The UTHSC Outreach Center will be utilizing their communications capabilities to benefit soldiers deployed to Iraq and their families during the holiday season.
The Outreach Center at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center will be utilizing their communications capabilities to benefit soldiers deployed to Iraq and their families during the holiday season.
Directed through the center’s telemedicine network, family members will have the opportunity to communicate with their loved ones in the military via video communications systems. This service is being provided at no charge in conjunction with the Freedom Calls Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that has deployed state-of the art technologies to facilitate these connections.
Currently, Freedom Calls has installed equipment and offers these services from the United States military bases, Camp Cooke, in Al-Taji north of Baghdad, and Camp Fallujah, located in Fallujah. A number of sites throughout Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas have agreed to host soldiers and their families. Towns and cities where these sites are located include: IN TENNESSEE — Clinton, Covington, Crossville, Dickson, Dover, Dyersburg, Franklin, Gallatin, Germantown, Harriman, Jackson, Johnson City, Huntingdon, Knoxville, Manchester, Martin, Memphis, Murfreesboro, Nashville, Rossville, and Union City; IN MISSISSIPPI — Amory, Eupora, Greenville, Holly Springs, Iuka, Jackson, Pontotoc and Tupelo; IN ARKANSAS — Forrest City; IN ALABAMA — Hamilton.
Services will be provided between certain hours beginning Monday, December 13 through Thursday, December 23 and Tuesday, January 4 through Friday, January 7. To set up an appointment, consult the following web site: www.uthsc.edu/outreach; or you may call (901) 448-HEAL (4325). According to Karen Fox, PhD, Outreach Center executive director, “This is a tremendous opportunity for the university to give back to our community. With so many individuals being overseas in the military this holiday period, we welcomed this opportunity to use our technologies to serve those who are fighting for our country.”
The Outreach Center was established this fall by merging several existing outreach initiatives into one service. These areas included the Mid-South Telehealth Consortium, E-health, the Center on Health Disparities and mentoring programs for high school and college students.