When you think of Goodwill, you think of job training and donations and great deals you can find on used items in their stores. You might not realize Goodwill is also a place you can find free preventive health care.
“Often the individuals who truly need that service may not find their way there due to transportation issues, or they may just not know that those kinds of things exist,” explains Dawn White, Goodwill director of development.
So instead of having women travel to centers for mammograms, the mammograms are coming to them. Women like 49-year-old Hilda Campos, who has no health insurance, but needs the test.
“I feel good because I have the exam I need every year,” Campos said.
A mammogram costs more than a hundred dollars, but it’s a screening that can save lives. Early detection of breast cancer can literally mean the difference between life and death. Many of the patients CHRISTUS Santa Rosa sees at Goodwill have never had a mammogram before.
“There are a lot of patients that never have had a mammogram for that particular reason because they do not have the funding available,” commented Jackie Trevino, mammogram coordinator for CHRISTUS Santa Rosa.
It’s all part of a program called “Good Health at Goodwill,” an innovative idea that’s been enormously popular.
“So we know the need is great,” White said. “And when we bring it to their neighborhood, we’re really enabling families to take care of themselves in a convenient way.”
Goodwill has 13 stores in San Antonio and more than a million shoppers each year.
