HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — For some of us - maintaining a clean bill of health isn't always easy. One partnership between Healthy Heart Nation and The Plantrician Project hopes to change that by teaming up to educate, equip, and empower the community with the Health Equity and Lifestyle Project Conference.
The H.E.L.P. Conference is designed to inform the community on some of the health challenges that exist as it relates to health outcomes in the areas of maternal, infant mortality, cardiovascular, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and mental health.
Healthy Heart Nation is a non-profit based in California. The group's Interventional Cardiologist - Dr. Columbus Batiste - said this conference is about providing an update on the state of health disparities locally and in the U.S. "Blood Pressure is one the number one causes of poor health outcomes in the United States, and there's a disproportionate burden inside the African-American community. And so while we're here in Huntsville, we decided, well, no better time and place than now for us to do this thing called service. so we're going to put on the health conference there with blood pressure screenings, education on nutrition as well."
Danielle Ford, a student from U.A.H. received a scholarship to attend this conference. It's because of a partnership between Healthy Heart Nation and the Plantrician Project. The Plantrician Project is based in Tennessee. "I'm a current DNP student at U.A.H., and so I'm doing a lot of my work on looking at cancer, I mean, cancer prevention screening in African-American communities. So I've done a self assessment, a self evaluation. What can Danielle do to make herself healthy so that I can have the strength and endurance to help the community that I want to serve?"
One session in particular, included reps from local institutions such as Alabama A&M University, Drake State , Calhoun Community College, U.A.H., and Oakwood University. Leaders explained that all of these schools play a role in building health in the community.
"So Calhoun came out today to really share what we're trying to do to improve not only students pathway to jobs, but also to improve their overall lifestyle. and so that may be healthy eating, exercise."
"We're an HBCU. We have to do what we must do to ensure that our students are healthy. But we're also gifting the community with access to health care and health knowledge."
Furthermore, the H.E.L.P. conference said its number one priority. "Let's not just start a conference to talk about the problem, but really focus on actionable solutions that when people leave the conference, they can go home and begin making a difference today."