Ellen Hermanson Breast Center Receives Award from Susan G. Komen for the Cure

The Greater New York City Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure awarded Southampton Hospital’s Ellen Hermanson Breast Center $64,500 to fund care for uninsured and underinsured women on the East End with a focus primarily on Latina immigrants.

“At the Komen Greater New York City Affiliate, we conducted a needs assessment of the community and learned that women on Long Island’s East End are often underserved due to insufficient or lack of insurance,” said Anita R. McFarlane, the Komen Greater NYC director of grants and public policy.

According to the Komen Greater NYC affiliate, more than 500 under- or uninsured women will potentially benefit from added care through this award. The funding will provide screening coordination and treatment support including a bilingual navigator who will assist women with paperwork for screening, provide telephone reminders and translation, and link patients to financial assistance service “Neighbors Helping Neighbors.” In addition, a social worker will assist women diagnosed with breast cancer through a bi-monthly support group that includes nutritional counseling for those in treatment as well as support for children, adolescents and young adults whose family member has been diagnosed.

“We are very pleased and gratified to have our outreach services supported by Susan G. Komen for the Cure,” said Southampton Hospital President and CEO Robert Chaloner.

The Ellen Hermanson Breast Center opened in 2009 and earlier this year the Ellen Hermanson Foundation, established in 1997 to honor the memory of breast cancer activist and advocate Ellen Hermanson, who battled the disease until her death in 1995 at the age of 42, awarded two grants totaling $295,000 to the center to fund new technology and patient support.

The award from Susan G. Komen for the Cure adds to what Chaloner called the center’s “complete breast health care through state-of-the-art diagnostics and treatment.”

“We are confident that, through programs at Southampton Hospital’s Ellen Hermanson Breast Center, women in this community will have better assistance and low-cost access to the care they need,” McFarlane said.