Coastal Health District

“Early Detection Saves Lives”

The Breast and Cervical Cancer program (BCCP) has a 20-year history for screening eligible women for breast cancer. Funding has decreased annually in recent years, which creates a backlog of clients needing services. Additionally, no funding exists for uninsured and underinsured men with abnormal clinical findings, and limited funds exist for women under 40 and women with incomes between 200-250% of federal poverty guidelines. This program will increase screening for BCCP eligible patients and create a diagnostic fund for BCCP excluded patients. The counties included in this project are Chatham, Bryan, and Effingham Counties. Proposed screening services include 95 clinical breast exams at Chatham, Bryan, or Effingham County health department facilities and 95 bilateral screening mammograms at certified mammography providers  for new BCCP eligible patients. This wil enable the Health Department to enroll additional patients for screening.  The program will also provide diagnostic services to include 90 clinical breast exams and 75 diagnostic mammograms, 70 ultrasounds, and 10 biopsies at certified mammography providers.  The proposed project will bring additional breast cancer screening capability for women in the community and will create a funding source to diagnose men with abnormal clinical findings.

Community Health Mission

“Healthy Solutions – One Woman at a Time”

One Woman at a time - is a health education and navigation program that helps African American and Hispanic women to understand all aspects of breast health including breast cancer risk factors, prevention, early detection, screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow up care.  The program will use a grass-root approach that includes churches, beauty salons, and community Centers as sites for education and identification of low-income women.  Uninsured women without a medical home  identify during the educational sessions will be refer to Community Health Mission to established a medical home and received medical services for chronic conditions, and prevention services such as screening mammograms. Among those women refer to Community Health Mission, the Harvard Risk Index will be use to identify women with the higher risk for breast cancer based on the presence of risk factors follow by a screening mammogram.  This program is a component of the community disease management program that is a collaborative, community-based approach to improve health outcomes through better care coordination across the entire spectrum. The approach is based on a framework that covers health promotion, prevention, early detection and primary, secondary and tertiary treatment.  CHM is the lead agency partnering with 2 FQHC and 2 volunteer clinics, MedBank and YMCA. 

Effingham Hospital

“Comprehensive Education & Screening Program for Effingham”

The Comprehensive Education & Screening Program for Effingham County will seek to reduce the incidence of late stage or undetected breast cancers. This will be accomplished with a series of breast health information and screening forums, to be conducted at locations that will attract underserved or low income women from the rural areas of the county. Key activities will include bi-lingual education, on site clinical breast exams, instruction on routine self screenings, and a health questionnaire designed to identify risk factors or family history. Women with suspicious breast exam findings or family history will be offered paid transportation to one of the mammography locations (hospital or Imaging Center) for a digital screening. A clinical coordinator will then identify, monitor, steer and track patients requiring follow up diagnostics or treatment as a result of a finding. The program will be evaluated after each educational forum to identify any possible problems with communication, receptiveness and logistics for follow up, with all educational/screening forums scheduled for completion by October 1, 2013.  This will allow for adequate follow up time for patients requiring navigation through the continuum from screening to treatment. We expect that the education and exams will reach women that have never had such an opportunity, and provide a well coordinated continuum of care those patients with findings, from screening to treatment. 

Liberty County Department

“BRAVE III PROJECT”

The BRAVE (Be Readily Available And Very Empathetic) III Project is a continuation project that will combine components of the previously funded BRAVE Projects with components of the Breast Care Latina Project. Thus, BRAVE III will support Liberty and Long Counties and will target African American women in rural Liberty County and Latina Women in Long County. The project will provide breast care education, clinical breast exams, screening mammograms and diagnostic services for women with abnormal screening mammogram results. A Client Navigator will provide interpreter service, linkage to available community resources and supportive care. The project will provide mobile mammography outreach events that will offer on the spot patient education, breast exams, and screening mammograms in rural areas of Liberty County and in strategic areas of Long County as well. Educational outreach events will be held in African American Churches in rural Liberty County and Hispanic Churches in Long as well as grocery stores frequented by the target groups in both counties. To further enhance access, Liberty Regional Medical Center will offer weekend mammograms for working women in the target groups. The Project will evaluate its teaching methods by comparing pre & post tests answers and the accuracy of repeat demonstration for self breast exams. The number of women receiving initial breast care services versus those continuing these services will measure the project's impact on the community.

Memorial Health

“Memorial Mammogram Program 2013”

In a collaborative effort with the Georgia Division of Public Health Coastal Health District’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention Program (BCCP), the proposed program will provide for breast cancer education, mammograms, diagnostic care, and follow up services to 100 medically indigent women throughout the following counties of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Coastal Georgia Affiliate:  Bulloch, Camden, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Long and McIntosh counties.

Southeast Georgia Health System

“Mammograms in Motion”

“Mammograms in Motion” is a collaborative community effort led by Southeast Georgia Health System to reach out to uninsured, underserved, and low income individuals residing in Camden, Glynn, Long and McIntosh counties by providing financial support and access to screening and diagnostic breast work-up services. These counties were identified to have low mammography rates therefore this program places special emphasis on increasing the number of women who receive mammograms in rural areas by partnering with local organizations and increasing access to care primarily by using the Health System’s Wellness On Wheels (WOW) mobile health vehicle. The WOW unit will provide monthly visits to the target counties to ensure residents of these rural areas do not have to travel far for screening services. “Mammograms in Motion” will also provide nurse navigation services to participants transitioning from diagnosis to treatment by collaborating with providers to ensure timely and effective care. The nurse navigation service will focus on preventing gaps in medical care for participants in these rural counties that are lacking additional resources while reducing the amount of time between these services. “Mammograms in Motion” outreach project will increase awareness for the importance of early breast cancer detection by seeking opportunities to provide much needed services in the underserved areas and is a resource for those in need making it a valuable program to the communities served.

Curtis V. Cooper Primary Health Care

“CVCPHC Mammogram Screening Program”

Curtis V. Cooper Primary Health Care program will provide breast cancer screening (mammograms) for approximately 300 of CVCPGC active medically underserved and uninsured patients  that require this critical health care service.  The program will address one critical breast screening need that will contribute to CVCPHC's overall ability for early detection, awareness, accessibility and most important positive patient outcomes. This program will augment CVCPHC's mission and enhance the community in providing high quality, affordable, accessible health screening service to all residents of Savannah and Chatham County, GA.  CVCPHC collaborating partner SouthCoast Imaging Center will assist in tracking of patients keeping appointments, results of screening and provide additional diagnostic test as warranted for the underserved patients (no additional charge) to ensure the appropriate treatment can be obtained if warranted.

Hearts and Hands Clinic

“Hearts & Hands for Mammograms”

Hearts and Hands has developed Hearts and Hands for Mammograms to decrease the ethnic and socio-economic disparity that exists in the stages of breast cancer diagnosis between low-income, uninsured and often minority women and those falling outside of that description. Research proves that an unsettling gap exists, and that African American women are diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer more often than most other demographic groups. As an organization committed to providing free primary health care to Bulloch County's qualifying residents, Hearts and Hands recognizes that mammography services must be offered to this population. Hearts and Hands will provide mammograms to 120 women in our target audience, 50% of whom will be of African American descent. We will accomplish this through the outreach, organization, scheduling and follow-up of a Project Coordinator and through the one-on-one educational sessions, baseline evaluations, follow-up surveys and data tracking of a Health Policy Intern, both under the supervision of the Project Director. Project activities will include sharing Komen Coastal Georgia's message at a minimum of four health fairs, developing partnerships at 12 community locations--specifically, churches, barber shops and social service centers, equipping five Hearts and Hands patients per month with education about mammography services and tools to share resources with others, and by proving free mammograms and diagnostic and treatment services as needed.