Otis Moss's Annual Live Long Live Strong Health Fair

On July 23, Otis Moss Jr. Medical Center held its annual community wide health fair and offered free health screenings to all age populations. This event was created to help residents in the community receive free health screenings, and to help benefit the uninsured. The overall turnout for the event was about 100 people. Although this did not reach our goal of 150, it was still a success. The rain did not stop people from attending the event, and eventually the weather cleared and left us with a sunny afternoon. I would like to thank all of the nursing student volunteers who came to help out. It is greatly appreciated and the event could not have happened without you.
Some of the health screenings offered at the event include blood pressure, bio nutrition, memory, hearing, HIV, vision for the elderly, blood glucose testing, and mammogram screenings. Residents of Fairfax from the adult population really seemed to utilize the mammogram service as well as the blood pressure screenings.
The Kids Fun World was another large component of the health event. This area offered exercise, smoothies, clowns, balloons, a water slide, a sprinkler, the Fire Department Smoke House, and great prizes such as bikes and gift cards for the winners of various contests. One of the more popular contests was the hula hooping contest. The children seemed very excited for these activities and were great participants.
Part of the reason I feel that this event did not reach 150 residents is due to the organization of the event. Medical providers were being added to the provider list at the very last minute, making organizing the tables and tents hard to accomplish. The advertising for the event was also last minute. If the community members were aware of this free health event at an earlier date, I believe that more people would have participated.
A third factor that played a role in the limited clients who attended the event includes the location of Otis Moss Medical Center. Otis Moss is hidden away on Quincy Avenue and East 89th Street. If it weren't for this Capstone experience, I would not have known that this wonderful health care facility existed. The Cleveland Clinic receives the majority of the recognition because it is profit oriented and continues to create new spaces in the Fairfax neighborhood. After interviewing residents in the Fairfax area, it seems like the people from Fairfax are upset with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation for moving into their territory. One resident referred to the Clinic as "the octopus of the city" because it invades the town and spreads wealth without offering any to their neighborhood. University Hospital needs to advertisement their facilities more in order to let Fairfax residents know about the different health care options in the community. If the residents were more aware of this UH facility, I believe it would be utilized more, especially by the elderly population.
Since Live Long Live Strong is now over, Kana and I are focusing on the creation of our poster, the completion of our paper, and the identification of better methods for evaluating our final data. The hard part about our project is tracking down specific statistics regarding HPV, cervical cancer, and genital warts in the Cleveland area. We have called the Ohio Department of Health, the Cleveland Public Health Department, the Merck Vaccination company, and have researched endlessly online. HPV is considered to be a non-communicable disease according to the health departments, making the statistics hard to track. Kana and I disagree because HPV is spread through genital contact and often people pass it on without knowing as well as after being treated. It will be hard to illustrate that HPV is a concern in Fairfax without these statistics, and without taking up too much of our poster space. We will keep you updated on current information we find and other interesting facts about our capstone experience within the next few weeks.