Some areas in south east Melbourne have high rates of avoidable deaths from breast cancer and low rates of participation in screening for breast cancer.
SEMPHN’s Health Needs Assessment (2022) shows that Local Government Areas with lowest screening participation rates in 2019 include Stonnington West (37.5%), Port Phillip (40.6%), Frankston (41.4%) and Casey South (42%); all well below the average Victorian participation rate of 51.2%, and national average of 52.9%.
SEMPHN commissions BreastScreen Victoria (BSV) to help ensure that clients get screened every two years, and to trial engagement strategies, including:
- Bringing the mobile screening service back to the City of Dandenong and Casey to help ensure that those screened in previous years do not lapse from the program
- Additional out-of-hours appointments trialled at five BSV clinics in the SEMPHN catchment
- In-language SMS reminders for lapsed clients (trialled in Greek, Polish, Cantonese, Mandarin and Vietnamese)
- Communications to new and lapsed clients to increase screening participation
- A qualitative research project to look at new strategies to increase screening participation for people ageing into the program (aged 50).
South Eastern Melbourne PHN
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