A local group is now arranging these presentations and is looking for women to host them in their homes.

  Woman 2 Woman rural Wellness Project (W2W) offers community-based healthcare programs for the women of Gilpin, Boulder and Clear Creek Counties who have no health insurance or who are underinsured, with coverage only for catastrophic or emergency health threats. The services are available to women whose one-person household annual income is as low as $26,000 ($2,167 monthly). Nederland’s Melissa Selby is the driving force behind W2W. At a kick-off meeting held last week at the Sundance Café, she said the program was operating under the Peak to Peak Healthy Communities umbrella. “They’ve done phenomenal things,” she said, and as part of that organization, W2W can apply for grant funding. A long list of local businesses had also done “phenomenal” things in sponsoring the event and in donating goodies and services as give-aways. The Sundance provided appetizers and desserts for everyone. Selby said W2W home parties are formatted to have fun while learning about their programs (and hostesses are rewarded with a grocery gift certificate).

  W2W is currently funded by the Denver Metropolitan Affiliate of the Susan G. Koman breast cancer organization and the Colorado Women’s Wellness Program. The idea is to educate women about cancer warning signs and teach them the next step to get needed screenings. Patient “Navigators” help women through the process. They let women know what and where services are available, “for when you need to know how to get some of your parts taken care of,” Selby told the group of 40+ women. Navigators help arrange cancer screenings and stay with a woman through diagnosis and any needed treatments, “So, you aren’t alone on this journey,” Selby reassured.

  W2W is managed by Selby and the Peak 2 Peak Board of Directors, Ali Johnson, Barb Hart Zeman and Sally Sue Davis. They had arranged a panel (Gretchen Framel of Boulder Community Hospital, Dr. Katherine Drapeau and Roxanne Beasley of Mountain Family Health Center, Tina Nelson of Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center, and Susan Morrison of Columbine Health Center) to talk about the services offered at their facilities, how to access them, and to field women’s health questions. Rural women are more at risk for not getting needed screenings because of the lack of convenient facilities. Selby said W2W plans to bring a mammogram van to local women in the fall.

  Finding one of the panel’s familiar faces at local healthcare facilities may also ease women into the programs. Fear, pain, and lack of money, time, transportation, information or a buddy to go with, are some of the reasons local women said they’d avoided or procrastinated getting screenings. Women also tend to put their children and other loved ones ahead of their own health needs. W2W hopes by bringing services to local communities and by reaching out to women in their own homes, more women will get the medical tests and care they need. To schedule a W2W home party and to learn how to access services, contact Selby 303-506-3064 or melissaw2w@gmail.com. Staff at any of the healthcare facilities listed above can also enroll women in these programs.