Clinical Nurse Manager Amy Sawin, left, discusses the importance of preventive screenings with Health and Wellness Day attendees. (Photo by Gwen Sour)

PARKERSBURG — WVU Medicine Camden Clark hosted its annual Health and Wellness Day Saturday at its Health & Wellness Center at 2804 Birch St.

The focus of the day was preventive medical care and a wide variety of screenings and resources from WVU Medicine and its partners. Twenty vendors provided literature on helplines, warning signs to look for and where to go for other care.

“The biggest … that we’re offering today are the reduced cost blood screening,” said Louie Haer of WVU Medicine. “We do that about three times a year. Folks can come in, they pay for the blood work, get the voucher today, and then they’ve got a month to redeem that at six of our locations that Camden Clark has around town.”

The event also offered free electrocardiogram vouchers for the first 100 people to attend the event. The EKG vouchers are redeemable on Sept. 14.

The Rotary Club of Parkersburg sold the vouchers at cost for women for $43 and men for $50. Rotary has a long-standing partnership with WVU Medicine Camden Clark.

It’s a great opportunity to get involved, according to Kim Couch, Rotary president and executive director of the Camden-Clark Foundation.

“It’s a chance for us to volunteer in the community, our mission statement is service above self and this certainly is,” Couch said.

Additional scans that were available included blood pressure checks, body fat percentiles and derma scans.

Derma scans are intended to catch any potential bit of skin cancer not readily visible to a patient.

“We look at your face, your forehead, your neck, and we’re just looking for any areas that could be a potential concern or issue that is not visible to the naked eye,” Lauren Gillian, director of cancer services through WVU Medicine, said. “And by just sharing that information with our participants, we can enable them to watch and monitor and work with their provider to make a plan and then educate them on ways to protect their skin.”

Westbrook Health Services shared information on preventive care for addiction and mental health support in the area. Westbrook offered information on suicide prevention in West Virginia, citing that 173 programming sites have been developed in 47 of West Virginia’s counties. Additional offerings included literature for a crisis text line and a suicide and crisis lifeline. Westbrook offers office-based addiction treatment to assist those in the region with substance use disorders.

Gwen Sour can be reached at gsour@newsandsentinel.com.