WOSU: Making breast cancer screenings more accessible for African-American women

WOSU 89.7 NPR News public radio recently invited OhioHealth’s health equities program coordinator, Allison Payten, on the “All Sides with Ann Fisher” show for its weekly “Wellness Wednesday” segment.

Payten was on the show to talk about the disparity among cancer survival rates between white and black women. In Franklin County alone, black women are dying from breast cancer at a 33% higher rate than white women. Through the Pink Pathways program at OhioHealth, Payten is working to provide African-American with resources for screening so they can catch breast cancer earlier.

“Pink Pathways is a community navigation program,” Payten told Fisher. “It provides women with education about breast cancer, it connects them to screening mammograms and it also provides them with resources, guidance and support.”

Payten says those resources are not necessarily things all women have easy access to.

“Some of them are uninsured or underinsured and are basically uncertain about what their insurance will cover (if they have it),” said Payton. “We are really offering them that encouragement, that guidance and that resource to say ‘if these are issues for you, we can step in and help you and connect you with a program that can remove those barriers.’”

The Pink Pathways program reaches out to African-American women in a variety of ways.

“(We work with) any organization that works with African-American women, so I’m working with churches, beauty salons – places that African-Americans are going on a routine, regular basis that they are familiar with and are very comfortable with.

To hear Payten’s interview with Fisher and to learn more about the Pink Pathways program, click on the WOSU logo.

Pink Pathways at OhioHealth is funded thanks to a community grant from Susan G. Komen Columbus. To contact Pink Pathways, call (614) 566.3957 or our Spanish speaking hotline at (614) 566.3957