Spring 2005 Issue
Breast Cancer Screening Hits the Road in Goshen, NC
Breast cancer awareness may be at an all-time high, pushed skyward by pink ribbon campaigns and fundraising walks, but many women, especially uninsured women, still do not understand the importance of regular mammograms or how and where to get one.
The CDC Foundation, CDC and the Avon Foundation have partnered to put breast cancer screening services on wheels, supporting mobile mammography programs that bring mammograms right to the doorstep of women in underserved rural and urban communities. The Avon Foundation provided a $4.1 million gift to the CDC Foundation to fund mobile mammography programs in seven communities.
“Our partnership with the CDC Foundation is an excellent example of the Avon Foundation’s commitment to providing access to quality breast cancer screening to medically underserved women in multi-cultural communities across the country, says Kathleen Walas, president of the Avon Foundation. Our overall mission is to support access to care, and finding a cure, and quality screening is an important first step.”
Goshen Medical Center’s mobile mammography unit hit the road in rural western North Carolina in June 2004. Teela Strickland, mobile mammography program manager, and Carol Price, mammography technician, are part of the team bringing potentially lifesaving information and health care services to underserved women in the Goshen area. Says Price, “I just think if the van wasn’t there, many of these women wouldn’t be getting a mammogram. I can’t believe how many women we see that are in their 50s and have never had one.”
Goshen’s mobile mammography program makes getting breast cancer screening convenient and affordable for women in rural North Carolina, many of whom live below or barely above the poverty line and hours away from the nearest medical center. “I would say 90 percent of it is convenience…just being there,” says Price. Traditional mammography programs at some hospitals require women to schedule an appointment months in advance and then sit in a waiting room for several hours. When the mammography van is parked at a local grocery store, women see the van, walk in, set their grocery bags on the floor and get a mammogram. The program’s sliding scale fee structure also makes the mammogram affordable, even for women without health insurance.
Of course, for a woman to walk onto the van, she has to know what a mammogram is and why it is important for her health. Strickland uses all available avenues to get the word out about the van and the importance of getting a mammogram once between ages 35 and 40 to establish a baseline and every one to two years after age 40. She and her team canvas neighborhoods and distribute flyers. They reach out to local civic organizations and faith communities, especially women’s groups. They sit at information tables in local shopping malls, participate in health fairs, and even march in the Christmas parade. Says Price, “A lot of women wait for a doctor to tell them they need a mammogram. They have to learn to be proactive about it.”
The two most effective outreach tools are personal testimonials and the van itself, a highly visible vehicle in a small community. One woman reported how her husband saw the van and encouraged her to get a screening, and many women, after getting their own mammograms on the unit, send their friends and relatives to do the same.
Both Strickland and Price agree that sometimes outreach, convenience and affordability are not enough often the biggest obstacle is fear. “A lot of women are scared to death because of the stories they’ve heard or because they’ve had a painful experience in the past,” says Price. Strickland adds, “I wish they wouldn’t take the stories to heart. What can be a tolerable experience can be a lifesaving experience.” Goshen’s mobile mammography team alleviates this fear by providing personal, individualized care. Unlike some hospitals that have mammograms scheduled every 15 minutes, the mobile unit¹s more relaxed schedule allows the clinical team to take more time with each woman to make her feel comfortable, show her how the machine works and answer her questions. “I tell women up front that I had my mammogram on the unit, that it was a great experience and that we try to treat all our patients like we treat ourselves,” says Strickland.
Goshen Medical Center hopes that the mobile mammography program will help underserved women connect with other healthcare services in addition to breast cancer screenings. After answering questions about breast health, Price and her team also provide information about other health issues and preventative services. “Many women have never had a pap smear and we encourage them to do that,” says Price. “And we give them easy-to-understand information about cervical, heart and gastrointestinal health as well.”
“It is wonderful to get out and talk with women and encourage them; that’s something that women don’t get a lot of in today’s society,” says Strickland. “I think it’s a wonderful project that CDC, the CDC Foundation and Avon Foundation have done together. This shows that they really care about women, and it’s a blessing for us here in Goshen.”
Since June 2004, the Goshen Mobile Mammography program has provided breast cancer screenings to 320 women. To learn more about the Avon/CDC Foundation Mobile Access Program, call 404-653-0790 or e-mail dladonis@cdc.gov.
- Shannon Easley