Ohio University has been working with the Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention Project over the past few years to improve the health of the people of this region.
In August 2022, Melissa Thomas, an assistant professor in the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Kerri Shaw, the Community Health Worker Program lead from the OHIO Alliance for Population Health, received funding from the Ohio Department of Health to fund two part-time community health workers who would work on increasing the number of referrals to the Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention Project in Meigs, Vinton, Washington, Morgan and Athens counties. In November of 2022, they received notification that their second proposal was also funded, which would extend these services to Guernsey, Muskingum, Noble, and Perry counties.
The work of this project is important because, according to the Ohio Department of Health, all women are at some risk of getting breast cancer. The risk increases with age and most women diagnosed with breast cancer are diagnosed after their 60s. Most people think that they are safer if there is no history of cancer in their families, however studies show that most individuals diagnosed do not have a family history of breast cancer. The community health workers of this project will educate and connect people to the resources the Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention Project provides to reduce the number of people getting diagnosed too late. The community health workers will attend outreach events and health fairs to identify women who are eligible for free screening services. They will also be contacting providers to inform them of the free screenings.
Most importantly, even though women can make changes in their lives to reduce the chance of getting breast cancer, breast cancer is usually not considered truly preventable. For this reason, encouraging more women to get screened regularly is the best way to fight breast cancer. When found at its earliest stage, breast cancer has over a 95 percent five-year survival rate, according to the Ohio Department of Health. If you would like to learn more about this project or invite a community health worker to an event, please contact Kerri Shaw at shawk@ohio.edu or Melissa Thomas at thomasm5@ohio.edu for more information.