#alice mattern

[rougejaunebleu]

Alice L. Mattern

Allegro

1943

oil on canvas

107.3 x 99 cm

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Alice L. Mattern, Allegro, 1943, Oil on canvas

[katrinatulloch-blog]

BLOG 7: Family Planning of Meadville nears 40th birthday

Family Planning of Meadville, Pa. began in 1973. Medical technologist Alice Mattern began working there in 1974 and has been ever since.

Family Planning is located in the Meadville Community Health Center facility on 747 Terrace Street.

The clinic began because the U.S. federal government was worried about overpopulation, said Mattern. The government established Title X in 1970, which funded Family Planning services.

Mattern has always been interested in women's health care. As a young woman, she was prescribed birth control pills with little explanation. She experienced extreme negative side effects from taking the pills.

"Back then, we did what the doctor ordered, no questions," said Mattern. "I didn't want my daughter or granddaughter or any woman to have to go through what I went through."

A light in the exam room at Family Planning.

Mattern and the Family Planning staff, which includes two licensed nurse practitioners and two gynecologists, believe in treatment with a heavy emphasis on education. But they've noticed that access to the Web has significantly improved what women already expect coming in for a check-up.

"People are much more knowledgeable now," Mattern said. "Sometimes you'll still have a girl come in who doesn't know why she's having her period, but the internet has changed a lot of that."

Mattern explains how a NuvaRing works.

Part of the clinic's educational outreach is a mobile unit which travels to rural areas to provide gynecological services to women who don't have transportation to Meadville. The mobile unit is funded by The HealthyWoman Program established in the early 1990s by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

"We target a lot of Amish people," Mattern said. "Older women are very appreciative of it."

Title X requires Meadville Family Planning to engage in "option counseling" for pregnant women. According to Mattern, these options include: being a single mother, marriage, putting the child up for adoption or termination. Family Planning does not offer abortions, nor do they offer abortion referrals. Since Family Planning operates under Adagio Health, based in Pittsburgh, Pa., they must follow the guidelines stipulated by the company, according to Mattern.

"They give us their Bible, their policy handbook," she said. "They tell us what to do."

Mattern is proud that 95 percent of their services are provided by women.

"When people think Family Planning, they think 'women taking care of women,'" Mattern said. "It's a nice thing to know when you get a procedure, that the person helping you has had that procedure too."

Mattern will retire in Aug. 2011.  She looks forward to spending more time with her granddaughter.

"I love my job," Mattern said. "We've been very fortunate. The community has always been very accepting here."