Experts talk health at JDCHS public lecture series

Courtesy photo/JDCHS

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Leah Darrow, who appeared on ?America's Next Top Model,? speaks about modesty and chastity during her presentation Sept. 21 to Juan Diego Catholic High School students.

When St. Mark’s Hospital opened its Lone Peak Medical Campus in Draper, Juan Diego Catholic High School officials saw an opportunity for a partnership that would help not only their students but the community.

The partnership includes lectures on health-related topics and a grant for a sports trainer.

The lectures, which are open to the public, started Sept. 7 with a panel discussing drugs in the community.

"Our facility is such a great community facility, so we open these to the public – not just to our parents but to the public as well," said Molly Dumas, JDCHS public information officer.

On Sept. 21, the speaker was Dr. Karen Zempolich, a board certified gynecologic oncologist with Lone Peak, who talked about new trends in sexually transmitted diseases.

"It’s a delicate subject," Dumas admitted. "She was very sensitive to the fact that this is a Catholic entity and so she didn’t talk about contraception.

She talked about the inoculations that are available to prevent transmission. She’s an oncologist and she sees a huge number of people who get cervical cancer and it’s mostly related to the HPV virus."

Following Zempolich’s presentation, Leah Darrow, who appeared on "America’s Next Top Model," spoke on modesty and chastity. Darrow is now a full-time speaker with Catholic Answers.

The next presentation in the lecture series will be on breast cancer.

"The breast cancer one is especially timely because we’ve lost a couple parents to breast cancer, including one that was a staff person, so it’s really affected our community here," Dumas said. "We really want to get the word out that people can come to these for free. We’d particularly like to encourage moms to come to the breast cancer presentation. There’s nothing more heartbreaking than to have a child in your school who’s losing their mom. And we find we’re going through that a lot, and that’s tragic."

JDCHS’ partnership with the hospital also includes a grant for trainer who works with coaches to ensure that exercises for student athletes won’t cause injury.

This trainer also serves as a patient advocate before they get injured, after they get injured, and some follow up to make sure the kids are getting the care that they need," Dumas said. "With low-income families particularly, that can be a real challenge for kids. Families can‘t afford stuff so they are able to help them" with some expenses.

The partnership also has helped the school with flu clinics and other events such as vision screening, hearing tests and other required exams, Dumas said. "Finding a partner to help us do that was also key."

The Breast Cancer awareness presentation will be Oct. 12 at 6 p.m. in the JDCHS Commons. Upcoming events are Sports Health, which will be 7:45 p.m. Oct. 26 in the JDCHS Little Theatre, and Orthopedic Injuries, 6 p.m. Nov. 10 in the JDCHS Little Theatre. All presentations are open to the public. The high school is located on the Skaggs Catholic Center campus, 300 East 11800 South in Draper.