Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #108520

Lei-Chun Fung, MPH, MSW, CHES, San Francisco Department of Public Health, Chinatown Public Health Center, 1490 Mason Street, Room 304, San Francisco, CA 94133, 415-705-8545, lei-chun_fung@sfgh.org

Breast Cancer is the second leading cancer-related death among women in the United States (after lung cancer). Finding breast cancer early is currently the best way to control it. Tell A Friend is an American Cancer Society (ACS) program conducted among friends, family, and acquaintances. Trained volunteer callers contact five friends or other women they know to encourage them to get a mammogram. This strategy is called “peer counseling” because the volunteers are contacting other women much like themselves. Tell A Friend program has been proven successful in the mainstream community in outreaching women for early detection of breast cancer through mammography screening. Recently, National American Cancer Society has translated the Tell A Friend training material into Chinese language and made it available for ethnic community to launch the program. In this poster presentation, we would like to discuss the development, implementation and evaluation of the Chinese Tell A Friend program among the Chinese speaking women in the San Francisco Chinese community. The presentation will focus on: (1) Outreach and recruitment of monolingual Chinese speaking women to become volunteers; (2) Training of volunteers callers; (3) Follow up and support of the volunteers; (4) Results and outcomes of program. We will identify and address the barriers and facilitators in using the mainstream ACS material in outreaching Chinese women. A model for adapting mainstream training curriculum in developing an effective and successful breast cancer awareness program in the Chinese community will be presented.

Learning Objectives: After the session, the participants will be able to

• Identify 5 barriers in launching Chinese Tell A Friend program
• Identify 5 facilitators in launching Tell A Freind program

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.