12th Street Center Provides Screenings on World AIDS Day

By Ben Boulden

A patient, left, at the UAMS 12th Street Health & Wellness Center has a mouth swab taken for HIV screening. Jefferson Comprehensive personnel performed the screenings as part of World AIDS Day.

Daniel Green, left, performs a reflex test on a patient undergoing a general physical examination at the center.

Dec. 10, 2014 | The UAMS 12th Street Health & Wellness Center’s “Health on 12th for the Holidays” event Dec. 1 marked World AIDS Day by making 18 patients more aware of their own health status with free HIV screenings.

Overall, 20 patients, including the 18 who received HIV screenings, sought a variety of other screenings as well, including free blood pressure checks, body mass index estimates, glucose and general physical examinations.

Since 1987, World AIDS Day has been dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. According to the Arkansas Department of Health, 5,264 Arkansans are living with HIV/AIDS but only 2,579 of those individuals, 49 percent, actually are in care.

Jefferson Comprehensive Care Systems in cooperation with the center provided the HIV screenings using a mouth swab test.

“Although testing and treatment for HIV and AIDS have improved tremendously since the disease first was discovered and was identified as a public health problem, many people still go without testing and counseling who should receive those services,” said Lanita White, Pharm. D., the center’s director. “The center was eager to work with Jefferson Comprehensive to make testing more available to people who want and need it.”

The 12th Street Health & Wellness Center is a free clinic run by students under supervision of faculty. It provides students from the UAMS Colleges of Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and the Graduate School an avenue to learn from each other in an interprofessional center. The center provides information about healthy living, preventive care, consultations and screenings for chronic health conditions to residents of the Little Rock Promise Neighborhood and surrounding areas.

Forty UAMS student and faculty volunteers as well as volunteers from other organizations helped with examinations and answering health questions from patients. Volunteers also bought and donated toys to the center for the children who use its services or accompany parents.

“The patients seemed to really enjoy the event and especially the fact that we had vendors there providing health information,” said Donita Fells, the center’s student director of external affairs and a UAMS College of Public Health student. “The UAMS Office of Global Health was there and the Arkansas Minority Health Commission as well as the UAMS Student National Pharmaceutical Association (SNPhA), so patients were able to get information from them and get questions answered. We were glad we were able to bring HIV and AIDS awareness to the 12th Street community and plan on building on that success in the future, especially with HIV public outreach.”

On Dec. 3 at the 12th Street Health & Wellness Center, College of Pharmacy student leaders engaged in another outreach effort that was just in time for the holiday season. They presented four coloring contest winners with two bicycles and two tricycles. The four winners ranged in age from 3-7. Safety helmets donated by the college’s student body also were included.

The contest — organized by second-year pharmacy student Laura Finlay, with assistance from fellow College of Pharmacy students, faculty, and staff — was an effort to raise awareness in the Promise Neighborhood about the children’s dental services the center now offers. All coloring contest entries are on display throughout the center.