(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Hospitality workers find resources all in one place at health fair [1] ['Lottie L. Joiner', 'More Lottie L. Joiner', 'Verite News', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] Date: 2024-06-13 Hannah Epstein, 34, works as an oyster shucker in Louisiana and attended the Hospitality Health Fair at the Fillmore. Credit: Lottie L. Joiner Hannah Epstein heard about the Hospitality Health Fair held June 12 at the Fillmore from a friend and said she’d “be a fool to pass up the opportunity for free health services.” The 34-year-old oyster shucker from St. Louis said even though she attended the health fair to get resources on what she described as “female care,” she was impressed with the resources to help sign up for Medicaid. Epstein said the health fair was a smart way to reach people who work in Louisiana’s hospitality sector. She said there’s a feeling that the [health care] system in place right now has abandoned “service industry folks.” “We don’t have conducive hours. We don’t have conducive pay,” said Epstein, who’s lived in New Orleans for 15 years. “We can make enough money for two or three months of the year, but then the rest of the year we’re just struggling month-to-month. We don’t have access to regular health insurance and primary care physicians.” The Hospitality Health Fair was sponsored by New Orleans & Co. The event featured services and resources from partners such as Ochsner Health, LCMC Health, 504HealthNet and InclusivCare, along with a number of other vendors. Services at the health fair included blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose checks, vision and dental screenings, HIV/STI screening and COVID take-home tests. Attendees also received information about hurricane preparation, voter registration and Medicaid enrollment. The health fair is in its second year. Kevin Ferguson, vice president of external affairs for New Orleans & Co., said when the health fair was launched last year, the goal was to lower the barriers that prevented the community from accessing health care. “Transportation, cost, perception of cost, and time are all issues that keep people from accessing the care we all need,” Ferguson said. “The hospitality health fair is a way to combat that by offering an accessible place and time for workers in our industry and the community to connect with service providers and organizations that can provide not just testing and diagnosis but low cost or free care moving forward.” Ahmaad Lott said he attended the health fair because it’s been difficult for him to schedule medical appointments due to his job as a line cook in New Orleans. Lott, 30, was particularly interested in the dental and vision screenings. The Columbus, Georgia native said people in the hospitality industry often don’t have easy access to health care resources. “I know, especially for me, scheduling appointments between work is very difficult,” said Lott, who moved to New Orleans in 2010. “So it’s good to have a day where everything is in one place. People can stop by and take advantage of the resources and get things taken care of that they might’ve been neglecting due to just being so busy working.” Dr. Bridgette Egan, an emergency medical physician at the University Medical Center in New Orleans, said, “healthcare is only as good as somebody can access it.” Health fairs, Egan said, provide a space for people with unique circumstances (lack of transportation, work schedules, childcare issues, etc.) to get access to health care. They can also help identify issues that are going to become a problem “for patients later down the line if they’re not taken care of,” Egan said. “What we want more than anything in the emergency department is for our patients to be healthy enough to never need us,” Egan said. “So anything that we can do to try to screen people for underlying health problems will provide a lot of insight into a health condition. You may need care from a primary care doctor versus letting it go unknown, and it turning into something dangerous where you may need to come to the ER.” Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/06/13/2024-hospitality-health-fair-fillmore/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/