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Health Fair Informs Area Seniors

Klint Lowry/SUNCOAST NEWS

U.S. Rep Gus Bilirakis listens on as Miss America 1999 Nicole Johnson, toting daughter Ava, talks about her experiences as a diabetic. Since winning the crown, Johnson has constantly used her celebrity to educate the public about the disease.

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By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: June 28, 2008

HUDSON - HUDSON - HUDSON -- Even in the Information Age, finding useful, specific information on demand can be a challenge. For seniors, it can be especially daunting to even locate services and agencies that aid older people, let alone make the most of them.

U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis and Community Aging and Retirement Services cut out a lot of the legwork Monday, as they teamed up to organize and host a Senior Health & Wellness Fair at the CARES Rao Musunuru, M.D., Enrichment Center.

"We wanted to give seniors an opportunity to one-stop shop, with as much information on health and wellness and employment opportunities on one day at one time," CARES President and CEO Bill Aycrigg said.

Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, initiated the idea for the fair a few months ago. Healthcare has always been a topic of interest for him, Bilirakis said, and he's made it a "niche" of his political career as a state representative and then member of Congress.

"These are tough economic times, and people are struggling, but I want to make sure they get their healthcare," he said. "We have a lot of great organizations. If the seniors don't know about it, they won't have access to it.

Bilirakis put his district manager, Shawn Foster, in charge of arranging the fair. Foster, in turn, contacted Aycrigg. CARES, Foster believed, was perfectly suited to bring together all the local businesses, agencies and organizations they hoped to have at the fair.

From the beginning, Foster said, the plan was to have a "holistic" fair, one that not only spoke to medical health but overall wellbeing. "We met a couple times," he said. "Bill had ideas, we had ideas, and collaboratively you see the manifestation of it today."

Seniors poured into the center the moment the doors opened. Many took advantage of the chance to get their cholesterol, blood pressure, vision and hearing checked, and to get free screenings for diabetes and skin cancer.

Dr. Nidal Hamame, a Hudson-area internist, was among the professionals dispensing knowledge for free. Events like this are beneficial for those on the supply side as well, Hamame said.

"Many people wonder about what their sugar reading means" Hamame said. "What their blood pressure reading means? What's their cholesterol number mean to them. Do they need to be treated or not?"

Doctors don't always have time to explain terms as well as they or their patients would like, Hamame said. In a health fair setting, things are looser, more conversational, he said.

The fair even had a touch of celebrity. But former Miss America Nicole Johnson was there to do more than smile and wave. She has been living with Type I diabetes for 15 years. Since winning the Miss America crown in 1999, she has traveled the world educating people about the disease and the treatments and therapies that are out there today.

Everyone knows the word "diabetes," Johnson said, but there are many misconceptions about the metabolic disorder.

"I think among the most common things I hear asked is, 'Is diabetes contagious?' " Johnson said. "The other misconception is between Type I and Type II."

As someone with Type I diabetes, Johnson's body does not produce insulin. She needs regular doses of the hormone or her body could not break down the sugar she consumes, a potentially deadly situation.

Type II diabetics still produce insulin but their cells no longer respond to it in the proper way. Type II diabetes is often associated with obesity and in many cases can be controlled with diet and exercise.

Johnson is happy to show people the insulin pump she wears on her waistband. Most people would mistake it for a pager.

"The general fascination I find everywhere is with the technology," she said. "I can even wear a device that can tell me what my glucose level is."

While there was a good deal of medical information to be had, this was not just a health fair, Aycrigg emphasized. It was a health and wellness fair, with wide latitude on the definition of wellness.

For seniors and adult children of seniors, there were also representatives of several agencies dealing with quality-of-life issues, including adult daycare and home health services, employment and housing options for seniors, crime prevention and intervention.

The fair was conceived on the premise that physical health is tied to the overall quality of life, and that especially in tight economic times, seniors need every resource at their disposal to ensure every aspect of life is covered.

Bilirakis said he wants to make the Senior Health and Wellness Fair an annual event.

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