Breast and Cervical Cancer Project

Melanie Wilson, Summer 2014

I had the privilege of working with two sites for my Summer UHP Internship. One site that I was placed in was the Welcome House of Northern Kentucky. The other was the Breast and Cervical Cancer Project. BCCP is a program funded by the CDC and run through the Ohio Department of Health to promote preventative medicine as a means to decrease the mortality rate of breast and cervical cancer in women. They aim to achieve this mission in two ways. The first is by providing free screening and diagnostic services to uninsured Ohio women who meet certain age criteria and are of low socioeconomic status. The second method of promoting preventative medicine is through women's education on breast and cervical health. By utilizing these two modalities, it is the hope of BCCP that breast and cervical cancers will be caught at an early enough stage to be highly treatable.

My time with BCCP was committed to helping them fulfill their mission through community outreach. I was responsible for contacting over 60 organizations in the Greater Cincinnati area to see if they would like to be provided with information on BCCP. This came in the form of flyers or pamphlets with information on eligibility criteria for the project and how to contact this resource. In addition to raising awareness about the program, I was also responsible for giving presentations on breast and cervical health to interested sites. These sites included soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and senior living communities. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to spend a day on the mobile mammography van as well as in the Dysplasia Clinic.

All of my experiences with the Breast and Cervical Cancer Project have allowed me to learn of some amazing resources located in the Greater Cincinnati area. Not only have I become aware of BCCP, but having to contact the various sites in the area allowed me to become more familiar with the plethora of available resources geared toward helping underserved populations. I will be able to use my knowledge of the existence of these resources to help my future patients who may be facing the common barriers encountered by people living in urban environments.