Health Fair

June 25^th 2013 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm

Woodstock Senior Center - 127 West 43rd St 

At Tuesday’s Health Fair at the Woodstock Center, tables filled the room and health professionals enthusiastically shared information about resources and services with interested seniors.  A variety of organizations provided information, ranging from a podiatrist and dentist to CPR classes given by the New York City Fire Department.

The CPR class was the highlight of the afternoon, with participants learning the basics of saving a person from cardiac arrest.  Run by two FDNY EMTs, the class included an interactive discussion about why it is important to understand CPR and also a hands-on demonstration with dummy torsos. Mike, one of the EMTs, mentioned the Phoenix Study which found that most people do not know how to perform CPR which leads to a very low survival rate in heart attack victims.

John Hunt, a resident at Woodstock, was very pleased with the CPR class: “I like that you can revive somebody, you’re saving a life,” he said.

At the table for the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, Dr. Friedman, the manager of the program was giving out cards in English and Spanish.

“Prescription drug abuse is particularly bad for people who are getting on in years,” she explained.  NYS OASAS HOPEline provides crisis counseling and referrals within New York State for alcohol, drug and gambling addiction.  The hotline provides free, anonymous, professional mental health consultation in 140 languages.  

Metropolitan Jewish Home Care gave out information about medical care and emotional support that they extent to people who wish to receive treatment at home.   Julio Rodriguez represented the organization at the fair and explained that MJHC can do home visits in order to evaluate patients’ needs, and support patients through lifestyle advice and the provision of long and short term care.
 

Dr. Mira Batra was on hand at the Lutheran Family Services table, accompanied by a nurse to provide blood
pressure tests.  She has been collaborating with Project FIND since 2002 in a partnership at the Woodstock with LFHC which runs a clinic on the 10^th floor of the Woodstock.  Her stall provided an abundance of information for its visitors, offering advice concerning a wide variety of health issues ranging from HIV awareness all the way to issues faced by the elderly such as how to prevent falls.

Visitors to the stall for New York Speech and Hearing were able to sign up to receive a free hearing assessment from Dr. Melissa Heche in order to assess whether they were suffering from hearing loss. They were then offered the opportunity for a follow-up appointment if this was necessary, where services such as the fitting of a hearing aid could be provided.  Assistance was also available for those whose speech was affected by their loss of hearing.

Craig Colfelt from the The Alzheimer's Association was happy to be able to inform people about Alzheimer’s.  He and his colleague Debbie Prince were giving out many different kinds of information.  Some of that included the hotline number, information about early stage centers and services for caregivers.

“Centers like this that have health fairs where we can raise awareness are important,” Colfelt said.

The other tables included Dr. Samuel First, Dr. John Jurcisin, White Glove Home Care , St. Luke’s Hospital Outreach, and The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Woodstock resident Israel Orloff has been coming to the Health Fair every year. 

“It’s very nice and helpful,” he stated simply.

Another visitor to the Health Fair was Diane Swindler. She spoke of how it gave her new information which she could “use over and over” and that she had enjoyed speaking to the representatives from the many different organizations.