Mammogram Events!

Mammogram events. Have you heard of them? They’re not exactly raucous parties but definitely Special Occasions. These small gatherings help women reduce fears, make an experience more educational, and can even make the whole process (gasp) a little fun…

We recently spoke with Kaley, a Health Enhancement Specialist who helped organize a mammogram event for her officemates. Her job entails looking out for the good health of her colleagues, so this was right up her alley.

Because the event is organized for people from one company, on the same day and at the same mammography facility, there are advantages for a company’s wellness coordinator.  The paperwork can be streamlined with patient information and insurance details collected ahead of time. (Full disclosure: she worked with one of our Kansas City clinics. We certainly aren’t the only office in the nation to hold such events, so we encourage finding ones in your area.)

For all the work that might go into an event like this, the ‘pain threshold’ is very low – clinic organizers work to keep it simple and easy for their counterparts in the patients’ offices. Said Kaley, “Day-of there was no preparation on our part – which was very refreshing. We made a few simple reminders to people via email.”

For the women attending the event there are benefits as well. They attend with colleagues and friends, which alleviates some of the dread and anxiety. The event is a great way to keep from feeling alone. In fact, Kaley noted, “Some of our employees attended the event with friends when they may have not done so by themselves.” This is what we call a success! Getting women the healthcare they need sometimes requires only the smallest bit of handholding – the kind that a friend can do. Making it easy for employees to care for themselves is a definite win for all involved.

The professionals who put on mammogram events find ways to make good use of their patients’ time. While waiting for the mammogram or the results*, there are often small offerings such as refreshments and educational materials. Informational tools such as prosthesis models to learn what a lump feels like can be tremendously helpful, as are shower card reminders to perform monthly self-exams. 

Did we mention it can be fun? “Participants said the party, the massage therapist, and the goodies made what could be a scary/not fun experience a good one,” Kaley reported.

All told, mammogram events can be an excellent way of encouraging women to take the time to get their yearly screening in a low-stress, girls-sticking-together, let’s-make-it-fun way. The best part was summed up by our friend Kaley:  “Providing something to our employees that didn’t take too much of their time and benefitted their health… is what we are all about.  Twenty to thirty minutes can be life changing.” We couldn’t agree more!

*Clinic reading times vary; patients of our facilities leave with results in-hand.

Image credit: Cute, girlie pink flower cupcakes by Julie Elliot via Flickr Copyright Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Originally published on mammographykc.com.