Academic institutions especially those of higher learning such as TWU can play a pivotal role in addressing disease prevention for women. Incorporating health fairs is just one option that can be used to address a large audience. I realize that TWU does conduct health fairs for students, however I would like to see more of them through out the school year and even during the summer months. I have been to a couple of these forums and while I have learned basic information on various health topics, I would like to see more health issues addressed to the particular needs of women. Issues such as breast cancer awareness, osteoporosis, menopause, and other health conditons specific to women would be especially beneficial.
Instituting a campus health committe to develop student surveys on what their particular needs are and what they want would be a good place to start when deciding what types of activities or programs to offer. I participated in an optional health program last semester that involved weekly assignments and challenges. Prizes were randomly given weekly to participants which was a motivating factor to follow thru on the assignments. This is just one option that was fun to do as well as offering continued activities to pursue at an individual pace once the program was complete.
Academic institutions can also address disease prevention issues by introducing more lecturers who are experts in their fields on a particular health topic. I have found these to be very informative and beneficial as most of the time they offer more in depth information that I would not necessarily get from from reading Women's Health, or getting info from WebMD.
Michelle Dukes
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Great points! I think academic institutions are examples for outstanding community outreach. While educating the community and holding health fairs for the community, especially in the lower income areas, this subset of the population will learn quite a lot. Utilizing students' works (i.e. educational pamphlets, etc.) approved by the institution, they could be distributed to local areas. Academic institutions could also partner with local clinics and volunteer informtion to patients, especially those whose English is not their primary language. Academic institutions would even possibly gain additional new students, because women would be so grateful for the service being offered, they would want to get more information regarding the particular academic institution to further their own education.
ReplyDeleteMichelle,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog. I think you are are spot on in your suggestions and thoughts. I agree too that institutions providing health fairs is a great way to get the word out about health. Your idea on making these more specialized is key too so that the forums can be more effective and not so general. Lastly, I love your idea of having a health committee. We have one for just about everything else! Why not, I think only good could come from it.
Stephanie
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI had totally forgot about health fairs. You have some really good suggestions here. The health fairs provided at TWU aren’t as frequent as they need to be. Maybe the University should incorporate health fairs into their nursing program and make it a special project for classes to work on throughout the year. And yes giving specific information on major diseases would be wonderful.
I also feel that academic institutions should have more pamphlets, books, and videos that can be checked out on the different diseases and how to prevent them. I know that universities may not have the money to do things like this, but I feel that survivors or organizations of certain major diseases should volunteer their time to institutions so that they can get their message across to those who need it most.
Norfe Garcia
Nice post Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI enjoy the health fairs on campus too. I think the colleges are putting out great information,it's just that a lot of your women don't hear it until it's a problem. I bet if the Breast cancer association had a music video it would be on and popping! keep up the good work.
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI agree health fairs are great and maybe a few more through out the year would be beneficial. I believe you have hit on something that might really be beneficial and feasible for academic institutions with your addition of lecturers that are experts in different aspects of women's health. The idea of a campus health committee is also a great idea. I think the biggest challenge is not so much the implementation of any of the ideas you have stated, but attracting participants. I unfortunately believe that most people that end up going to lectures and events are already somewhat educated in the subject. The question is how to attract the ones who might be ignorant of the subject matter, but are willing to learn. Good ideas.
Matthew
mingraham@twu.edu