Editorial
Front Page - Friday, July 31, 2009
Erlanger’s free Healthlink program offers perks to members
Samara Litvack
Through a partnership with Northgate Mall, Erlanger’s Healthlink Plus program offers a variety of low-impact exercise courses for its members. Led by Clint Odom, exercise physiologist from Siskin Rehab, the courses are held Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 8:30 to 9:30.
“I don’t know of another program that is free to the community such as this,” says Renee Levesque, Erlanger’s community relations program lead.
“We have between 40 and 50 members, three days a week, that come. Then we offer it up for anybody else that wants to come in. It’s a great class. It’ll make you sweat.”
Healthlink Plus has a different component that also takes place inside the Northgate Mall each morning. The E-Walker’s Program encourages members to keep track of the distance they walk around inside of the mall. (Two laps equals one mile.)
At a kiosk near the far end of the shopping center, walkers can turn in their mileage and receive incentives as they reach certain goals.
As beneficial and important as these exercise components are, the Healthlink Plus program offers much, much more.
“This is just a portion of it,” says Levesque. “We offer health screenings. We offer lectures, classes. We offer aquatics down at Siskin and also core training for our Healthlink Plus members.”
Other courses offered by Erlanger’s Healthlink program include a Sibling Class, to be held at the Erlanger East Campus on Gunbarrel Road on Monday, Aug. 3. Designed for children ages 3 to 9, this course teaches future big brothers and sisters what a newborn looks like, the baby’s sleeping and eating habits and the role of the older sibling. The course also includes a tour of the maternity unit.
Diabetes education classes, which take place on Mondays and Thursdays, are held at the Chatttanooga Lifestyle Center, and explore ways to manage diabetes.
Groups such as the “Side by Side” cancer support group, offered in the oncology conference room at Erlanger Medical Mall, and the “Man to Man” support group, offered specifically for those affected by prostate cancer at the Erlanger Baroness Campus, are available for patients, friends and family whose lives have been touched by cancer.
These courses, among several more, are offered on a regular basis through Healthlink, and at a variety of locations across the county to better serve the population.
Healthlink Plus also offers physician referrals to members, which would otherwise require paid visits to their primary caregivers.
“You can call in to 788-LINK and get referrals throughout,” she adds. “If you are local and you’re trying to reach a doctor, Healthlink Plus nurses help you figure that out. They can schedule all the classes for prenatal classes for you. It’s a core group of community outreach.”
As is obvious from Levesque’s “prenatal class” statement, the Healthlink Plus program is available to a broad age group. While people of interest usually fall between 24 and 70 years of age, Levesque says the classes encompass a “huge genre,” with the youngest regular of the three-day exercise class being around 40 years old and the oldest at 91.
There are no fees associated with most of the program’s classes and offerings, with the exception of certain screenings, such as cholesterol. Even still, these screenings are offered at a discounted price.
“We do bone density screenings,” says Levesque. “We might do a memory screening, a sleep disorder screening, an array of screenings. And then we do lectures that we will do at night and at Erlanger East campus and Erlanger North campus.”
Lectures can cover a variety of topics, including diabetes, cholesterol, heart health and other disorders. “Anything that is cutting edge,” says Levesque. “We usually have a lecture on that.”
Many lectures are designed to be educational for the members, regarding lifestyle change, nutrition and stress. Seminars are also available for
Alzheimer’s, as well as caregiver courses for family members of Alzheimer’s patients.
Healthlink Plus members also experience other benefits, such as food discounts at the Erlanger Hospital and $3 valet parking, among others.
All it takes to sign up to become a Healthlink Plus member is a phone call to 423-788-5465, where callers answer a list of questions. It takes six to eight weeks for new members to receive their Healthlink Plus cards, and then free renewals take place regularly thereafter. Healthlink Plus is always accepting new members, yet Levesque says the program only gets a new member about once a month.
“It’s a great community outreach program,” she says. “We’re out there doing health fairs in the community. We’re doing screenings. We’re going out to different events out there in the community. We’re telling them about our teaching hospital. We have a wonderful hospital here, the only teaching hospital in Chattanooga. And so we’re getting the word out. We’re telling them about our Healthlink Plus program, community relations and it’s a lot of fun.”
Levesque also sends a special thanks to Northgate Mall, who has allowed the program to hold its exercises classes in the main atrium, in front of JC Penney, for years.
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