A healthy move
Free health fair connects medical students with seniors
There are numerous obstacles for older Latinos in Berks County and nationwide when it comes to getting proper health care, local Latino leaders say.
Language barriers, a lack of money or insurance, and transportation difficulties can prevent them from receiving care.
So the Daniel Torres Hispanic Center is focusing on connecting that population with medical services long term through events like the free health fair it held in Reading on Wednesday.
About 100 seniors attended, some of whom hadn’t seen a doctor in years.
The fair was held in the senior center at Christ Episcopal Church, 435 Court St., and presented by the Hispanic
Center in partnership with Drexel University College of Medicine at Tower Health in Wyomissing, and Reading Hospital’s street medicine team.
“Health equity is a real crisis, and there are seniors who aren’t getting the medical attention they need,” said Michael Toledo, president and CEO of the Hispanic Center. “So we are committed to breaking down those barriers and helping the underserved.”
The Hispanic Center is open to all in the community, he pointed out, not just Latinos.
At the fair were 37 Drexel students and three streetmedicine team members who helped the seniors through seven stations to educate them on health and wellness.
The seniors had their eyes, weight, glucose levels and blood pressure checked, had their feet examined for diabetes-related sores, and received mental health and nutritional guidance.
The fair was the first the medical school has held in Reading since it opened in August, and shows the school’s commitment to community service, said Dr. Daniel Schidlow of the college of medicine.
The college hopes to engage in more partnerships and hold more events, giving the students valuable experience and a connection to the community while also helping local people, he said.
“We’re putting into reality what the students have come to school to do,” he said.
Dr. Eugene York of Tower Health directs the college’s Health Advocacy Practicum, a mandatory course that is primarily focused on community engagement experiences, helping students learn firsthand how to identify and address social determinants of health, and the barriers that underserved or disabled patients face to accessing health care or staying healthy.
He, too, spoke of how important such events are for the students and the community.
The event wasn’t intended to replace the regular medical care some of the attendees receive, but to supplement it, he said.
Lucy Martinez of Reading, who attended the event, had visited her doctor just a day earlier, but said she knew of other Hispanic Center members who hadn’t been to a medical office for some time and appreciated the assistance.
Drexel student Priscilla Lozano of Miami helped organize the school’s participation
and said that some of the seniors she spoke with hadn’t been to a doctor in five years or more.
One woman in particular spoke of how she lived alone without insurance,
so she was connected with the street medicine team for follow-up care.
That’s the type of problem the Hispanic Center wants to continue to help solve with assistance from
its partners, Toledo said.
“We can’t do it alone, but health inequity isn’t going away, so we need to keep working together to have a positive impact on wellness in the community,” he said.