CONTACT: Jennifer Forbes
Communications & Public Affairs
732-235-6356, jenn.forbes@umdnj.edu
Eric B. Chandler Health Center Hosting Free Health Screenings and Workshops
Community Invited to Events in Recognition of National Health Center Week
New Brunswick, NJ -- Community health centers are an essential resource that provide primary care services to people who are underinsured or have no health insurance. National Health Center Week, held August 11 to 17, 2013, highlights the important and necessary work carried out by dedicated health professionals and is an opportunity for the community to learn about the quality, preventive programs that are available to people of all ages, regardless of the ability to pay. Locally, the Eric B. Chandler Health Center in New Brunswick, a federally qualified health center at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is welcoming the community to a series of free events including health screenings, and testing and educational programs.
Operated jointly with a Community Board, Eric B. Chandler Health Center strives to eliminate barriers to obtaining quality, family-oriented primary and dental health care for its diverse, multicultural population by providing comprehensive acute and chronic care to patients of all ages. During National Health Center Week, Chandler Health Center invites community members to an open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday, August 12 at the Eric B. Chandler Health Center Satellite at New Brunswick High School, 1000 Somerset Street. The school-based center is open to all residents and provides well and sick visits, immunizations and vaccinations. Open for nearly a year, this innovative model provides increased healthcare services to students and area residents where they learn, live and work, with the goal of helping individuals to lead healthier lives.
Chandler Health Center’s primary location at 277 George Street, New Brunswick, will host educational events the remainder of the week. On Tuesday, August 13, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Chandler will hold a free blood pressure screening and health professionals will provide information on healthy cooking and exercise. Middle-school aged children are welcome to attend a workshop about sun safety and the importance of avoiding tobacco use from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 14. Also on Wednesday, community members of all ages are invited to a free dental screening and dental education workshop from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. and also to a healthy cooking demonstration from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Beginning at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 15, Chandler will be providing free, confidential HIV counseling and testing to adults. Also throughout the day on Thursday, Chandler health professionals will teach children proper hand sanitation in an effort to control the spread of germs and infection.
During the last day of National Health Center Week, Friday, August 16, Chandler Health Center will hold a health and information fair from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Information about the center’s services and about affordable health insurance will be available as well as healthy activity demonstrations and free health screenings including skin, cholesterol, blood pressure and lead testing.
Like health centers nationwide, Chandler Health Center seeks promote a healthy lifestyle and educate patients to take responsibility for and participate in their health and health care decisions. For more information about Chandler and its healthcare services, call 732-235-6700 or visit the Eric B. Chandler Health Center website.
About Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
As one of the nation's leading comprehensive medical schools, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, part of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in education, research, health care delivery, and the promotion of community health. In cooperation with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, the medical school's principal affiliate, they comprise New Jersey's premier academic medical center. In addition, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has 34 other hospital affiliates and ambulatory care sites throughout the region.
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School encompasses 20 basic science and clinical departments, and hosts centers and institutes including The Cardiovascular Institute, the Child Health Institute of New Jersey, the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, and the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. The medical school maintains educational programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels for more than 1,500 students on its campuses in New Brunswick and Piscataway, and provides continuing education courses for health care professionals and community education programs. To learn more about Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, visit rwjms.rutgers.edu. Find us online at facebook.com/RWJMedicalSchool and twitter.com/RWJMS.
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