Asian Outreach

Since 2001, The Asian Breast Health Outreach Project stands alone as a unique project serving the Asian population in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant Counties, Texas.  Supported by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the Project is dedicated to serving the Asian community in our North Texas area. Their focus is to minimize the barriers that keep Asian women from fully participating in early detection of breast cancer.

The Asian Breast Health Outreach Project provides mammography screening to uninsured Asian women, reaching the Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Thai, Taiwanese, Indian, Japanese, Cambodian, Indonesian, Burmanese, and Filipinos groups.  The project is available for Asian women of all origins including Asian Indians and has begun collaborating with the Indian community to make breast health activities more accessible to the this group. Screenings are provided by the Methodist Richardson Medical Center, Center for Women’s Health on “Asian Friday” to better accommodate the Asian patients.  On the 2nd Friday of each month, language speaking volunteers are available to answer patients’ questions, help fill out applications, distribute educational materials, and explain the results process to the patients.

Furthermore, these “Asian Day” Fridays are developed to ensure patients are in a comfortable environment with “familiar faces” around (Asian employees, translators, and technicians). These specific screening days have been well received by the Asian community with patients asking for appointments for extended family members and friends.

The Project is unique in that the Center, have the means to contact patients regarding the entire mammogram screening process in their native language. This includes scheduling the appointment, the mammogram screening, and any follow-up action required.

Why target Asian Americans for its outreach programs, concerning breast awareness?

While it is known that Asian Americans represent a wide variety of languages, dialects, and cultures as different from one another as from non-Asian groups. Asian Americans have historically been overlooked due to the erroneous notion that Asian Americans are passive, compliant, and without problems or needs. The effects of this myth have been the failure to take seriously the very real concerns of this population.

Currently, more than a million Asian Americans live at or below the federal poverty level.

Statistically, Asian-American women have the highest life expectancy of any other group. Only 48.5 percent of Asian and Pacific Islander women 50 years and older in the U.S. have had a mammogram or clinical breast exam within the last two years, the lowest rate of screening among all racial/ethnic groups.

Cancer is the number 1 cause of death among Asian Americans. Factors contributing to poor health outcomes for Asian Americans include language and cultural barriers, stigma associated with certain conditions, and lack of health insurance.

The Asian Breast Health Outreach Project’s activities are designed to reach out to this under-served priority group in the Dallas, TX and North Texas counties.  Their focus is to minimize the barriers that keep Asian women from fully participating in early detection of breast cancer.  Have an Asian family member, friend, or neighbor, that fits the above criteria’s, see our video online, for The Asian Breast Health Outreach Project contact information?

Do you have a story that empowers Asian Americans with more choices and knowledge “Contact Us” with your story?