Mercy Health Youngstown Kicks Off ‘Movember’
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (PRWEB) November 20, 2014 -- Men from throughout the Mahoning Valley joined Mercy Health Youngstown, formerly Humility of Mary Health Partners, Man Up Mahoning Valley, Mercy Health Youngstown Cancer Centers, Mercy Development Foundation, NEO Urology and Partners for Urology Health to kick off “Movember.”
Movember is an international campaign that encourages men to grow and groom their facial hair throughout the month of Movember as a means to start conversations about the importance of age-appropriate prostate cancer screenings.
“We’re localizing the international Movember campaign,” Dr. Ricchiuti explained during a ceremonial Movember kickoff at Partners for Urology Health in Austintown Nov. 3. “It’s a fun way to get involved and raise awareness and it doesn’t cost anything.”
Movember takes place Nov. 1 to 30. Participants start the month clean shaven but grow and groom their mustaches the rest of the month. “The mustaches, especially on men who don’t usually have one, are a conversation starter,” Dr. Ricchiuti says. “When somebody says something about it, that’s an opportunity to say ‘I’m growing it to raise awareness about prostate cancer and the need for age-appropriate screenings.’ ”
With prostate cancer, there are no symptoms until the disease is in advanced stages, Dr. Ricchiuti explains. Because most prostate cancers can be cured if they are discovered early, routine screenings are imperative.
Screenings consist of a digital rectal exam and a blood draw to check the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA). It’s important to get both the exam and the PSA test, Dr. Ricchiuti stresses, because with many men, suspicious findings are detected by one and not the other. He recommends men begin annual prostate cancer screenings at age 40 – earlier if there is a family history of prostate cancer.
African-American men in the Mahoning Valley are twice as likely to get prostate cancer and to die from it as any other race, according to Man Up Mahoning Valley.
“Our goal is to raise awareness about prostate cancer and encourage men to talk with their doctors and get annual screenings,” Dr. Ricchiuti says. “We hope we’ll have men throughout the entire community challenging their friends, families and coworkers to grow mustaches and spread the word about the importance of prostate cancer screenings. We hope women will get involved too. Women can’t grow mustaches, but they can encourage the men. Women are very important,” Dr. Ricchiuti continues, “because they are the ones who often insist that the men in their lives see their doctors.”
For more information about the Movember campaign, visit http://www.facebook.com/ManUPMahoningValley.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Local celebrities and community leaders gathered at Partners for Urology Health in Austintown to mark the start of Movember. From left, Rich Morgan, WFMJ-TV 21; Tom Nawrocki, GM launch team; Mayon Maxey, GM launch engineer; Jim Schultis, president, Mercy Health Youngstown Foundation; Steve Burbrink, prostate cancer survivor; Dennis LaRue, The Business Journal; Anthony “The Stash” Fontes, a world champion beard grower; Dr. Adam Earnheardt, Youngstown State University; Dr. Dan Ricchiuti, NEO Urology; Dr. Carl Peterson, Mercy Health Physicians; Brian Laraway, Bury Financial Group; Jon Sherman, Sherman & Associates; Dr. Eric Svenson, Mercy Health Physicians; Vanessa Chamberlain, Mercy Health Youngstown Oncology Services.
About Mercy Health Youngstown
Mercy Health Youngstown is an integrated health system in the Mahoning Valley, which encompasses the Youngstown/Warren metropolitan area – Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties in Ohio. It is a key market of Mercy Health in Cincinnati, the largest health system in Ohio and one of the largest Catholic health systems in the United States. Mercy Health Youngstown provides a full spectrum of health care services – acute inpatient and trauma, outpatient and ambulatory, rehabilitation, behavioral, emergency and urgent care, primary care physicians in patient-centered medical homes, specialist physician care, home health, home medical equipment, long-term care and hospice care, as well as Mercy Health Foundation. Learn more at http://www.mercy.com/Youngstown.
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Maraline Kubik, Humility of Mary Health Partners, http://HMpartners.org, +1 (330) 480-2258, [email protected]
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