Barbara Whitman Lancaster
Middle Tennessee State University, USA
Title: Development of a Community Based Menopause Workshop…Menopause Re-Imagined, for the Women of the Upper Cumberland Region of Tennessee
Biography
Biography: Barbara Whitman Lancaster
Abstract
Background: Although a natural and normal transition from the childbearing years, menopause is a multifaceted event that affects women physically, mentally, and emotionally. Evidence has shown that a woman’s ability to cope with the changes and stresses of menopause can be enhanced through education. Women will spend a third of their life in a post- menopausal state. A successful transition in the individualized yet unique journey of menopause is a women’s health management challenge that can be lessened when education about menopause is provided to women by health care professionals possessing creativity, commitment, caring and skill. The positive effects of menopause education have been reported in the literature; however, the United States has a scarcity of research that looks at educational strategies to assist women in increasing their knowledge about menopause. The purpose of this research was to create a menopause workshop in the Upper Cumberland Region of Tennessee, where educating women could result in increasing knowledge, decreasing fear and anxiety, decreasing cost of unnecessary medications and treatment, decreasing health related issues, and promoting overall health, well-being and empowerment.