ROANOKE, Va. – The Salvation Army of Roanoke and LewisGale Family and Community Medicine residency program have a new partnership and their first project is a free community health fair.
The fair is Saturday, Feb. 27 noon to 2 p.m. in the Salvation Army’s gym located at 724 Dale Avenue SE.
Before you enter, a mask is required, your temperature will be taken and you will need to fill out a COVID screening form.
Once inside, there will be a variety of socially distanced stations with residents from LewisGale psychiatric, family medicine and internal medicine departments. There will also be free vision, blood pressure and diabetes screenings.
Tesa Price-Clarke, volunteer and special events coordinator for Salvation Army of Roanoke said this event is valuable because when people lost their jobs due to the pandemic they also lost health insurance.
“When you lose your insurance, sometimes you aren’t aware of what’s next, ‘how do I go about re-establishing health care?,’ or for people who didn’t have insurance, ‘how do I even go about obtaining health care for the first time?’ So, what we want to do is provide the community information and guide them towards health care providers,” said Price-Clarke.
In addition to screenings, residents will offer resources on how to find a doctor, how to quit smoking and women’s health.
During a time where stress and anxiety are at an all-time high, Price-Clarke felt it was critical the event included mental health too.
“These are our neighbors our friends, our family, our coworkers. We want to make sure that they’re given the proper information to take care of their physical and mental health and mental health right now is something we really do need to focus on,” said Price-Clarke.