by Frances M. White - NAAFA Treasurer
In keeping with NAAFA's mission of support, education and advocacy for people all sizes of large, we are pleased to announce a 1,000 dollar grant to WomanCare Plus. This project is based at the Center for Health Training--Resource Group in Oakland, a non-profit organization specializing in training health professionals. The Project is in follow-up to a research study funded to the UC Berkeley Center for Weight and Health; long-time NAAFAn Pat Lyons RN, MA (pictured at right) is the Project Director.
The WomanCare Plus mission is to research and develop public programs and policies to address health disparities resulting from weight ddiscrimination and the cultural stigmatization of fatness. Some examples are the education of emergency medical technicians on how to deal with fat clients, and getting health care practitioners to understand the importance of diagnostic tools suitable for the larger patient.
Results of the initial study were published in 2005 in the Internationl Journal of Obesity Research, and described barriers to gynecological cancer screening exams experienced by fat women. Many NAAFAns participated in the research at a NAAFA convention in San Diego. The study's principal investigator, Nancy Amy, expressed to me how grateful she was to those of us who participated, because we were the proof that these barriers were not the result of ignorance and lack of exposure to medical service.
NAAFA participants were largely middle class Caucasian and African-American women who had health insurance and still found it unpleasant, uncomfortable and demeaning, in many cases, to seek gynecological care. But both genders encounter barriers to good health care. If you are large and experience an accident or health problem, you have many fears beyond recovering from the crisis - will you be able to be transported by an ambulance, will there be appropriately sized gowns and beds where you are taken, and will you be accommodated by whatever diagnostic equipment needed to examine you. As we age, we are going to need medical care and assistance that is compassionate, supportive, and patient friendly. The work of this project will go a long way toward helping physicians live up to their responsibility to heal and do no harm.
If you want to be a part of this important work, you can make a tax-deductible donation to the Center for Health Training-Resource Group (CHT-Resource Group), WomanCare Plus Project, 614 Grand Avenue,
Suite 400, Oakland CA 94610. You may contact Pat for a copy of the study at lyons.pat@sbcglobal.net (mailto:lyons.pat@sbcglobal.net).
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