Smear Test Film Launched For People With LD

Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which runs services for people with learning disabilities, has joined up with Public Health England and the charity Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust to create a public information film targeted directly at women with mild and moderate learning disabilities and those that support them.

The Smear Test Film is an educational film that aims to help people understand more about cervical screening and its role in preventing cervical cancer. Crucially, the film was made with women from the target audience who were able to talk from their own experience.

Dr Rachel Menday, who heads up Somerset Partnership’s Better Health Team which worked on the film, explains:

“Women with learning disabilities often don’t attend national screening programmes as much as the general population so we wanted to design a resource to support people to  make an informed choice about whether or not to attend their cervical screening appointment.

“The film was designed with and for women with learning disabilities. We worked together with JUMPcuts, a film company with lots of experience in making films with and for people with learning disabilities, to enable women to share their own stories of going for screening.

“Staff from the Better Health Team at Somerset Partnership ran workshops with women who had different experiences of going for cervical screening. The women talked together about their experiences, shared what worked well and what could have been done differently and laughed a lot! Some of the women then decided to share their experiences on film so that they could help and support other women with learning disabilities who were in a similar situation.

“We want as many women as possible to view this film so they can think about the importance of going for screening and book themsleves in for an appointment.”

When asked about why she thinks the film is important, Sarah Coome, one of the women who participated in the film, said:

“I want to show the film to my daughter because my Mum had cancer. I had cells too and had to have laser treatment. I used to have a smear test once a year, but my last test was okay so I now only need one every three years.”

Edward Colgan, Chief Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust congratulated everyone involved with The Smear Test Film and said:

“This project is so important because it was made by women with learning disabilities for other women with learning disabilities about a very important issue. I wish The Smear Test Film every success in reaching as many people as possible and encouraging women to go for screening.”

The Smear Test Film is available to view for free on the Jo’s Trust website http://www.jostrust.org.uk/videos/smear-test-film or copies can be purchased from the website at a cost of £3.