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Laugh and Learn with Spirit
Spirit of Women Educates, Inspires Women About Good Health
By Kelly D. Burgess
Getting healthy and staying healthy shouldn't be one more thing women have to do. It shouldn't be a chore, a job or a hassle. Rather, it should be something that's so naturally incorporated into our lives that it's just part of our day. Furthermore, it should be fun.
This is the basic premise behind Spirit of Women, a national network for women's health comprised of hospitals, physicians, nurses, therapists and corporate partners (including Kimberly-Clark, makers of DEPENDŽ products) joined together to find innovative ways to educate and inspire women and their families to better health.
Balancing tires and hormones? Fixing leaky faucets and leaky bladders? Working toward financial fitness and a fit body? Those are some of the seminar pairings featured in What Women Put Up With, one of Spirit of Women's community outreach programs. Aimed at women in midlife, these "laugh and learn" educational opportunities provide practical advice about caring for your things along with yourself.
Josh Davis, director of business development for Spirit of Women, says it's a big challenge to get women to come out and learn about sensitive topics such as incontinence. Spirit of Women programs aim to make such topics less uncomfortable to talk about.
"Women don't want to identify themselves or show up at a function where the common denominator is that everyone has incontinence," says Davis. "What we've been able to do is create enjoyable edutainment type events where we combine fun seminars with information about issues that women may begin to face as they grow a little older."
Doreen Wilkison of Decatur, Ind., recently attended a seminar on urinary incontinence that was tied in with learning how to fix simple plumbing problems around the home. But she's really looking forward to the next seminar, which will address basic car maintenance combined with keeping the body maintained. In other words, she'll learn about both balancing her tires and balancing her hormones.
