San Fernando : Free Health Screenings Sunday at Parish Hall

Free health screenings will be offered Sunday at Santa Rosa Parish Hall in San Fernando.

Services offered will include checks for blood sugar, blood pressure, dental, vision as well as cholesterol and allergy testing. Information will be offered on nutrition, and mammograms (breast examinations) will be available by appointment only.

The screenings are being offered by Holy Cross Medical Center’s Parish Nurse Partnership/Latino Health Promoters program. Other groups supporting the program include United Way’s North East Community Action Project, GTE, Santa Rosa Community Center, Santa Rosa Dios y Salud and the Iris Cantor Center for Breast Imaging at UCLA.

A representative from the Los Angeles County Department of Planning also will be on hand Sunday to answer questions regarding the current county health crisis.

Holy Cross Medical Center is a Catholic, nonprofit 309-bed regional medical facility in Mission Hills that has served the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Simi valleys since 1961. The free health screenings have been offered in San Fernando for the past four years.

“It’s an effort to bring some basic health care into the communities,” Steve Rutledge, a spokesman for Holy Cross, said. “For some reason, a lot of people are hesitant to go into hospitals to have themselves checked out. But they feel very comfortable at their churches.”

Rutledge added that the annual screenings have attracted as many as 500 people in past years.

The screenings are open to residents of all denominations. They will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Santa Rosa Parish Hall, 668 S. Workman Ave., in San Fernando.

For more information, call (818) 898-4550. To schedule a mammogram, call (818) 365-7928.