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National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Chronic Disease Prevention Home | Contact Us |
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State Programs in ActionVermont Women With Special Needs Have Access to Vital Cancer Screenings The Vermont Department of Health’s Ladies First program offers free mammograms and Pap tests to eligible women across the state. One of the program’s goals is to reach out to women with special needs. For example, Ladies First offers TDD phone assistance for women who are hearing-impaired and provides materials in alternative formats such as large type and Braille for women with impaired vision. The program has been a big help to Natalie, who is blind. The staff helped her fill out the necessary forms to get screened for breast and cervical cancer. They then gave Natalie an audiotape of all available education materials on breast and cervical cancer. Ladies First also addresses the special needs of women in wheelchairs, who often do not get a thorough exam because the typical exam table is too high and is not wheelchair-accessible. When there is an inability to manually lift the woman onto the table, the chance to find cancer early is missed and critical early treatment is delayed. To overcome these barriers, Ladies First recently purchased wheelchair-accessible exam tables for 10 hospitals and one correctional facility. Ladies First and the hard work of its outreach staff ensure that women like Natalie have access to vital health information and cancer screening services. Since its launch in 1995, the program has provided cancer screening and diagnostic services to 6,000 Vermont women. As a result, 70 cancers have been detected, most in the earliest, most treatable stage. |
For more information, visit www.cdc.gov/nccdphp
For additional copies or updates of this document, E-mail ccdinfo@cdc.gov
Department of
Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |
Privacy
Policy | Accessibility This page last reviewed August 12, 2004 United
States Department of Health and Human Services |
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