Healthy Women Healthy Lives

I can't believe that my capstone experience in Cincinnati is already coming to an end. Elizabeth and I only have a couple more days left to pull together the rest of our projects before we head home. I have learned so much about the Healthy Women, Healthy Lives Program. The organization and preparation that goes into planning each health screening event is incredible. Copying charts, sending out "Save the Date" cards, calling women to make appointments, preparing gift bags, it felt like the work was never-ending. The hardest part about the planning the events is getting the information about the events out to the community. We went to the communities to give out flyers at the grocery stores, food pantries, salons, barber shops, libraries, community centers, and sometimes we went door-to-door and handed out flyers. Being able to see the communities where the women are living has been an eye-opening experience. We went into one store and a woman was very thankful when we told her about the health screening event in her neighborhood. She explained that there were about 30 women that slept behind her store every night because they had nowhere else to go. We also saw countless homes that were abandoned and boarded up. The days we went into the communities were my favorite. It was so nice to be able to get out of the office and interact with the community. 

For our capstone project Elizabeth and I went to the community where we had just finished a health screening event with Healthy Women, Healthy Lives. We taught a class of about 19 women about stress, how stress relates to menopause, how stress relates to health, and how to relieve stress. At the end of the class we had the women perform two stress relieving activities, yoga and guided imagery. I think it went great! All of the women participated during the discussion and appeared to enjoy the activities. We gauged the women's stress levels and knowledge about stress, menopause, health, and ways to relieve stress with a pre- and post-survey. The results showed that the overall stress level of the class decreased and the women's knowledge increased, so I feel that our class was a success!