Engaging the community is essential for advancing respiratory health and preventing lung diseases. Through active participation, the LHC builds meaningful partnerships, raises public awareness, and develops effective strategies that enhance lung health for everyone.
How Can Community Engagement Advance Lung Health?
Raising Awareness
Engaging with the community allows LHC to raise awareness about respiratory health issues, including the prevalence of diseases such as asthma and COPD. By educating the public about risk factors, symptoms, and preventive measures, the Center empowers individuals to protect their lung health.
Promoting Prevention and Early Detection
Community engagement can promote preventive behaviors such as smoking cessation and vaccination against respiratory infections or air quality improvement measures. By providing information about the importance of early detection through screenings and regular check-ups, the Center helps individuals identify lung health issues at an early stage when interventions are most effective.
Building Trust and Credibility
Establishing trust with the community is essential for effective delivery of services and research initiatives. By actively engaging with community members, listening to their concerns, and involving them in decision-making, the Center builds trust and credibility, fostering stronger partnerships for addressing respiratory health challenges.
Addressing Health Disparities
Community engagement helps identify and address respiratory health disparities. By understanding the specific challenges of vulnerable communities and tailoring interventions to meet their needs, the Center works toward reducing disparities in access to care, treatment outcomes, and overall lung health.
Informing Research and Program Development
Engaging with the community provides valuable insights into real-world experiences and perspectives of individuals affected by respiratory diseases. This input can inform the design and implementation of research studies, clinical programs, and public health initiatives, ensuring that they are relevant, culturally sensitive, and responsive to community needs.
Our Programs
We provide programs that support individuals with lung diseases and their caregivers, teach tobacco prevention to middle- and high-school students to encourage a tobacco-free future, and drive our Mobile Wellness unit that brings lung health screening services to the community to further the center's mission for promoting respiratory health and preventing lung diseases.
Better Breathers Club
Living with a chronic lung disease can be easier. Better Breathers Clubs are support groups for individuals with COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, and lung cancer and their caregivers. Learn better ways to cope with lung disease while receiving support from others in similar situations. Led by a trained facilitator, these in-person adult support groups give you the tools you need to live the best quality of life you can.
For more information on the Better Breathers Club, please go to
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Healthy Communities for a Tobacco-Free Future
This project funded by the Alabama Department of Public Health delivers e-cigarette prevention curriculum to middle- and high-school students in the Birmingham Metro area. The project also includes a peer mentoring program.
For more information, please contact Robin Guers:
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Mobile Wellness Van and Portable Pulmonary Functiong Testing (PFT)
In collaboration with the Live HealthSmart Alabama© and their Mobile Wellness unit, the UAB Lung Health Center brings services, such as lung health screening and pulmonary function testing (PFT), directly to the community. The PFT measures lung capacity, airflow, and gas exchange and is essential for diagnosing and monitoring conditions such as asthma, COPD, and pulmonary fibrosis.
For more information about LHSA, visit their website.
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Community Resources
For Study Participants
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