Boca Raton Regional Hospital's HealthVan at Boca Helping Hands

Today marked another big step in our mission to provide medical assistance and education for our clients as we welcomed the Boca Raton Regional Hospital's Hospital’s Community Outreach Program to Boca Helping Hands. Their HealthVan was on-site this morning providing free health screenings as well as personalized health profiles. Patients were provided with immediate results for blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol tests and then offered referrals as needed. 

“It’s important to help with the health screening especially because people don’t always have access to having these screens done and understanding what those actually mean,” said Wincie Lau-Swisher, M.D. “So if you have your blood pressure done in a supermarket, you might have elevated blood pressure but you might not actually understand what that means or how elevated it is or the complications of not treating it.”

Though there was some apprehension at today’s initial visit, the team’s hope is that over time clients will become more open and engaged with the services offered. Their goal, as is the goal of the Boca Helping Hands Genesis Community Health Medical Clinic, is to afford clients the opportunity for both preventative and issue based healthcare. 

“Today has been eye opening! I think that it can be challenging for the folks that come here on a regular basis when they see something new and out of the ordinary to maybe open up and accept that,” said Patrick Mahaney, RD, LDN. “We think that it’s great for them to be able to meet at a place that their comfortable with and make healthcare a little less scary." 

"Our goal, I think, over the next several months is to increase our exposure so people get used to seeing us here. To know that we’re here to provide a free service for them, to help them identity their healthcare needs," Mahaney added. "So that they’re comfortable coming over here and letting us prick their finger and talk to them about their results and hopefully help to navigate them to some resources if they have a need."

With the upcoming Nutrition Basics Program set to begin next month at the Justin D. Webb Training Center and the addition of the Health & Wellness course to Phase I of our Job Training Programs, today’s partnership is just another way Boca Helping Hands is expanding the depth of programs and services that equip clients to gain self-sufficiency.