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The Lifesaving Power of Trust

Community-based prostate-cancer screening program teams up with barbershops

Photo by Annie O'NeillWaverly Willis (top left) regularly encourages clients at his Urban Kutz barbershop in Cleveland to take care of their health with prostate-cancer screenings and checks for hypertension. Willis is joined here with fellow barber, Andre McCoy (right), and shop client Terry Williams, who did the screening, was treated early for cancer and has a good prognosis.

Waverly Willis was out shopping with his daughter one day when he was blindsided—by a hug. A big, tearful, holding-on-for-dear-life hug, the kind that's usually reserved for long-distance airport arrivals and the sidelines of the Super Bowl. Willis wondered: Who is this woman? And why is she hugging me?

Once she pulled away, he got his answer: "I'm Terry's wife," she explained. "I don't know what you all did to get him to get on that bus, but you got him—and my husband's going to be alright."

Now Willis understood. Terry Williams was a regular at his Urban Kutz Barbershop in Cleveland. And "the bus" was a mobile unit that had recently rolled up as part of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center's Cleveland African American Prostate Cancer Project's effort to encourage Black men age 40 and older to get screened. Along with barbers at more than a dozen area shops, Willis had been nudging clients, Williams among them, to come get tested.

The project is one of many education and outreach programs the cancer center has launched with community partners to prevent, diagnose and treat cancers across Cleveland and the 15 surrounding counties.

365bet体育在线世界杯 , many clients were nervous the screening would be invasive. Willis and his barbers reassured them: It's just a blood test. Some, anxious about the results, figured it was better not to know. Willis, a cancer survivor himself, was a living rebuttal. And many had never been referred for screening, despite being up-to-date on their primary care check-ups.

That's not surprising, said Erika Trapl, PhD, associate director for community outreach and engagement at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. Although Black men are at higher risk of prostate cancer both locally and across the country, the latest national guidelines for prostate cancer screening don't take race into account. And busy primary care doctors don't always have time for a thoughtful conversation about the pros and cons of screening, said Trapl (CWR '00; GRS '04, '07, epidemiology and biostatistics), also a professor in the CWRU School of Medicine's Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences.

But barbers see their clients regularly, sometimes even every week, and the warm and open atmosphere makes potentially heavy topics a little lighter. Most of all, barbers and clients trust each other. Given the documented history of medical abuses against Black people, that trust can be crucial to making the decision to get screened, said Willis, who co-founded The Urban Barber Association. The non-profit seeks to help advance health in local underserved communities.

The cancer center launched the screening program in 2021 with $2.75 million from . 365bet体育在线世界杯 each step, the program has been shaped by the community, via listening sessions and quarterly discussions with the cancer center's community advisory board, which includes Willis.

"It speaks to the importance of building relationships and, as an organization, building trustworthiness when we're out in the community," said Kristina Austin, the cancer center's director of community engagement.

More recently, the program has moved into other gathering places as well. "Barbershops were our entree into the community, but it has morphed into some different opportunities that we didn't necessarily go into it anticipating," Austin said.

Last year, the program even screened men who came out to a local park as part of a motorcycle parade to raise prostate cancer awareness. "It was about education and getting people screened," Austin said. "But it was also about relationships and bringing people together."

If the screening indicates elevated PSAs (prostate-specific antigens)鈥攚hich can be a potential sign of cancer or other conditions鈥攖he center's community navigators connect clients to needed follow-up care, whether within one of the center's partner hospital systems or with their own providers.

The navigators can also help with needs like transportation to appointments and access to free, healthy food. "That was a big driver from our community advisory board: Don't offer screening if you don't have a solution for how to support people in getting treatment," Trapl said.

The program also follows up annually with men whose screenings are within normal range for their age. "This isn't a one-and-done," Austin said.

Thanks to that day at the screening event, Williams's cancer was diagnosed and treated early, and his prognosis is good.

Now he, too, spreads the word about the importance of screening: "I want to let Black men know: You only get one life to live. Don't wait until the last minute when it's too late."

— KATE BECKER