Mercy Ministries of Laredo’s (MML) program will provide breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer outreach and education to poor, uninsured, uneducated, geographically isolated Hispanic communities in Webb County (Laredo), and will reinforce outreach and education to Duval, Zapata, and Hogg counties activities proposed by the City of Laredo Health Department as part of a service grant simultaneously submitted to CPRIT. The project will be implemented by Mercy Ministries of Laredo, which operates fixed and mobile clinics serving the poorest communities and colonias in the county. All patients served by MML are Latino/Hispanic adults, uninsured, with low literacy skills, living in impoverished ...

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Mercy Ministries of Laredo’s (MML) program will provide breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer outreach and education to poor, uninsured, uneducated, geographically isolated Hispanic communities in Webb County (Laredo), and will reinforce outreach and education to Duval, Zapata, and Hogg counties activities proposed by the City of Laredo Health Department as part of a service grant simultaneously submitted to CPRIT. The project will be implemented by Mercy Ministries of Laredo, which operates fixed and mobile clinics serving the poorest communities and colonias in the county. All patients served by MML are Latino/Hispanic adults, uninsured, with low literacy skills, living in impoverished and geographically isolated areas of Webb County (88% below poverty level).

MML will implement an outreach and education program including (1) promotora-based outreach through platicas (informal talks) in the community and at MML clinics, and through direct telephone contact with patients who are flagged as past-due for their breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening, (2) mailed reminder cards and telephone calls to patients when the date for their screening tests approaches or when they are already past due, (3) scheduling screening appointments at point of time of contact in the community, (4) peer-to-peer motivation using a snow-balling strategy getting individuals who have been contacted to bring another person from their family or community who also needs screening services, through an approach we are calling Trae a tu Comadre/Compadre or “Bring your comadre/compadre”, (5) partnering with local television stations to air four-county-wide mass media messages using PSA’s produced and tested by the Cancer Therapy and Research Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio – Institute for Health Promotion Research, and (6) reinforcing messages from clinical nurses and promotoras at every point of contact with the patient, using evidence based, culturally appropriate bilingual educational materials.

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