COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio National Guard, together with the Ohio Department of Health, Morrow County Health Department and Morrow County Hospital will provide free health services this weekend in Mount Gilead, through a cooperative program called GuardCare.
Services will be offered from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 10 and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 11 at the Morrow County Hospital, 651 W. Marion Road, Mount Gilead, Ohio 43338.
GuardCare is hosted each year in a different medically-underserved Ohio community and services are free to all Ohio residents who attend, regardless of income. The event also enhances the medical skills of Ohio National Guard medical personnel, many of whom work as health care professionals in their civilian occupations as well.
“We are very pleased to be able to bring medical services to the residents of Morrow County and Ohio,” said Maj. Gen. Deborah A. Ashenhurst, Ohio adjutant general. “It is another opportunity to serve the citizens of Ohio while, at the same time, giving our Guard members the opportunity to develop their skills further.”
Free services will include physicals; infant, childhood and some adult immunizations; hearing, vision and dental screenings; HIV testing; mammograms; complete blood work profiles for those 18 years and older; thyroid testing; lead testing; electrocardiograms; and Pap tests. Minors must be accompanied by a parent or guardian or provide written consent. Some lab work requires 12-hour fasting.
Through GuardCare, Ohio National Guard medical personnel support and assist local health care providers; they do not replace them. The support meets an existing need and provides National Guard medical personnel with valuable and realistic training. The Ohio National Guard initiated the GuardCare program in 1995 after Congress authorized the use of military personnel in medically-underserved communities as part of the Defense Department’s Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) program.