Governmental Objectives of Senate Bill 994
1. Increase public awareness regarding the threats posed by breast cancer in young women, including increased risks based on race, ethnicity, age, and heredity. Achieve early detection though community-centered informational forums, public service advertisements and media campaigns.
2. Directs Secretary to award grants to establish national multimedia campaigns that encourage awareness of personal risks, early detection, genetic counseling, life style changes
3. Requires the Secretary to: (1) establish an advisory committee to assist in creating and conducting the public education campaign; (2) conduct an education campaign to increase awareness among health care professionals; and (3) conduct prevention research.
4. The EARLY Act will also provide grants to organizations that support young women diagnosed with breast cancer in order to receive the assistance they need—including social and psychological support, fertility preservation counseling, and recurrence prevention training
What are Senate Bill 994’s important political influences?
The Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Thomas R. Frieden has a strong political influence on this policy. The bill calls for the CDC to conduct a national evidence-based education campaign, which will provide valid indication for the need of early breast cancer awareness. The media also is a key political influence favoring the implementation of this bill. Grants will be awarded to the establishments of national multimedia campaigns oriented toward young women in order to support the education campaign carried out by the CDC. The bill calls for an advisory committee within the CDC to be established in order to effectively conduct the national education campaign for young women who may be at risk for breast cancer. The CDC and the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, Mary Wakefield, are called to work together to conduct an education campaign to increase awareness among physicians and other health care providers. Both education campaigns are meant to evaluate the current knowledge of young women and health care providers and their awareness of breast cancer risks, prevention, and available treatment options.
What is the potential impact of the policy change on nursing, clients, and the health care system?
S. 994 will have an impact in nursing and other health care providers due to the increase of education that will be required by the bill. Most young women see their gynecologist once a year for an annual exam. At these appointments, women are typically asked, among other questions, if they perform self-breast exams. That is the extent of early detection and prevention that most young women are aware of. What many women do not know are the cultural, ethnic, and lifestyle factors that play into the development of breast cancer. Nurses and health care providers will need to expand upon this information, which will mean more time spent on preventive education in the health care setting. Education will include handouts, videos, and web-based information developed by the director of Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Workers in the health care setting, especially nurses will need to be aware of these educational resources in order to facilitate the appropriate education to young women. Furthermore, nurses need to be able to direct young women to the community-centered informational forums on recognizing breast cancer early that will be widespread if the bill passes.
The young women are the clients who will be impacted by the bill. Although sometimes breast cancer can be a touchy subject and uncomfortable to talk about, the overall impact of the bill in young women should be favorable. Early detection through education on cultural, racial, and lifestyle risk factors can help young women to have a better understanding as well as possible better coping with the diagnosis of the disease. In an article found in the Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing it was found that younger women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have treatment concerns that are qualitatively different from those of older women. Younger women also feel as though they are too young to take on the “sick role”, and it was shown that the support systems for younger women are usually not as prepared to deal with such a crisis as those for younger women (Coyne, 2009). S. 994 is designed to develop educational material for emotional, social, lifestyle, and caregiver support for these young women who are diagnosed. The overall impact of the bill on clients is that they will have a wider base of knowledge concerning risk factors, early detection, and support outlets if diagnosed.
Related Videos and Links:
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’ blog about The EARLY Act
Sign the Petition and send a letter to your Senator asking them to co-sponsor the EARLY Act of 2009!
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz addresses the issue of breast cancer in young women
7 comments:
I think this an excellent legislative bill that could have a positive impact on our society. One viewpoint I was really interested in reading about was the impact this bill would have on young girls who have already been diagnosed with breast cancer. If passed, this bill will provide grants to organizations that support young women diagnosed with breast cancer in order to receive the assistance they need—including social and psychological support, fertility preservation counseling, and recurrence prevention training. In our society today, you don’t hear about many programs and organizations to support young females who have breast cancer. I think that these types of programs would be very beneficial to young girls who are coping with breast cancer. Another standpoint that this bill may want to adress includes the opinions of parents of these young females. How will this bill impact them?
We are from the Mercury-Free Vaccines blog group. We think that the passage of a bill increasing breast cancer awareness and education for women under the age of 40 serves a great need in the US. Young people often feel that they are invincible and that diseases such as breast cancer happen to older women, not them. Increasing education to younger women may help to reduce these women reduce their risk of breast cancer, or at least help young women catch it early. What types of programs would be beneficial to educate when? Where would these programs take place? We feel that college-aged women would benefit significantly from this. And at what age would educational programs be started? Reinforcement seems to be the best strategy in education, so maybe even beginning discussion about factors increasing breast cancer risks/breast exam demonstrations should begin in middle school, when young girls have just begun their menstrual period and their hormone levels are on the rise. Beginning education at this age, and continuing reinforcement through high school and college years may help.
Hi Heather,
Thank you for responding to our blog posts! The bill would help to support the women that have already been diagnosed with breast cancer and aid in their treatments and recovery process. I think that this bill can only help the families of cancer victims. If passed, the bill would support the individuals diagnosed with breast cancer and be a guide for the families to help their young daughters cope. Having a family member that is diagnosed with any type of cancer is extremely difficult for the patient and directly impacts their family. If women already diagnosed with breast cancer could receive these benefits from the bill, it could possibly help to alleviate parents fears for their daughter in the future.
Dear Mercury Free vaccine group,
Thank you for visiting our blog site and thank you for some great questions!
This bill proposes to "award grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to appropriate State agencies to carry out secondary school and university education campaigns, focusing on breast cancer awareness among young women." This means that education would begin at an early age and money would be able to fund universities and schools to promote women's health education.
Education and prevention would also be supported in medical offices by physicians and nurse practitioners. For instance, the bill states that it will target minority and ethnic populations at risk "including the African-American and Ashkenazi Jewish populations under 45 years of age." The bill, if passed, would encourage these women "to talk to their medical practitioners about those risks and methods for appropriate screening and surveillance, including available genetic testing and counseling."
Support for this bill and promotion of early breast cancer awareness would also be promoted educational materials such as media campaigns, pamphlets, and brochures that are to be distributed to differing areas in the United States. I think reinforcement and repetition is a great way to get the message across to young women. If women understand the importance of breast self exams and understanding their own body we can increase early detection and diagnosis. It is also important to note that this bill targets ethnic and minority groups that are more prone to breast cancer. Breast cancer can happen to anyone at almost any age. I think every woman and man, partner, daughter, or friend needs to be aware of this.
If you would like more information on exact types of tools and resources that may be used to support breast cancer early awareness visit: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.994:
this is the website for the library of congress and describes our bill in detail!
I most definitely agree that early breast cancer awareness in young women is a very important issue, especially since it is the second leading cause of death of women in the United States. I think it is wonderful that there is a bill out there that is going to not only provide increased awareness among women, but also provide funds and education for young women who already have breast cancer. I worked in an OB/GYN office this past summer, and I noticed that the doctors there tended to teach older women more about breast cancer than the younger women who came in for routine check-ups. I saw in one of the responses to a comment on this blog post that the bill would encourage women to talk to their health care providers about this issue. Will this bill do anything to encourage health care providers to increase breast cancer education during routine check-ups for their younger patients?
We women so often put everyone else's wellbeing ahead of our own. This bill will help make women aware of their importance to our society. Bravo!
Post a Comment