Every Wednesday from 2-4 p.m., Birmingham public housing residents flock to the Campus of Hope at the Marks Village Community Center for free wellness screenings, provided by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Minority Health & Health Disparities Research Center (MHRC) as part of their Building Healthy Communities initiative.
These weekly wellness checks allow community members to stay on top of important health indicators, such as blood pressure, pulse rate, BMI and blood glucose levels. After screenings are conducted, residents are given a copy of their results. A registered nurse also goes over the results with the participant and offers tips to improve health outcomes if necessary.
“We offer basic health screenings for those without access,” said Kimberly Speights, program administrator at the MHRC. “Over 90% of the residents in this area don’t have primary care physicians and depend on expensive emergency room visits to provide care when they feel or fall sick. In making these screenings accessible, we ultimately guide them towards primary care by encouraging a search for a provider and giving them copies of their results, which facilitates intake and eases transition into primary care.”
Screenings also present the opportunity to uncover urgent health conditions that may go unnoticed in residents. For instance, one woman’s blood sugar levels were alarmingly high. In cases such as these, staff have referred individuals to hospitals.
Almost 300 community members have participated in Wellness Wednesdays over the past six months. As another opportunity to embrace health and wellness, the MHRC also sponsors a Lunch and Learn, once a month from 1-2 p.m., right before the wellness screenings. These sessions focus on a guest speaker discussing various topics and as the name suggests, free lunch is available. Past Lunch and Learns’ themes have included blood pressure, mental health, financial literacy and bike safety.
Wellness Wednesdays health screenings are offered each Wednesday from 2-4 pm at the Campus of Hope at Marks Village, located at 7527 66th St. S, Birmingham, AL 35212.