Reprinted with permission from the Eureka Times Standard

Article Last Updated: 12/12/2005 04:22 AM

Breast cancer project gets state honor

The Times-Standard

Eureka Times Standard

You know the line on your income tax form that allows you to donate to worthy causes? Some of that money is coming back to help with local health care.

The Humboldt Community Breast Health Project and its partners in a research project were featured speakers at the California Breast Cancer Research Program annual symposium in Sacramento.

The breast health project, a nonprofit organization offering support and information to women with breast and gynecological cancers, has teamed up with the Mendocino Cancer Resource Center and the University of California, San Francisco. The collaborative has received two successive grants from the California Breast Cancer Research Program.

The first is intended to improve consultation planning, a service offered by both the Humboldt Community Breast Health Project and the Mendocino Cancer Resource Center. Consultation planning helps a patient prepare for an upcoming appointment with a medical specialist. A volunteer sits down with the patient and goes over questions and concerns that may come up in the appointment.

The grant focused on ensuring that the service can be delivered to all residents, including American Indian and Latina patients, who may face linguistic or cultural barriers to getting the health care they need. It also evaluated the feasibility of completing consultation planning by telephone in order to offer the service to remote residents.

The research project was one of five examples used to encourage California taxpayers to check-off a donation to the state-supported California Breast Cancer Research Program on their state income tax returns.

The first team consisted of Dr. Julie Ohnemus, Sara O'Donnell, Jeff Belkora and Lauren Franklin. It included Mary Scott and Bojan Ingle at the Humboldt Community Breast Health Project. Forty-six community members, clients and volunteers were directly involved in the project.

The next phase will focus on helping patients absorb, retain and act upon the information and advice they receive from their physicians. The team will include Dawn Elsbree, Joy Hardin, and Bojan Ingle at the Humboldt Community Breast Health Project.

The grant application had the distinguished honor of receiving the first ever perfect 10 score on the community involvement dimension amongst the submitted research projects, which are evaluated by a statewide panel of breast cancer medical specialists and community members. Because one of the main missions of the California Breast Cancer Research Program is to support projects that will improve breast cancer care at the community level, the community investigators develop and administer the research project in equal partnership with the research institution.

A community meeting to present findings from the first phase and gather input for the second is scheduled for Jan. 11