Health And Wellness Encompass All Aspects Of Health

The inside of the Glasgow Civic Center was busy on Oct. 21, as the community came out for Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital's (FMDH) annual Health and Wellness Fair, the second event since making a comeback last year. According to event organizers, Marketing Coordinator Taylor Hohlen and Director of Marketing Kyla Burns, an estimated 275 to 300 people attended the event, taking in health and wellness information from 27 community vendors.

This year's event also featured the MEGA Lung, from Medical Inflatables, that allowed attendees an interactive way to learn how the lungs work from the inside out, while also educating visitors on the effects of various lung diseases and what smoking/vaping can do to the lungs. Organizers stated in years' past the Health Fair was the home to the MEGA Brain and MEGA Heart, with hopes to host an event to have one of the larger inflatables, such as the MEGA body, available.

Burns and Hohlen state while FMDH's main role is to improve a patient's physical well-being, one's physical health isn't the only part of well-being. There is also professional, financial, emotional, spiritual, intellectual and social well-being that should also be taken care of.

To address all aspects of health, each year, FMDH invites organizations from around the community that play vital roles in multiple areas of well-being to set up a booth and connect with community members. The goal is when someone walks into the event, they can find a booth that helps them improve whatever aspect of well-being they want more information on. This year's event had seven of these community booths with the rest of the booths represented by FMDH departments. While FMDH organizes and hosts the event, organizers want the event to be a community effort with multiple resources available all in one place.

While visiting the different vendor tables, attendees had the opportunity to paint rocks for the Hands Of Hope Mural behind the Glasgow City-County Library, receive a flu shot, get assistance with signing up for the facility's Patient Portal in order to have easy access to medical records, and have the opportunity to win prizes after getting their passport signed by different booth representatives. On Oct. 23, it was announced Erin Kuhlmann won the basketball hoop and basketball,, Sherry Richardson won the cart, Peggy Sain won the juicer and the Bigelbach family won the adjustable dumbbells.

Upon reflecting on the event, Burns and Hohlen stated all the vendors and departments did a great job of creating colorful interactive and educational booths. In total 62 flu shots were also administered.

They did state, one thing that has come up a few times this year is people coming in wanting to get their 'health fair lab draws' (blood draws) that used to be a service at previous health fairs. Though the service was discontinued due to insurance and logistic purposes, the facility now offers the lab draws on-site all year long. Community members interested need to call the FMDH Laboratory, 406-22-3677, for an appointment. Organizers are looking into options to see if there is a solution to offer a similar service at future health fairs.

The plan is to have the Health and Wellness Fair continue to be a yearly event with hopes to have it continue to grow and provide continued education for the public.