Alma White of Calvert Heights Apartments was among the residents to get a blood pressure check from SCOT Nurse Coordinator Emily Welsh.
Warmer weather and the end of the pandemic have created more opportunities for community engagement, and University of Maryland Shore Regional Health’s Shore Community Outreach Team (SCOT) is making the most of these opportunities.
“Mind, Body and Soul – Exploring Mental Health in the African American Community” was the focus of a half-day, free event on Saturday, April 29, at Minary’s Dream Alliance in Chestertown. Sponsored by SCOT in collaboration with the African American Women’s Health Committee and Minary’s Dream Alliance, the event attracted 40 community members.
At a health fair at Calvert Heights Apartments in Chestertown on May 20, SCOT team members provided 15 blood pressure screenings and provided five automatic blood pressure cuffs to screening participants who did not have cuffs at home. They also checked six individuals’ HgA1c readings.
For Older Americans Day at the Amy Lynn Ferris Adult Activity Center in Chestertown on May 23, SCOT staff provided a presentation on how organize your health care to a group of 20 attendees.
Moving outdoors, SCOT used grant funding from the Midshore Health Improvement Coalition to revitalize the community garden beds planted last year in three locations: Chesapeake Villa in Rock Hall, My Abode in Worton, and Hope Community Alliance at Rock Hall Church of God in Edesville.
“Late April and May were busy for us and June will be as well,” said SCOT Nurse Coordinator Emily Welsh, MSN, RN. “We have a number of community outreach activities in the works for this month, including a collaboration with Choptank Community Health and Angelica Nurseries to create an educational program about heat exhaustion prevention for migrant farm workers.”
SCOT will also provide blood pressure and HgA1c screenings at two Chestertown locations: Recovery in Motion’s Backyard Bash on Saturday, June 24; and atBrookmeadow Apartments on Thursday, June 29.
SCOT’s mission is to improve the health of Kent and northern Queen Anne’s counties by collaborating with partner organizations to bring health care access and support services to residents in their home settings and at convenient community sites. In addition to Welsh, the team includes social worker Michelle Mathews, two community advocates, Serenity Kelly, CCHW, and Amanda Webster; and Social Worker Michelle Matthews, MSW, LSCW-C. To learn more about SCOT programs, request services or make a referral, call 410-778-3300, ext. 5644.
About University of Maryland Shore Regional Health
As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,200 employees, medical staff, board members and volunteers works with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.
About the University of Maryland Medical System
The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is an academic private health system, focused on delivering compassionate, high quality care and putting discovery and innovation into practice at the bedside. Partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore who educate the state’s future health care professionals, UMMS is an integrated network of care, delivering 25 percent of all hospital care in urban, suburban and rural communities across the state of Maryland. UMMS puts academic medicine within reach through primary and specialty care delivered at 11 hospitals, including the flagship University of Maryland Medical Center, the System’s anchor institution in downtown Baltimore, as well as through a network of 10 University of Maryland Urgent Care centers and more than 150 other locations in 13 counties. For more information, visit www.umms.org.
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