In rural communities such as Western Illinois, opportunities for healthcare can oftentimes seem limited. To help residents within their district become more versed in local healthcare opportunities, State Representatives Dan Swanson and Norine Hammond host resource fairs. Recently the representatives teamed up with local healthcare groups such as Western Illinois Home Health Care to bring the Veterans and Senior Fair to Macomb. Katy Carlson with Western Illinois Home Health Care says these vendor fairs are important in helping people know what resources are available in their area.
“These resource fairs are very few, and these opportunities are far between, where all of these resources are under one roof. And it doesn’t matter if you are 20 or 100 years of age, you don’t understand everything that is available to you as far as your health benefits go” says Carlson. “We live in this rural community. You know, there’s just so much area that that we cover. You know, we don’t have these big cities with all these, you know, resources dumped here and there. We’re all stretched very, very thin.”
The Veteran and Senior Fair was put on through a collaboration between State Representative Norine Hammond, and Dan Swanson, along with Spoon River College Community Outreach, Western Illinois Home Health Care, and McDonough District Hospital.
