The Springfield Urban League will bring its Wellness on Wheels mobile health clinic to the Jacksonville High School Bowl on Wednesday.
Lori Hartz with Jacksonville Memorial Hospital says the visit from the mobile health clinic was arranged as part of the Walking for Wellness program. “We’ve been having great success with Walking for Wellness this year with averaging 75 to 100 people coming to walk in The Bowl every day. This year as we get closer to the wrap-up of that program, we’re bringing a special health screening to The Bowl so people can not only get their exercise but they can also get screened.”
The free event will include screenings for blood pressure, diabetes, HIV, and hepatitis as well as a body mass index evaluation. COVID-19 rapid testing will also be available. Hartz says all Jacksonville residents are welcome, and no pre-registration is required.
“Just walk in, it’s going to be going on from 10 am to 1 pm and no appointment is needed, no fasting is needed. You can just walk right in and choose from the list of screenings that are available and the Springfield Urban League will take care of it from there. This is for everybody, we want everyone to take advantage of all the health screenings that we can provide as a measure for finding things that may be of concern that you want to get checked out further.
So as we are thinking about Walking for Wellness, that program is there as a strategy to prevent obesity and diabetes so these screenings tie in very nicely with those. We just want people to be aware of what’s going on in their bodies and be able to detect things that they should be concerned about early.”
Hartz says the Walking for Wellness Program and free screenings event is part of the hospital’s ongoing commitment to promoting good health in the JMH service region. “We are assessing the community every three years in our community health needs assessment to see what our local people are encountering in terms of their health and then we support strategies to try and overcome some of those challenges that our community has.
Obesity is one of those, and we’re not the only county that struggles with obesity but we have a high percentage of people who are overweight so we are trying to encourage people to eat healthy and exercise.”
Walking for Wellness provides a safe place for local residents to walk during the winter months.
The JHS Bowl is open to walkers from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day Jacksonville School District 117 is in session. Walking for Wellness is free, and preregistration is not required.
The Walking for Wellness Springfield Urban League free screening event is this Wednesday from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm at the JHS Bowl on South Church Street.