According to Royse and Dignan (2009), women in the Appalachian region are reluctant to participate in receiving mammograms because of their attitudes towards the procedure. This can be either due to the aspect of fear or lack of information about mammograms, and understanding these factors can help to address the problem. To address the problem, a combination of community-directed education, social modeling, and social reinforcement, as well as individually targeted interventions can be used. The community may provide the best approach to improve rates of mammogram screening. Education programs can be provided and through the support of community advisories, the community can be provided with information that would help to curb the cultural beliefs that prevent the women from screening. Social modeling and social reinforcement can help in organizing desired behaviors through existing social networks. Studies indicate that the presence of a social network has positive consequences for the individual in relation to achieving positive health behaviors (Uchino, 2009). Modeling can, therefore, be used as a central strategy to motivate women to get mammograms because women can be made aware of the benefits of screening and the perceived dangers demystified. Individually targeted interventions often involve one on one education and assistance to address the perceptions of risk, benefits, and barriers. Personal assistance to individuals is a useful strategy to encourage the women to obtain screening mammography.
Involving the community, individuals, and the modeling strategy is important in identifying health indicators to ensure the community needs assessment is complete. Data from a needs assessment is useful in the identification of the health problems or conditions that can be addressed by the health program through data-supported decision-making (Shea, Santos, & Byrnes, 2012).Assessment at the community and personal levels can help to identify antecedents leading to the health problem. The combination of the strategies is, therefore, useful in the evaluation stage, which is critical in the initial program planning phase. The evaluation of adequacy will look at the extent to which the program will address the entire problem defined in the needs assessment.
References
Royse, D., & Dignan, M. (2009). Appalachian knowledge of cancer and screening intentions. Journal of Cancer Education, 24(4), 357-362.
Shea, J., Santos, M. J. J., & Byrnes, P. (2012). Community Needs Assessment and Data-Supported Decision Making: Keys to Building Responsive and Effective Health Centers. Bethesda, MD: National Association of Community Health Centers.
Uchino, B. N. (2009). Understanding the links between social support and physical health: A life-span perspective with emphasis on the separability of perceived and received support. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(3), 236-255.
