By Jodi Hausen,Staff Writer

WILTON – Western Maine Community Action, a Wilton-based social service organization, was recently awarded almost $140,000 in grant money to fund a cervical cancer screening program.

Maine Health Access Foundation, the state’s largest nonprofit health care foundation, announced the award of more than $3.4 million in grant support for 22 health care organizations throughout the state last week. The foundation, established in 2000 from the proceeds of the sale of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Maine to Anthem, strives to provide timely access to comprehensive, quality health care, placing special emphasis on the needs of the state’s uninsured and underserved residents, according to a foundation news release.

The $138,897 grant to Tri-County Health Services, a reproductive health and family planning agency under the umbrella of Western Maine Community Action, will be used to improve access to state-of-the-art cervical cancer screening and treatment for women regardless of income.

Tri-County Health Services, with offices in Auburn, Norway, Rumford and Farmington, provides an array of reproductive health services to residents of Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties.

Services such as birth control counseling and supplies, breast and pelvic exams, pregnancy testing, pre-natal counseling and menopause treatment are charged on a sliding scale based on income and insurance status, according to Clinical Director Sara Hayes.

The grant will help provide access to more advanced cervical cancer screening and testing to patients who would not otherwise be able to afford it, she said.

“The grant removes cost as a barrier for women to get state-of-the-art cervical cancer screening and testing regardless of income or insurance status,” she said Friday.

Colposcopy, an advanced cervical cancer screening test, is currently available only at the organization’s Auburn and Norway offices, said Hayes. The grant will also fund the purchase of equipment to make the test available at the Farmington office this summer.

Last year, Tri-County Health Services performed 2,500 Pap smears, 14 percent of which needed some form of follow-up, she said. Sixty percent of the agency’s clients have no insurance, added Hayes.