First-year students at the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Great Falls hosted a health fair on Monday, April 8, 2024, where visitors could engage in discussions with the students about various health and wellness topics.
The fair consisted of numerous clubs and organizations at the college each having a booth where they focused on one health and wellness topic. These topics included preventing skin cancer, multiple sclerosis awareness, breast cancer detection, CPR training, and more.
Assistant Clinical Dean Dr. Stephanie Zeszutek explains, “We're so excited to have our students run out there. They are really excited just to share what they've learned so far through all the classroom trainings, the laboratory experiences, plus connect with the mission of Touro - they want to serve the unserved and are reaching out to the community, and be able to share their experience and knowledge with the community”.
The Student Osteopathic Medical Association’s booth hosted free blood pressure screenings for visitors.
Medical student Caroline Aprigliano, Professional Development Chair of the association, detailed their contribution to the fair: “Over in this booth, this is for SOMA medical club, and what we're doing is we're giving out free blood pressure readings and we're giving you the range that you fall into. And from there, we can tell you if you need to get it checked, if it's too high, and we can give you the right resources of where to go. Every club came together and set up a booth and we're just kind of giving information about resources to the community for certain diseases,skin checks,ophthalmology screenings. Just trying to help out and make sure people are aware of what they need to do for their health”.
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Another booth belonged to the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association, who recently started a chapter in Great Falls. Medical student and member of the association Athena Claudio explained that the purpose of the fair was “educating the public in general more about their health and how to better it”.
Their booth was dedicated to mental health statistics, comparing national, Montana, and Asian mental health statistics.
Claudio noted, “Montana actually lacks a lot of mental health resources. Our board here has the available amount of psychiatrists in 2015 and in the Great Falls area - there's only about 1 to 3 psychiatrists per 10,000 children. So in reality, that's not very much. So in order to combat this mental health issue, they kind of built a medical school here in order to hopefully get more psychiatrists and more mental health professionals in the area”.
The health fair also included guest speakers who gave presentations on topics such as advocacy for multiple sclerosis and an introduction to osteopathic medicine. As this is the college’s first year in Great Falls, this was the first student run health fair. The college plans to host more health fairs in the future.
The college is located near the corner of 26th Street South and 18th Avenue, close to Benefis Health System and Great Falls Central Catholic High School.
You can visit the Touro University website to learn more by clicking here.
