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El Paso Targets Low Income Women
for Breast Cancer Screening
In First Year of Program, Screening
and Mammography Available Throughout City A high percentage of El Paso's residents live in low socioeconomic
communities and cannot afford the cost of preventive health care. Too often,
women living in these communities were being diagnosed with breast cancer in the
later stages of the disease when treatment is costly and less effective. Today,
however, El Paso is ensuring that these women are being reached with early
breast cancer screening services.
Fast Start for Outreach and Screening
In the summer of 1997, the Mayor and the City Council
recognized the need to improve screening services aimed at early detection and
prevention of breast cancer. By September, the Mayor and Council had provided
Community Development Block Grant funds, augmented by general fund monies, to
the El Paso City-County Health and Environmental District to establish a Cancer
Screening Program. Within the program, in the area of breast cancer
specifically, the program goals were to provide underserved El Paso women with
clinical examinations, individual breast self-examination instruction, and
client referral to local medical facilities - the Texas Tech Medical Center and
Thomason General Hospital - for screening mammography. Just one month after
funds for the initiative were provided, the Health and Environmental District's
Westside Health Center scheduled the first appointments for client screenings.
To build on this success, the District quickly enlisted the local media to help
raise awareness of the program and increase participation in it. Promotional
visits also were made to local businesses, shopping centers, and schools, and
flyers on the program went to local factories, the community college, federal
housing projects, churches, and senior citizen centers.
Rapid Expansion of Services
By
December, the District was able to reach out to special populations, extending
screening services, with emphasis on breast cancer, to the City's shelter for
battered women. A bus transported women from the shelter to the Westside Health
Center where the newly-formed cancer screening team - consisting of a registered
nurse, medical aide, and clerk - was based. In addition, and for the first time,
breast cancer screening was provided to residents of the smaller towns in El
Paso County.
Three months later, screening
services were extended throughout the City. Beginning in March, other community
health centers became screening sites by hosting visits of the cancer screening
team. As women with little access to transportation found that they could obtain
breast cancer screening services in their own neighborhoods, the number of
monthly visits to the health centers increased. Mammography, however, continued
to be provided in only one location, the County's hospital, and the Health
District soon realized that it, too, should be neighborhood-based.
In July, the District entered
into an agreement with the Texas Tech Medical Center for its University Breast
Care Van to offer mammography at four community health centers. The centers
schedule appointments for clinical breast cancer exams to coincide with the
van's arrival. Officials in El Paso report that the response to this service has
been excellent, as women needing mammograms no longer must seek appointments at
two different facilities; all screening services now are available in their
neighborhoods. The Komen Foundation has supported the mammograms for
under-served women with funds raised during its yearly "Race for the Cure"
event. The women who qualify for this support are low income, under-insured and
uninsured.
Early Program Successes
Because large numbers of women are responding to El Paso's
breast cancer initiative, cancers are being identified in their earlier stages
when treatment can be more effective. From September 1997 to June 1998, 846
women received clinical examinations at four of the Health District's community
health centers. In a three-month period at one of these facilities - the
Rawlings Community Health Center, centrally located in the City - 93 women were
provided clinical breast screenings. Four of the women had abnormal screenings
and were referred for diagnostic mammography; two of the women were diagnosed
with breast cancer, underwent surgery, and are receiving appropriate follow-up
care.
Mayor Ramirez and the City
Council are providing funding to support the cancer screening program for the
coming year, and the Mayor is promoting greater outreach through the City's
involvement in the Pink Ribbon Wreath Ceremony and National Breast Cancer
Awareness Month in October, events widely covered in the mass media.
Additional information on El
Paso's Cancer Screening Program is available from Dr. Jorge C. Magana, Director
of the El Paso City-County Health and Environmental District, at (915) 771-5701.
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