Partnership Increases Breast Cancer Awareness Among Hispanics

Monday, 21 September 2009 18:46

The American Cancer Society's partnerships with the El Rio Foundation and St. Elizabeth Health Center to increase awareness among Hispanics in the Tucson area will continue into the next year, despite ACS's budget shortfalls.

After a year of increasing awareness of breast cancer among Tucson's Hispanic population, both foundations seem confident their programs are meeting the shared goal of providing more education and access to the services they need for early breast cancer detection.

According to Denis Cournoyer, the district executive director of the American Cancer Society, the partnerships with each organization extend their services out to local, underserved, populations that are difficult for the American Cancer Society to reach. Cournoyer explained, that while breast cancer affects everyone, Hispanic populations tend to find out about breast cancer later and less often than other ethnicities.

"[Hispanics] unfortunately, right now, as a grouping, are the ones that tend to have the least amount of access to healthcare and resources and we wanted to make sure they are not excluded," said Cournoyer.

The American Cancer Society provides financial support, in the form of grants, to the El Rio Foundation and St. Elizabeth's Health Center to fund programs that focus on providing breast cancer education, and other services to Hispanic women, according to Cournoyer. The Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Investment Program Grants, provided by the Great West Division, Inc. of the American Cancer Society, are funded by various fundraising events such as Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.

St. Elizabeth's Health Center and El Rio Foundation were the only organizations in Tucscon awarded the grants after an extensive application and review process last year. In total, only seven community grants were handed out in a 12 state southwestern region which includes Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado among others.

"We partnered with St. Elizabeth's and El Rio because they are more of an expert in reaching out to those communities than we are," said Cournoyer, "They work with them on a daily basis and they see people who need help every day, so we just thought it was great that they applied."

S.B. Marks, the wellness program director at the El Rio Foundation, explained that their program funded by the grant works with promotoras to provide mammograms to Hispanic women in Tucson. Last year, in the first year of the program, according to Marks, the program provided 229 individuals with mammograms, between January and May. The second year of the program will focus on following up with patients to remind them that the exams are done annually.

"A lot of low income women know they need mammograms, but don't know where to go," said Marks, "They are as interested in taking care of their health as we are."

Marks explained that she feels the program has been a real success, because it has helped to create a network for the Hispanic community, in which they can communicate their concerns and questions about breast cancer.

Sister Janet Smith, director of outreach at St. Elizabeth's Health Center explained similar results from the programs they hold to increase awareness about breast cancer for their patients.

"We instituted, under this grant, a recall system for all of our uninsured clients who had a mammogram or a well woman visit notifying them that it's been one year and it's time to talk to their provider about their need or if there is a need for them," said Smith.

The mammograms, or well woman visit often includes a look at family history, and other tests for breast cancer.

Another major focus of the program funded by this grant is to reach out to the younger generation of Hispanics under the age of 39 because they often don't know they're at risk, and if they do, do not have access to preventative measures, according to Smith.

"With our population, we have been finding a higher incidence of breast cancer in those who are under 39," said Smith.

Thanks to the help of promotoras, who work to inform the community about breast cancer awareness, in the past year, several women found out that they needed treatment or further attention due to a mammogram provided by the program, explained Smith.

Marie Reyes, one of St. Elizabeth's promotoras working on the program, contacts patients and provides them with breast cancer resources and information, while reminding them about various other programs that provide support for those with breast cancer.

"Patients really are scared about what they're going through, I think they need support," said Reyes.

According to Reyes, the program not only touches the lives of those who receive mammograms and find out that they have breast cancer, but also people close to the patients. She received a call from a patient who was previously diagnosed with breast cancer, whose mother was also recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

"Her mother probably had had breast cancer before, but didn't know about it," said Reyes.

According to Reyes, her role as a promotora causes her to become something of a friend to her patients.

Both St. Elizabeth's Health Center and the El Rio Foundation reported positive results of their program's first year, and are optimistic that the second year will build and expand on the first.

"It's nice to be able to partner with other organizations who have a bigger outreach into some of the communities throughout southern Arizona that we can have access to and be able to support without having that direct connection with them," said Cournoyer.

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