The American Medical Student Association saved the Student Health and Counseling center’s annual health fair last year by sponsoring it themselves.
This year, the student group plans to continue spearheading the event to make the fair bigger and better, said Anna Vestling, co-director of UNM AMSA.
“The SHC had experienced budget cuts for outreach and student education service,” Vestling said. “We realized that our organization had the power and the funding to be able to put this on to support the student body.”
The UNM Student Health Fair is today and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Cornell Mall.
Amy Frederick, SHAC nurse manager, said the SHAC will have representatives at booths on Thursday giving free blood pressure and blood sugar tests, as well as coupons for cholesterol tests. On both days there will be health information on cholesterol, body fat, smoking cessation, insurance and women’s and men’s health, she said.
AMSA will provide booths on topics including health insurance, STIs and HIV — even holistic medicine, Vestling said.
“We’re going to provide more information about health care that isn’t medicine-based,” she said. “It’s more in terms of stress reduction and different aspects of health care like chiropractors or herbalists. It’s just a broader perspective.”
She said multicultural health, substance abuse cessation and preventative health information will also be available at AMSA’s booths.
Members will hand out fruit and healthy snacks.
The Health Fair will cost about $1,000 to host, Vestling said, with about $600 going to renting tables and chairs from the UNM Physical Plant.
Beverly Kloeppel, Student Health and Counseling center director, said the fair must continue so AMSA and SHAC can continue student outreach.
“I do think we identify some people, for example with depression screening outreach, that do come in who may not have otherwise,” Kloeppel said.
The Health Fair will benefit community members as well as UNM students, Vestling said. UNM AMSA will donate all proceeds from a silent auction to Native Health Initiative and Casa de Salud — two nonprofit organizations in the Albuquerque area. Some items up for auction include a Kaplan MCAT preparation course and two $50 gift cards to Whole Foods, Vestling said.
Native Health Initiative is a group that works with Native-American communities affected by health issues, said Gregory Ziomek, co-director of UNM AMSA.
“They help communities utilize their own resources without just throwing money around,” he said. “They help eliminate some of the issues that a lot of the populations face, especially in New Mexico.”
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Vestling said Casa de Salud is a health center in the South Valley that provides health services to communities that don’t have
insurance. Many UNM students interested in medicine volunteer there, she said.
Student Alicia Leibowitz, a volunteer at Casa de Salud, said the clinic will benefit from AMSA donations because it needs to expand.
“One of the biggest reasons why Casa de Salud needs funding right now is because we have a huge, huge patient base,” Leibowitz said. “There are so many people who don’t have insurance and come to us and need help. The waiting room is always packed.”
