Connecticut's Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program

Connecticut's Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program is a comprehensive screening program for medically underserved women. Screening services are offered free of charge to qualified women through the Connecticut Department of Public Health's contracted health care providers statewide. To participate in the program, women must be at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, have no health insurance or health insurance that excludes routine screening, and be aged 40 to 64 for mammograms or aged 9 to 64 for clinical breast exams and Pap Tests. The program uses community outreach members to promoting early detection and treatment of breast and cervical cancer. Using peers to encourage women to be screened for cancer may eliminate language barriers and can help a program better address cultural and community factors.

The goal of this program is to use peer communication to improve access to potentially lifesaving early detection services.

As of 2001, more than 18,000 of the state's uninsured, low-income women had received services through this program. This number represents 45% of the state's program-eligible population. Nearly 18% of these women are African American, and 20% are Hispanic. At enrollment, women receiving program services were asked how they heard about the program. Twenty-four percent (24%) of these women said that they heard about it through outreach educators who were members of the local community and employed by the Connecticut program to recruit women for screening services.