News & Events
Yarning about health for Women’s Health Week
Women’s health is on the agenda this week, offering a reminder to ask, ‘are you up to date with your check-ups?’
Early cancer screening can save lives and with recent changes to testing options and age recommendations, our Women’s Health Week events at the Woolloongabba and Logan clinics this week were a great opportunity to raise awareness.
Nurse Aimee led yarning circles with women at both clinics to get feedback from clients and share information, such as the new self-collection option for cervical screening and how the recommended age to start testing for bowel cancer was recently lowered to 45.
“Community events like the ones we ran for Women’s Health Week are an important way of raising awareness about some of the most challenging health concerns people face and how screening can save lives. For Women’s Health Week, we focused on screening for cervical, breast and bowel cancer.”
She said that women should get a cervical screening test done every five years after the age of 25, get their breasts checked every two years after the age of 40 and should screen for bowel cancer every two years from the age of 45.
“I’m passionate about women’s health and working as a nurse and leading community engagement initiatives is my way of helping mob close the gap. This is why I started working at ATSICHS Brisbane in the first place.”
At the events, community and staff came together to enjoy a barbecue and make bracelets with beads and threads of colourful cotton. The specially decorated Women’s Health Week-themed cookies were a big hit and all the women who attended the information sessions went home with gift bags that included a cookie, cutlery set, lip balm, pens and brochures.
Aunty Marlene has been coming to our clinics for more than a decade and has connections to Yorta Yorta Country and the Torres Strait. She said the information session led by Nurse Aimee was ‘awesome.’
“I thought that the information given was comprehensive and that our feedback was really listened to and noted.”
Thank you to everyone who came along to yarn about women’s health!
Check out the photo gallery and resources below.
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