Community Health Navigators for Breast- and Cervical-Cancer Screening Among Cambodian and Laotian Women: Intervention Strategies and Relationship-Building Processes

Tu-Uyen Ngoc Nguyen,Jacqueline H Tran,Mary Anne Foo,Marjorie Kagawa-Singer,Sora Park Tanjasiri

doi:10.1177/1524839906290251

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing number of programs employing health navigators to assist underserved individuals in overcoming barriers to obtaining regular and quality health care. This article describes the perspectives and experiences of community-based health navigators in the Cambodian and Laotian communities involved in a REACH 2010 project to reduce health disparities in breast and cervical cancer among Pacific Islander and Southeast Asian communities in California. These community health navigators, who have extensive training and knowledge about the cultural, historical, and structural needs and resources of their communities, are well equipped to build trusting relationships with community members traditionally ignored by the mainstream medical system. By comparing the different social support roles and intervention strategies employed by community health navigators in diverse communities, we can better understand how these valuable change agents of the health workforce are effective in improving health access and healthy behaviors for underserved communities.

Highlights

Title Community health navigators for breast- and cervical-cancer screening among Cambodian and Laotian women: intervention strategies and relationship-building processes
All the Promoting Access to Health (PATH) for Women community health navigators (CHNs) contributed to these accomplishments, we only report in detail on the Cambodian and Laotian process evaluation results for this article
To meet our study aims, we closely reviewed 12 monthly reports and 22 activities logs from the Cambodian CHNs and 12 monthly reports and 20 activities logs from the Laotian CHNs, all submitted between October 2001 and October 2002

Summary

Introduction

Title Community health navigators for breast- and cervical-cancer screening among Cambodian and Laotian women: intervention strategies and relationship-building processes. Community Health Navigators for Breast- and Cervical-Cancer Screening Among Cambodian and Laotian Women: Intervention Strategies and Relationship-Building Processes. This article describes the perspectives and experiences of community-based health navigators in the Cambodian and Laotian communities involved in a REACH 2010 project to reduce health disparities in breast and cervical cancer among Pacific Islander and Southeast Asian communities in California. These community health navigators, who have extensive training and knowledge about the cultural, historical, and structural needs and resources of their communities, are well equipped to build trusting relationships with community members traditionally ignored by the mainstream medical system.

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Results

Conclusion