For women that don't have access
to healthcare or you know for
breast cancer, cervical cancers.
What are some of their biggest barriers
that are keeping them from that?
First of all, there's a tremendous amount
of work needed on health literacy.
72% of people who have issues
accessing care and getting treatment
have great difficulty interpreting
what they're being heard.
They're not familiar with the terms,
you know. It's it's health literacy.
And then there's food,
so a mother gets up in a daytime
and she's all she can think about
is how am I going to feed my kids?
How am I going to get to work an?
You're trying to be the caregiver,
and then transportation.
Transportation is one of the
largest barriers to care,
because if you do are lucky enough
to get through a screening process
and then a treatment process,
you've got to get get there and
be able to get home,
and people discount that there's
not best service everywhere.
There's she may not have a car she
may not have any way to get anywhere,
and then childcare.
Just making sure your child is cared
for and that goes along with all the
food and other social determinants.
But there are major barriers.
And I still think one of the greatest
barriers is the lack of community
navigators working with kredible
hospitals and federally qualified health
care centers such as Washington Cares,
breast cares.
And we we just.
This is not an insurmountable problem.
This is a problem we haven't been willing
to deal with in the United States,
even though we've all done work on it.
There's not been in a way, a solid movement.
Up front to get this taken care of.
It's not that we don't know what to do.
We do.
It's just that we don't do it.
And the best place to get much of it.
Much of this done is in communities.
If we can get people in communities to
pay attention to where the tax dollars
that flow into their community go and
how to fix these social determinants
of care and some of it is frustrating.
It's a daily issue,
but we at the promise Fund of
Florida have created a model that
works were willing to share it with.
Anyone in the country?
I will tell you that after all
these years that I've been doing
this breast cancer work.
I will tell you that I believe
almost 25% of Americans have no.
Access to a continuum of care that
is treatment of the disease have no
access at all to that or can afford it.
So there's something very wrong.
This is the 50th year of the
National War on cancer.
50 years ago it was declared
by President Nixon.
And still so many of our citizens
have no access or can afford to
care, right? So it's not just necessarily
getting to the appointment initially,
it's everything that comes along with it,
and getting the proper care.
How can we continue your mission?
The promised land of Florida here in
DC or and surrounding areas? You know
what? A lot of it is very arduous,
but most of it's simple.
It's communication.
For example, with Washington Breast Care,
we communicate with them.
We borrowed part of what they have done.
There in the 7th District 7 and
eight I believe where it is
and the way they render care.
What they do works,
but we need a lot of that in each community.
First of all, we need movements
and people in communities who will
take the time to create these
systems in systemic change at home.
But it really is the will of the citizens
and people saying this isn't good enough.
We're not doing a good job
here in our community,
and so we're really calling to action.
A lot of people to help.
And to come see what we're doing,
we will do it all with virtually over.
You know with zoom calls with everything
else we can do visits to clinic.
We have a whole navigational
guideline course.
That's online.
We have people who survived through this
and can talk to other women very openly
about how they manage to get through,
and then how to build the continuum of care.
So we we send our navigators who
are all community navigators they.
We ask that they are very familiar
with the Community they are working in.
They speak the language that they
understand the culture that they in
some cases have been breast cancer
patients and you know to to gather
to outreach to the women in need
for breast and cervical cancer.
And that's where our journey begins.
And then we get them to screening
with our partners at found Care,
which is which is a large,
federally qualified health care center.
Here we've already screened since
November when we we asked our friends
at Hologic they were amazing.
They are.
They gave us a 3D genius mammography
installation for the center.
We've been sent screened over 800 women.
We've had 6 positive cancers,
and all of them have been attended to.
Our health care district is taken
care of you.
Then we've mapped our community to
find out where all the resources
are an in what ZIP codes area,
and now we're going to make a
visit to every single facility we
have found that does any kind of
breast care and ask them.
Volunteer some of their services in time.
It's not that hard.
It's time consuming, but not that hard.
For not that hard and very much needed,
and worth it for sure.
How do you see this war on cancer that
we've had an the progress he made?
Obviously there's still the steps that
you are fighting for and working towards.
But what is your just kind of overall
taken throughout your activism?
How you've seen this progress?
I've seen this progress and I'm
lucky that I play pray to God.
I can live a long enough
to see the end of this,
but I've lived long enough Christian
to see where the words were whispered.
Breast cancer was talked about.
She has breast cancer.
To you know, from radical Halsted
Mastectomy's that were being done in
the 50s when I was a little girl too.
Now minimal surgery.
Really good experiences that people
can have again through people like
you who are willing to speak honestly
and openly to your audience and women.
Now speaking about it,
even in the most under resourced
populations in America.
But we must stop kidding ourselves.
We're not making enough progress.
I believe that almost 25% of
the women we speak of whom we
speak have no access to care.
Very limited Medicaid of any,
and then they have no ability through
the barriers that we have to get to their
care and to finish it appropriately.
And one of the other things we're
doing to the for the continuum of care
is we're going to commence a clinical
study with the Miami Cancer Institute,
which is a wonderful organization.
Affiliated with Baptist Hospital
system here in Miami and one of
their top radiation oncologist is
introducing a trial where we will
offer a woman three to five sessions
of Hypo fractionated radiation,
rather than the 20 treatments that they
ordinarily get, which are a little less.
Is a potent but are given over
a longer period of time.
Well,
a woman who has a limited financial
ability and has a job and children
doesn't have 20 days to go have treatment.
So what we know this is going.
We already know the results of what this
is going to be a lot less expensive,
a lot more affordable and a
lot more accessible.