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Speaker 1: Welcome to Mondays with Maria, brought to you by the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools. Here's OCPS Superintendent, Dr. Maria Vazquez.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Hi everyone. Today I want to address a very important health topic, wellness screenings. Nancy Alvarez is here with me. It's also Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Now, Nancy, I know that this is a very personal and important topic for you as well.
Nancy Alvarez: It is. So thank you for making this a topic of, of Mondays with Maria. I really appreciate it. It's so important that we talk about this. Absolutely. I was diagnosed two and a half years ago now with stage one breast cancer, and I had a great outcome because it was found early.
Nancy Alvarez: During a routine mammogram. I don't have a family history, so I don't know, you know, where this came from for me, but I do know that that mammogram saved my life, and that's what they told me over and over again. And it's a message that I continue to repeat out in our community. I'm just sort of relentless, you know, with this message. Particularly because so many of us put things off during the pandemic. You know, we put those routine screenings on the back burner because we're worried about so many other things. And then women, you know how we are, we're oh, busy. Oh, absolutely. We're, we're taking care of everybody else. And we don't often pause enough to take care of ourselves. And those mammograms are a way to do it. So I'm in my pink to raise awareness, and I know you have a combo going on.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: I do. I have the blue for colon cancer awareness, and of course my blank pink issues for cancer awareness. And I, I know what you're saying is so true because as, especially as women, we always put others first. And it's so important for us to take care of ourselves and to have these screenings. And so I can't stress enough how much I want our employees and our families to be healthy and safe. These are proactive and preventative screenings. And as you said, they're lifesaving. Sadly, our, you know, our numbers as, as a district are, are still low. And even though that is, you're assessments, your tests are private, we don't know about it. The company, our insurance companies gathers the data overall. So we can see number wise, how many people have done it. So we don't track individuals, but our numbers are still, are still very low. And I want individuals to really think about taking the time to have these assessments done because they are lifesaving.
Nancy Alvarez: All right. And so, of course, we're not just talking about breast cancer here. This message is for everyone. This includes screenings for breast cancer, of course, but also colon cancer. So important. Cervical cancer, prostate cancer for men. And then of course, skin cancer. We have to talk about that because it's so common. Dermatologists are now actually seeing an increase of numbers again after Covid. And then of course, we talk about the death of Jimmy Buffett. So many people, right. Were moved by that. It was such a huge loss, and his death was due to a really rare form of skin cancer. So that got a lot of people talking. You know, it always raises awareness when stuff like that happens. And the district does offer some incentives for employees.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Oh, absolutely. And I'm really happy that you asked about that. Although the Affordable Care Act mandates that many of these preventive services are at no cause to the employee OCPS goes a step further by offering health incentives for completing some of these routine exams. So, for example employees that are enrolled in an OCPS Cigna plan can earn up to a hundred dollars by simply completing their annual physical with their primary care physician. There's an online assessment that they can also [email protected], and they can choose two additional activities, whether it's a flu shot, a mammogram, like you mentioned, a colon cancer screening, cervical cancer screening, or they can work with a health coach or use a Cigna designated center of excellence for specific procedures. All of that can earn them up to a hundred dollars. And they can find out more information at insurance.ocps.net. They can log in, select employee wellness page, and all of the information is there. So I hope they take advantage of that. And a couple of extra dollars around the holiday season for shopping is good.
Nancy Alvarez: And you get paid to take care of yourself. Like, let's, that's quite the incentive right there. So we got to talk about our students briefly, of course, because there's those in school health screenings as well.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Correct. And we provide several screenings for our students. So the first one, we provide vision screenings in kindergarten, first, third, and sixth grade hearing screenings in kindergarten, first and sixth grade. Scoliosis is done at the sixth grade. And then we have growth and development screenings that take place at the first grade, third grade, and sixth grade. And we have an entire team that is there to perform these screenings. But parents have to opt in. And what we're seeing is our numbers are low because parents have not filled out the consent form. And without that consent form, we can't do the screenings. And for some of our kids, that's where they find out, oh my gosh, they need glasses, and or, you know, there's a, a hearing issue. So I'm hoping that parents will be able to go into their Skyward account and look if they have not filled out that form, do so your child can be part of those screenings. So
Nancy Alvarez: You're listing all these screenings. I didn't even know that you guys did some of, so I am going to check Skyward to make sure that I completed those forms. And that's a little reminder for all the parents who may be watching this to do that.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Yes. And if for some reason you can't get access to your account, you can simply contact the school for assistance. We truly want our employees and all of our families to be healthy and safe. Please take advantage of all of these screenings, and thank you so much for watching. And Nancy, thank you again for sharing your story and how vital it is for us to take care of ourselves and take advantage of these screenings. Of course. Before we go, I want everyone to know about a special new feature called Ask Maria. You can submit a video of yourself asking me a question.
Nancy Alvarez: That's right. They're going to give me and Jamie the boot and you guys can ask her questions. Now we're going to, we're going to, we're out of this. No, I'm just kidding. Okay, so this is like a video selfie, right?
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Exactly. You can send an email, [email protected], and you'll get the link to submit your video. You might be selected to be on a future segment of Mondays with Maria, and I can't wait to hear from you. I'll see you next week.
Nancy Alvarez: Don't be nervous about sending in your videos. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Mondays with Maria has been brought to you by the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools investing in our children today to strengthen our community tomorrow. For more OCPs news and information, visit the slice.ocps.net.