Healthcare & Prevention in Modern Day Medicine: High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol & Diabetes
The Northern Consortium’s Nuestra Salud (NS) Health Literacy Project, in partnership with the Camden Area Health Education Center (AHEC) and the First-Year Medical Students of the University of Medicine and Dentistry (UMDNJ), recently held a Chronic Illness Awareness Health Workshop at Camden Community College.
NS targets immigrants enrolled in Hispanic Institute for Research and Development English as a Second Language (ESL) classes and consists of providing each adult learner with five hours of health literacy content during a 40-hour ESL course. The focus of NS is to also provide students attending ESL classes with additional health information and resources through various workshops each cycle. This Spring Cycle, the Camden students participated in the Chronic Illness Awareness health workshop conducted by First-Year Medical Students at UMDNJ. The focus of this workshop was to provide ESL students with information regarding chronic illness. The workshop gave students the necessary information to identify the causes, learn the impact and list ways to ways to prevent high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.
The health workshop gave the First-Year Medical Students an opportunity to engage the ESL students by taking their blood pressure and glucose levels. Many of the ESL student also learned about the numerous resources that AHEC offers to Camden residents.
The Chronic Illness Awareness workshop was a great way for ESL students to learn more about their health and know that there are several ways to prevent and manage chronic illnesses.