After over a year of collecting information from women through surveys, focus groups and social media platforms (100+ service users chatting with us on a closed research Facebook group!) the WoMMeN hub is finally ready and we plan to launch this on the 8th of March: International Women’s Day.
The hub contains all the features women told us they would want in a breast screening information and social networking space. It is intended to complement the NHS Breast Screening information which is the official documentation about the Breast Screening programme. We have had a positive response about the WOMMeN hub from the NHS Breast Screening and QA leads and NHS England, Lancashire and Greater Manchester say they are very impressed with its user friendly design and quality of information.
However, importantly, WoMMeN provides an alternative approach to finding out more about breast screening through the use of social media. Through the online forum women can chat to those who have had breast screening and to mammographers. There are also feeds to our Twitter (@WOMMeN3) and Facebook pages to make sure we are inclusive of a range of preferred social media platforms. Thanks to funding support from the College of radiographers Industry Partnership Scheme we are now working closely with mammographers to help them develop online communication skills so they can engage effectively with service-users using social media.
The WoMMeN hub also provides a place for practitioners to share information and practice tips through a separate practitioner forum. We do hope you will visit the hub at www.wommen.org.uk and also provide feedback on how it might be improved.
The WoMMeN team would like to thank all the wonderful people who have worked with them over the last couple of years to ensure the site is ‘by the community for the community’. We would also like to thank the NHS Breast Screening and QA leads for their continuing support as well as Cancer Research UK for their National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Stream funding.