The U-M Health System’s Women’s Health Resource Center is celebrating 15 years of empowering women patients, families, faculty and directing education on women’s health.
The center will celebrate with a week of events that kick off today (Feb. 8) and include talks, fundraisers and visits with Judy Norsigian, co-author of the revolutionary women’s health book “Our Bodies Ourselves” and executive director of the organization that goes by the same name. Copies of the newest edition of the book, which focuses on pregnancy and childbirth, will be given to all Health System obstetric patients starting in the spring.
The center was created in February 1995 by Dr. Timothy Johnson, the Bates Professor of the Diseases of Women and Children and Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Patricia Warner, associate hospital director and chief administrative officer, C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Women’s Hospital; and a local women’s group. Their goal was to empower women to take control of their health, provide women information and resources and help craft a direction for women’s health education.
The study of women’s health has changed in many ways in the last 15 years, says Debbi Smith, coordinator of the Women’s Health Resource Center. She credits the value of gender-specific research, which looks at how medical conditions affect women, for advances in medicine as it relates to women.
“The mission remains the same,” Smith says, of what’s in store for the future for the resource center.
Since its inception, the center has incorporated new programming such as an outpatient lactation clinic, Happiest Baby on the Block classes, women’s health seminars and panel discussions on human papillomavirus and cervical cancer.
“My goal is for the resource center and services we offer to be dynamic and continue to grow,” she says.
The opening of the new $754 million C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital in 2012 will offer additional opportunities of growth when the center moves into this new state of the art facility with cutting edge treatment and access to resources, Smith says.
Public events this week include:
• The seminar “Approaching Mid-Life with a Positive Attitude” will feature Norsigian and Dr. Helen Kales, director of the Program for Positive Aging at the Geriatrics Center. The event is co-sponsored with the Ann Arbor District Library and will be held 7-8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Ann Arbor District Library-Pittsfield Branch, 2359 Oak Valley Drive, Ann Arbor.
• Norsigian will give a talk about “Our Bodies; Ourselves: Then & Now” at 3 p.m. Wednesday 2239 Lane Hall on the U-M campus. It is sponsored by the U-M Health System Women’s Health Program, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and the Department of Women’s Studies.
• A fundraising luncheon is noon-1:30 p.m. Wednesday featuring Norsigian, Warner and Johnson. Tickets are $50. For more information, call 734-998-6069.
The resource center is located on the first floor of the Taubman Center in the waiting area of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic. The center is open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. When the WHRC is closed, messages may be left on a 24-hour voice message system. To obtain information from the Women’s Health Resource Center, call 734-936-8886 or go to www.med.umich.edu/whp/whrc/index.htm.
For a complete schedule of the week’s events, go to www.umwomenshealth.org.
