Miami Dade College Medical Campus – Making A Difference to More Than Just Students

Miami Dade College (MDC) Medical Campus (MC) plays an essential role in providing education to the community. However, are you aware that MDC MC is also providing access for the community to basic health screenings and health education? This is not only for their students, staff and faculty, but also to the community of Dade County. Miami Dade College is the largest and most diverse institution of higher education in the nation, enrolling more than 170,000 students from across the world.

 

Seven years ago, in an effort to engage the community and promote health and healthy habits, particularly to the medically-underserved population of Miami-Dade County, MDC MC hosted its first Community Health Fair. Since its inception, the Community Health Fair has doubled in size and has consistently served over 1,500 community residents annually. The fair has also expanded the services it offers to participants – adding free mammograms, bone density screenings, massage therapy, and vaccinations to its established services of dental cleanings and glucose, cholesterol, glaucoma, spinal, and blood pressure screenings. “These are essential, yet basic services and screenings that the patients may otherwise go without … for years” (Everett, 2013). These services remain FREE to the community.

 

The 2013 Miami Dade College Community Health Fair will be the 8th year that MDC MC has hosted the event. Held on Saturday, February 23 from 9:00 – 1:00 p.m., the Community Health Fair represents another way MDC reaches out to meet the needs of the Miami-Dade County community. Health fair attendees will have access to blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol tests, along with chair massages, spinal and vision screenings, and information on nutrition, heart disease and cancer prevention. The fair will provide a limited number of free mammograms, dental cleanings and full eye examinations. Health professionals, including pharmacists from the Florida Pharmacy Association, also attend the fair providing an opportunity for attendees to receive counseling after their screenings in order to help them adjust their lifestyles accordingly and to provide additional information about accessing community resources for follow-up prevention and treatment.

 

Area partners continually show their support of the health fair. Over 30 community agencies will be in attendance. Sponsorship of the health fair allows for purchase of medical supplies necessary to conduct health screenings, educational materials for distribution, promotion of the event, and other event-related materials and supplies. Sponsors include Care Access, Florida Pharmacy Association, Humana, Aetna and Pinnacle Imaging. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has also expanded their presence for this year’s event.

 

The purpose of the Miami Dade College Medical Campus Community Health Fair is to provide an opportunity to improve the health of Miami-Dade County residents by educating and reinforcing health and wellness strategies to positively impact on the lives of those in attendance – with a focus on those residents who are medically underserved, low-income, and those who have a high incidence of preventable health issues. Primary goals of the Community Health Fair are to help people become better informed about health issues that affect their lives and learn about community services available that may be currently unknown to them.

 

Miami Dade College Medical Campus continues to make a difference – in the lives of students and in the lives of the community. The Medical Campus is positively impacting the health of Miami-Dade County.