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Lions
HealthFirst Foundation is a community-service program of the Las
Vegas International Lions Club. Las Vegas International Lions
Club is chartered by and under the jurisdiction of The
International Association of Lions Clubs. Founded in 1917, Lions
Clubs International is the largest volunteer service
organization in the world, with nearly 1.4 million members in
200 countries and geographical areas. There are 48 Lions Clubs
in Nevada, with over 1,400 strong, making a difference in the
everyday lives of people in need.
The Lions
HealthFirst Foundation is a public charity. Its has planned a
community health education and preventive health screening
program to be brought directly to the public for the purpose of
reducing the rate of strokes and heart attacks and for the early
detection of tumors which may become cancer.
The Foundation
operates the Lions Stroke & Cancer Screening Center in Las
Vegas, Nevada. The Foundation’s goal is to educate people over
50, and everyone with a family history of stroke, cancer, heart
attack or aneurysm, about the need and availability of
preventive health screening.
The Foundation
has disseminated over 50,000 health messages in 2007 during the
first three months of operation. The purpose is to increase the
capacity of the patient to promote wellness through early
detection of health problems.
The second goal
is early detection of health problems through ultrasound
screenings. These screenings are free to low income people, who
are without health insurance or are under-insured and at a
low-cost to the general elderly population. We also provide
follow up medical care as needed. In the first month of
operations, the Foundation screened 93 at-risk seniors. The
Foundation expects to screen over 350 seniors in the 4th quarter
of 2007.
Approximately
200,000 people in the metropolitan Las Vegas area are without
medical insurance. Another 250,000 people are under-insured and
unable to pay the high cost of health care. Many of these people
do not understand the importance of early detection and
treatment of medical problems. Most people don’t know that
preventive health screening is available to them without a
doctor’s prescription or that these services may be available at
no cost to them or their families.
Our goal is to
inform the public about the benefits of preventive health
screening; help make people aware of potential undetected health
problems, and encourage them to seek follow-up care with a
family physician.
In 2008, we
expect to educate over 100,000 seniors who are at-risk for
stroke, cancer or heart attack about the importance and
availability of preventive health screening. We will use direct
mail, public service announcements and free lectures given at
public libraries and senior centers, using volunteers from the
Lions Speakers Bureau.
We expect to
perform preventive health examinations using non-invasive, safe,
ultrasound technology for approximately 2,000 senior citizens in
2008. Early detection is one of the keys to saving lives from a
potentially fatal heart attack, stroke or cancer. It can also
save seniors needless suffering and save the community hundreds
of thousands of dollars in medical expenses that often become a
burden to the county or state.
By 2010, we
want to educate and motivate 200,000 people a year to have
preventive health tests performed. We expect to perform 8,000
health screenings in Clark County, Nevada during the upcoming
year. |