Grantee Spotlight: August 2011

YWCA Boston’s Woman-to-Woman Breast Health Phone-A-Thons

 

YWCA Boston
Boston, Mass.

"I connected with the women I spoke to. A very rewarding experience. The women were grateful for the personal reminders." - YWCA Boston Phone-A-Thon Volunteer

Did you know that research shows that women who receive personal reminder calls are more likely to get annual mammograms? Thanks to ongoing support from Avon BHOP, since 2009 YWCA Boston has made its Woman-to-Woman Breast Health Phone-a-Thons a critical part of our breast health program. We began this program in response to the need of our health clinic partners to reduce no-show rates for mammograms and reduce barriers to access to care for their patients.

These quarterly events fill a gap in services to some of Boston’s hardest-to-reach women: those with significant language, cultural, or financial barriers, and those who have lapsed in care. At each Phone-a-Thon, trained volunteers place calls to women who have experienced a lapse in care, who were no-shows to their last scheduled mammograms, who have never before received breast health care, or who are due for an annual mammogram. Callers educate them about the importance of breast health, remind them to schedule annual screenings and, in many cases, arrange appointments on the spot – a role that the health clinics often simply do not have the staffing capacity to carry out, even for their own patients.

The Phone-a-Thons are successful thanks in large part to YWCA Boston’s excellent volunteers, especially the breast cancer survivors whose stories help inspire and encourage other volunteers and call recipients to get their mammograms. There are times when these survivors speak to women who have never had a mammogram before and are afraid to talk about their breast health. Through sharing their own stories of survival, YWCA volunteers are able to convince the clients to get the baseline screenings they need.

We have bilingual volunteers who speak the native languages of the clients we call, including Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, and Mandarin Chinese. One of the women reached during the most recent Phone-a-Thon was particularly grateful that our caller spoke Spanish. Simply being able to speak about a difficult subject in her native language, instead of having to translate her thoughts into English, helped her feel more comfortable with our caller, and more confident about scheduling her mammogram.

This year alone, we have placed calls to nearly 500 women, provided breast health education to 200 of them, and successfully scheduled 70 for mammograms. Our most recent Woman-to-Woman Breast Health Phone-a-Thon was held at the Dimock Community Health Center, in collaboration with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Their mobile mammography van provides the clinical services scheduled during the Phone-a-Thons. Other Phone-a-Thons have been held in partnership with the Whittier Street Health Center, and Neighborhood Health Plan.

Our long-term partnership with Avon BHOP has been critical to the success of our breast health program in general and our quarterly Phone-a-Thons in particular. We would not have been able to expand our program to offer this exciting service without Avon’s support. As a local community-based organization, we are proud to work with our team of volunteers, strong community partner organizations, and Avon BHOP to provide this important breast health outreach and education program. As a result of our success, hundreds of women who would not otherwise have had access to education and care are receiving it and our health clinic partners are increasing their service rates for at-risk women.

Avon BHOP is coordinated by Cicatelli Associates Inc.
505 Eighth Avenue, 16th fl.
New York, NY 10018-6505
phone (212) 594-7741
© Copyright 2010