Promoting better health and wellness...

The 12th Annual St. Luke's Health and Wellness Fair was held at North Elementary School on Saturday. About 230 people attended the event with 88 of them getting their blood drawn and 25 getting a special heel scan to test bone density and osteoporosis. The group of eight volunteers at the front registration desk stayed busy for most of the morning.

by Tim Bondy

Mountain Home News

People came early to the 12th annual St. Luke's health and wellness fair held at North Elementary School on Saturday morning.

Rick Adams and his wife had their blood pressure taken by a technician at the booth during Saturday's event. With about 70 million Americans walking around with high blood pressure, getting tested regularly is important and has been a part of the health and wellness fair since its beginnings.

Some came early because they needed to "fast" that morning for testing purposes while others were there just to learn.

With 25 vendors set-up inside the gymnasium, the public got plenty of opportunities to learn more about today's health and wellness issues as well as pertinent social issues.

Upon walking through the school entrance, residents were greeted by eight health registration workers. These volunteers were there to help sign people up to get blood tests and flu shots.

Blood tests were one of the biggest benefits of this year's health and wellness fair with a possible saving of over $100 versus if the whole testing procedures were done strictly through a family physicians according Luke's officials. Heather Moss got her blood drawn by phlebotomist Tammy Sanchez early in the day because there is a requirement to fast 12 hours prior to the test.

"We are the face of this year's health fair," said Julie Swofford while explaining what people could expect once they got inside.

The Adams Family came to the health fair primarily to get their cholesterol checked, but they also were able to get their blood pressure checked in a booth just a few feet from the phlebotomist station.

About 90 people signed up to have their blood drawn and tested for thyroid anomalies, good and bad cholesterol and to screen for a host of other heath indicators. By 9 a.m., 60 people had already been tested.

The Elmore County Domestic Violence Council, or ECDVC for short, was present at the health and wellness fair. The local organization was there to educate people about and help prevent domestic violence. "The awareness part of domestic violence education is just about the most important part of what we do each day," said council representative Connie Powers while explaining the group's mission.

With the flu season already underway in Idaho, 10 people signed up in advanced to get the immunization during the fair. According to Cassie Wenner from St. Luke's Elmore, 22 people received their shots by the time the fair ended at noon.

The Idaho Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing was on hand mainly to educate and increase awareness of deafness issues. One of the biggest issue the council has been working on was regulating sign language interpreters.

According to Cindy Schreiner, a council representative, ensuring sign language interpreters are licensed is a high priority but so is making sure there are enough qualified interpreters available for the state's deaf community.

The Treasure Valley Hospice had a booth at the fair. With the number people in the United States ages 65 and up who need help with personal care increasing as the country ages, hospice care is becoming more of an issue.

Brandie Garlitz from the hospice company stayed busy providing hospice care information and setting up appointments for helping residents learn more about advance heath care directives.

The city's parks and recreation department was on hand to give people an idea of the many upcoming the programs and events they host including line dancing and cardio kickboxing.

"People say there isn't anything to do in town but they might not know about all the programs parks and rec have and when the YMCA comes to town, there will be even more things to do," said Paula Neubauer regarding all the activities offered locally.

St. Luke's had a booth set up to test bone density and show off plans for a new MRI building going in at the medical center next year.

The new MRI building, plus the scanner will cost almost $1 million, including the $120,000 cost just to transport the MRI machine from the Boise area to Mountain Home, according to St. Luke's officials.

Attendance at this year's fair was down slightly from last year but the feedback received from some of the 227 people who attended was quite positive, according to Wenner, who serves as the events coordinator with the local medical center.