate their waste in the same manner as the students had.

After the event, the town will provide the Volunteer Club with the results of the clean up; total waste collected versus cigarette waste collected.  These results will be documented along with the student research and pulled together with an art display created from the garbage itself.  The display will be exhibited at the Stratford Garbage Museum, starting at the end of May.

Hundreds of children receive free dental care through ORBIT’s Give Kids A Smile® 2010

March 4, 2010 By Vani Leave a Comment
Dr. Adriana Torena with her young patients during Give Kids A Smile® 2010

Dr. Adriana Torena with her young patients during Give Kids A Smile® 2010

Four hundred and forty-six (446) children have received free dental care through Give Kids A Smile® (GKAS) 2010, organized by the Oral Health Bridgeport Initiative (ORBIT) through a strategic partnership between the Bridgeport Dental Association (BDA).

Sixty-three (63) private practice dentists from Bridgeport, Fairfield, Milford, Monroe, New Haven, Orange, Shelton, Stratford, and Trumbull provided a range of dental services from cleanings, flouride treatments and sealants, to fillings, crowns, pulpotomies, root-canals, extractions and even orthodontia. The children were identified by distributing (GKAS) flyers through Bridgeport and Stratford schools, social service agencies, local food pantries and homeless shelters. Parents, guardians and social workers called our office to register their children, and were given appointments with a dentist suited to meet the child’s needs, using a custom-designed GKAS database. Appointments also took language and transportation needs, and parents’ work schedules into consideration.

Nationally, GKAS® is observed on the first Friday in February. Due to the tremendous volunteer response of the dental community, the free care was offered throughout the month of February, and early March. Many children are continuing to be seen, so the volunteer dentists can complete all the care that the children need.

Testimonials from grateful parents:

“This is a great program!

“Wonderful experience! Thank you for your kindness, generosity and patience!!”

“Great job! Thank you!! God Bless. Have it run more than once a year!”

Testimonials from Dentists:

“Everything ran very smoothly”

“It was nice to help people☺”

“Very well run, very satisfying, patients were extremely appreciative”


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