Raising Awareness of Breast Cancer and Breast Screening
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in Scotland, accounting for 28.8% of all new cancers diagnosed.
Uptake of breast screening has been consistently falling locally over the last decade, and statistics from the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) Screening Inequalities report 2019 – 2020 reports that overall uptake across the Health Board area is 65.8% compared to Scotland’s average of 71.2%.
Kenna Campbell, Health Improvement Senior, Glasgow City HSCP said: “As well as continuing to raise awareness of breast cancer, our staff work closely with the West of Scotland Breast Screening Service (WoSBSS) to promote the national Breast Screening Programme. Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, staff are using innovative ways to convey health messages about how important it is that women aged 50 – 70 years attend their screening.”
The West of Scotland Breast Screening Service is undertaking courtesy calls to women aged 50 - 53 who are new to screening and promoting the service to GP practices / primary care staff and eligible women across Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Instead of practice visits, information displays in public places and awareness talks to organisations and staff, breast screening / breast promotion is currently being done online via Zoom / Microsoft Teams in partnership with our HSCP Health Improvement Staff. GP practices are also continuing to advertise / promote the Breast Screening Service inviting all eligible women age 50 –70 via their social media platforms.
Elaine Murray, Community Liaison Officer, WoSBSS commented: ‘‘Due to COVID-19 it’s not been possible to engage with local communities face-to-face. An alternative method to reach our target audience is by telephone. We’re calling women aged 50 – 53 who are being invited for the first time and informing them that they’ll soon receive an invitation letter inviting them to attend a routine breast screening check. This also gives women an opportunity to ask any questions they may have about the service.
“Staff working in the screening centre follow up the courtesy call about two weeks prior to the woman’s appointment date, to confirm if she’ll be attending her appointment. The Breast Screening Service has seen an improvement in attendance / uptake due to these calls.”
The NHSGGC Screening Inequalities report 2018 – 2019 reports that Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups historically don’t have a good uptake for participating across the cancer screening programmes. To address, our HSCP’s Health Improvement Team has worked in partnership with NHSGGC’s Inequalities Team, Bowel Cancer UK, Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust and West of Scotland Breast Screening Programme to create short videos / animations. The videos / animations were created in five specific languages (Urdu, Mandarin, Arabic, Punjabi and Romanes) and are suitable for use on social media platforms and to share nationally via email networks and video brochures. These videos / animations raise awareness, share information and address barriers around cancer screening for the three cancer screening programmes (breast, bowel and cervical).
Kenna commented: “These videos / animations have been created to address inequalities for the BAME community where English is not the first language. We know that rates of breast screening have been declining so launching the breast screening video during Breast Cancer Awareness month will help inform women about the national screening programme and what to expect at their appointment.
“Women can watch and share the videos / animations on their own social media platforms to further raise awareness in their communities. Copies of all four videos will also be available to view on video brochures, which we hope will be available within community centres and GP practices in the near future.”
The WoSBSS mobile unit will shortly be visiting the Govan area, and our staff will be ensuring BAME communities and GP practices within this area have access to the breast screening videos / animations to support patients to understand more about what the Screening Programme involves.
The videos are available on NHSGGC's YouTube channel.