Concerns about the spread of COVID-19 dominate the headlines, but the YWCA of Northeastern Massachusetts also remains busy tracking other women’s health issues.
Director of Advancement Eunice Zeigler, a recent guest on WHAV’s morning program, said the YW’s women’s health program, which has been operating for the past 20 years, quickly realized the pandemic was having an adverse on the treatment of women’s breast health and took steps to address it.
“We have a partnership with Lawrence General by which women would come to our health advocate in the women’s health program and talk about what they are experiencing, and the health advocate would coordinate with Lawrence General to coordinate to schedule mammogram services for them,” she explained.
As a result, Zeigler said, they uncovered issues caused by the pandemic, and the women’s health program is starting to show some positive results.
“There were quite a few women who had findings and, of the women who had findings, there were about 25 women who had findings, for three of them we were able to early detect breast cancer and get them on a regimen so that they could recover and fight breast cancer and have a good change of building up their immunity and going into a strong recovery,” she said.
Zeigler says the YWCA, with a Haverhill office at 107 Winter St., seeks to expand its health program to cover chronic disease management and provide more education. Community partners, and individuals, can help pay for the effort by calling 978-788-6339 or emailing [email protected].
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