Health to Host Healthcare Outreach at Oswald Harris Court

Health Commissioner Julia Sheen is pleased to announce that the Department’s Family Planning Program will host the first in a series of outreach activities in various communities territorywide beginning Saturday.

The outreach, billed “Summer Splash 2010” will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 19, 2010, at the Oswald Harris Court Community Center on St. Thomas in collaboration with HOPE Inc. and the Department’s Immunization and STD/TB/HIV programs.

“The Family Planning Program is doing this with the goal to educate residents, especially teens, about the various services that we offer and that they can take advantage of,” Sheen said. “We are very excited to kick off this program, which is part of our federal mandate as well as an initiative by the Governor to make health care services available and accessible to all.”

Mercedes Reyes, Territorial Administrator for Family Planning, said the program hopes to accomplish a myriad of objectives, chief among them is increasing teen participation as well as the comfort level of teens and their parents with the program’s clinic services.

“We also want to increase the community awareness on reproductive health services and STD/HIV prevention as well as decrease unplanned pregnancy and STD/HIV rate among teens,” Reyes said.

In addition to scheduling appointments to clinic services, the following free services/screenings will be available:

• Gynecological exams
• STD/HIV/Testing and counseling
• Pregnancy testing and counseling
• Family Planning counseling to include prescription of birth control methods
• Immunizations (to include Gardasil and Tetanus)

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