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Special Populations' Student Health Concerns Committee
About Us
Missions statement
The Special Populations' Student Health Concerns Committee was designed to assist University of Illinois students and their families in understanding and accessing health care services within the university campus and the Champaign-Urbana community. We collaborate with McKinley Health Center, Public Health, Planned Parenthood, the Counseling Center, Greek
Life, Cultural Houses, and more!
The Special Populations Program was adopted in 1991. One of the main goals of this program is to address the specific health problems experienced by marginalized groups, thus narrowing the gap between the total population and those population groups that now experience above average incidences of death, disease, and disability. A chief avenue for the pursuit of this goal is making efforts that will enhance and promote human potentials, while discouraging factors that inhibit those potentials.
Our Goals and Objectives
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To promote dialogue on cross-cultural health issues.
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To design and implement interactive programs that facilitate health awareness to the U of I student community.
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To conduct surveys and provide data/statistics on specific health issues for the U of I students and the general public.
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To provide illness prevention/health promotion programs through the Office of Student Affairs, ethnically diverse groups, clubs, and organizations, and select academic units.
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To provide valuable health information and related literature by providing links to national, regional, local and Big 10 health centers.
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To engage in activities that will encourage student involvement in health outreach programs.
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To work with local health/social agencies and also provide desired services to underserved, underinsured, and underrepresented community members.
What Are Special Populations?
University of Illinois student populations including minority and international students, women, students with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community, non-traditional students, and students with dependents.
The high risk groups currently experience above average incidence of death, disease, and disability. These groups are currently classified as special populations groups. They include African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, American-Indians, Alaskan natives, people with disabilities, gays/lesbians, women, and Pacific-Island Americans. The main reason for classification of these groups is to create an avenue of relocation of resources and to conduct research. In addition, it is hoped that the classification will enable health care providers the chance to address the health needs of these groups which might otherwise have been overlooked when addressing the overall health needs of the total populations.
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(Healthy People 2000: United States Department of Health and Human Services.)
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Addressing the health and social issues that impact special population groups, the issues of major concerns include but are not limited to: mental health, diabetes, cholesterol level, high blood pressure, eating disorders, sickle cell anemia etc.
Special Populations Current Team
Scroll below to learn about the people that make SPSHCC so great!
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![10](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2c8e39_213d08d170124a72a5c3d7d0b3c13e70~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_569,h_372,al_c,q_85,enc_avif,quality_auto/2c8e39_213d08d170124a72a5c3d7d0b3c13e70~mv2.png)
![2](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2c8e39_9a9862dd241f4dc9a3fbabf5b911590e~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_569,h_372,al_c,q_85,enc_avif,quality_auto/2c8e39_9a9862dd241f4dc9a3fbabf5b911590e~mv2.png)