The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #50267

Elizabeth Neilson, RN, MSN, MPH¹, Tanya Harrel¹, Amy Jacobs, MPH¹, Elizabeth Powell, MPH¹, Patricia Watts¹, Kevin Dennis, MPA², K. Robin Yabroff, PhD, MBA³, and Michael Richardson, MD². (1) Project WISH, DC Department of Health, 825 N. Capitol Street, NE 3rd Floor, Washington, DC 20002, (2) Office of Primary Care, Prevention, and Planning, DC Department of Health, 825 N. Capitol St, NE, 3rd Floor, Washington, DC 20002, (3) Lombardi Cancer Center, Cancer Control Program, Georgetown University, 2233 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Suite 440, Washington, DC 20007

The District of Columbia Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (DC BCCEDP), also known as Project WISH, provides screening and other services for uninsured and underinsured women. Despite program-specific efforts to reduce barriers to screening services by increasing the number of provider sites and offering transportation vouchers, only one-third of women who enrolled in Project WISH ever completed their scheduled screening appointments. To improve the rate of cancer screening by women with scheduled appointments, Project WISH implemented a Partnership Program in November 2001. The program utilizes trained lay health navigators (LHNs) who provide counseling and support services, reminders, and listen to fears and concerns about a potential cancer diagnosis to women who might not otherwise complete scheduled appointments. LHNs are matched with women who have scheduled mammogram appointments based on the woman’s age, race, primary language, address, and screening location. Since December 2001, every woman with a scheduled mammogram appointment has been matched with a LHN. Preliminary findings show that screening completion rates have doubled to more than 65% since the implementation of the Partner Program. We expect that the ongoing evaluation of the Partnership Program with a pre-post study design will show the sustained effectiveness of reducing individual barriers to mammography. We also anticipate similar effectiveness for the implementation of the Partnership Program among women with Pap smear screening appointments.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Identify barriers to cancer screening services.
• 2. Recognize the unique contribution that lay health navigators make in overcoming screening barriers.
• 3. Identify methods for incorporating lay health navigators into existing programmatic frameworks.

Keywords: Barriers to Care, Cancer Screening

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.