Designing a New Mobile Breast Screening Unit
How can we make a new mobile breast screening unit welcoming for wāhine Māori?
For the past two decades a mobile breast screening service has operated across the Auckland region. It serves 200 women and their whānau each week, and is an extension of the BreastScreen Aotearoa Kia Ū Ora clinic at Greenlane Clinical Centre. In August Ara Manawa worked with Auckland and Waitematā District Health Boards’ Planning and Funding directorate to create an exterior wrap design for a new mobile unit.
The project aimed to increase the rate of breast screening for Māori women and Pacific women. These groups have a heightened risk of developing breast cancer and significantly higher rates of breast cancer mortality.
Photograph of the visual art on the outside of the breast screening bus, by wahine Māori visual artist Bridgette Keil, Ngāti Tamaterā.
Research from the Ministry of Health’s National Screening Unit [1] highlighted that having a welcoming space is important for engaging women. Taranaki District Health Board [2] found that for Māori this can be created by playing Māori music, having images of Māori women and using Te Reo Māori.
We took these insights and sought to include wāhine Māori and their voices. We used an approach that combined human-centred design and Kaupapa Māori, and focused on patient and whānau needs, and advice. We gathered feedback through patient feedback forms, verbal feedback from whānau and Māori health leaders, research findings and equity-focused performance measures.
Photograph of the visual art on the outside of the breast screening bus, by wahine Māori visual artist Bridgette Keil, Ngāti Tamaterā.
The final design features Papatūānuku (Mother Earth) and was created by wahine Māori visual artist Bridgette Keil, Ngāti Tamaterā.
[2] Summary Report Health Equity Assessment: Breast Screening Participation in Taranaki 2019
November 2021
THANKS TO
Planning and Funding (Waitematā DHB/Auckland DHB), Māori Health Gain Team, Kia Ū Ora - Breast Screening Auckland Central Service, and the Ministry of Health
AUTHOR
Jenna Hagan - Visual Designer, Ara Manawa
MEDIA
Papatūānuku-inspired breast screening unit launches in Tāmaki article and video from Te Ao - Māori News