Intercultural Health Fair at NUI Galway

Oct 22 2009 Posted: 00:00 IST
NUI Galway together with the Galway Refugee Support Group (GRSG) are organising a 2nd Intercultural Health Fair to promote healthy living and equal access to health services among staff, students and all cultural communities living in Galway. The Fair will be held in Áras na Mac Léinn (Bailey Allen Hall), NUI Galway from 12 noon to 3pm on Wednesday, 4 November. Some 50 different health-related organisations will attend to provide information on services available to people living in Galway City and county. Groups in attendance will include the Rape Crisis Network, COPE, Mental Health Ireland, Cancer Care West, Bodywhys and Peer Health Workers for Asylum Seekers. Information on a range of topics will be available including mental health, sexual health and complementary health, as well as fitness, health checks and health screening. Cindy Dring, Health Promotion Officer with Student Services at NUI Galway, explained: "Our goal is to promote healthy living among the Galway community by raising awareness, providing multilingual and intercultural health information to new residents and networking to increase inter-agency referrals and resource and expertise sharing". She also expressed hope "that this event will meet the needs of students, locals and people who have just moved to the area. Personal health is very much about being informed and making the right choices. This is a great opportunity to visit a 'one-stop shop' for health information and to find out about the kinds of services and supports available on your doorstep". For a number of years GRSG has been involved in building the capacity of the refugee and asylum seeker populations to identify and advocate their health needs and concerns as part of a long-term integration strategy. Helen Bartlett, Community Development Worker with GRSG, said: "The Intercultural Health Fair is significant as it will bring together education providers, health service providers, health advocacy organisations and health service users. Many people living locally, especially those new to the area, may be unfamiliar with all the health services and health advocacy organisations available in Galway". This is a free event open to students, staff and the general public. People new to Galway are particularly welcome. There will be language assistants speaking 30 languages present to assist non-English speakers. This event is supported by the University's Community Knowledge Initiative. For further information contact lorraine.tansey@nuigalway.ie or Helen Bartlett at healthfair@grsg.ie
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