On August 11, 1975, the People’s Clinic made the first visit of a new program, dubbed PECOS, in service to the older adults of our community. The program consists basically of blood pressure monitoring at the site of group meetings. Clinic personnel will visit each site twice monthly, with the hope of reaching each individual once monthly, to take vital signs and blood pressures. The first site opened was at the Urban West Senior Center, 5870 Pershing. Initial contacts have been made with Grace United Methodist, St. Roch’s, Delmar Baptist and Olivet Baptist Churches, and we hope to have programs going with each by September. If the program proves out, there may be extensions in the Loop area, as well.
The idea behind the program is two fold: one, to locate people who may be hypertensive and not under treatment; two, to provide in-between monitoring for those who are under treatment, as an assist to their physicians. In addition to regular blood-pressure monitoring, the Clinic plans to work with the Diabetes Association to provide an annual diabetes screening for each group. As other screening programs become available, the Clinic will be trying to set them up for each group also.
Oh, yes—why PECOS? Well, Pecos is a place out West, and the Clinic is in west St. Louis, and therefore it seemed a good acronym for PEople’s Clinic Outreach Service. For futher information about the PECOS program, call the Clinic office: 721-5577.
Originally published in The Paper, September 1975.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1975_09.pdf, printed page(s) 1; PDF page(s) 1.
