by Carla Saavedra-Santiago

You are preparing a presentation on good dental hygiene for elementary school students. Where do you go for a model of a giant tooth? Where would you find pamphlets on smoking cessation and a jar containing the accumulation of a year’s worth of cigarette tar from a smoker’s lungs? The Area Health Education Center.

The Area Health Education Center’s (AHEC) resource library houses many interesting and educational items available for health-related presentations. AHEC is having an open house for university faculty, staff and students to showcase its services and resources and to inform them of the center’s move from Irvine to Grosvenor.

The open house will take place Friday, Jan. 26, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Grosvenor 020.

AHEC is a national and state health profession education program that bridges health training resources and community needs. The university’s center, one of six in Ohio, was established in the late 1970s in collaboration with OU-COM to promote and support clinical training opportunities in local communities for health-profession students.

In 1995, AHEC began to play a role in coordinating service-learning activities as part of the community experiences OU-COM’s first- and second-year medical students are required to complete. The resource library was established to give them the materials needed to enhance their presentations.

The AHEC program was created by the U.S. Congress in 1971 to recruit, train and retain health professionals dedicated to improving the health status of underserved communities, in large part, by bringing the resources of academic medicine to help meet community needs.

The library isn’t limited to big teeth and cigarette tar. Students can find material on virtually any health-related subject from breast cancer to AIDS to bike safety.

Brochures, posters and models that describe the causes and effects of osteoporosis are available and can be used for presentations on geriatric health at senior citizen centers. Life-sized baby dolls can be used in child-care presentations, while AIDS pamphlets can be utilized by students making STD presentations at local high schools, says Ellen Peterson, R.N., AHEC continuing education coordinator.

The library also can be used by people from local communities who give health presentations.

Tracy McKibben, administrative assistant, operates the library and Kim Resanovich, R.N., coordinates AHEC’s service-learning opportunities. The AHEC program became a part of Community Health Programs (CHP) almost two years ago and is administered by Kathy Trace, director of CHP.

The library is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.