Increasing awareness of women’s health services – The continued need for face-to-face communication

Author: Christina Standerfer – University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, United States

Co-authors:
Akaylah Jones – Independent Consultant
Joseph Schafer – WinRock International

In 2016, the Arkansas (US) Department of Health (ADH) contracted with the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service (UACS) to conduct a needs assessment of its BreastCare program. According to the ADH website, the BreastCare program “provides breast and cervical cancer screening and diagnostic services for eligible Arkansas women” with a mission of increasing “the rate of early detection of breast and cervical cancer and reduce the morbidity and mortality rates among women in Arkansas by lowering barriers to screening that result from lack of information, financial means, or access to quality services” (www.healthy.arkansas.gov).

The purpose of this needs assessment was threefold: 1) to determine needs of current and past BreastCare program providers; 2) to determine current women’s health needs of Arkansan women between the ages of 40-64; 3) to determine bests ways to raise awareness of women’s health care services available to women living in Arkansas

Methods used to gather data included telephone interviews with providers, telephone surveys with Arkansas women between the ages of 40 and 64, and two focus groups with Latina women.

In this paper, we report the findings related to raising awareness of women’s health care services. These findings suggest that while the proliferation of social media might imply that the best ways to spread the word about advances in medicine and science are through mediated messages (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), the power of face-to-face interactions should not be discounted or underestimated.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices