LATINAS CONTRA CANCER
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Mission Statement
Latinas Contra Cancer (LCC) is a 501(c) 3 organization based in San Jose, CA Our mission is to build a more inclusive health care system that supports Latinos around issues of breast and other cancers. LCC was established in 2003 working locally, collaborating nationally, to address this dreaded disease in the Latino community that now accounts for 1 in 5 Latino deaths. LCC is a leading advocacy and service agency whose goals are to raise awareness about cancer in the Latino community, increase access to quality care, work to decrease mortality and improve the quality of the health care experience. LCC does this by offering support services and resources for the Latino cancer patient and their family; collaborating with other agencies to provide education and outreach services; partnering with health care institutions to bridge the gap through culturally competent outreach and medical care, and working with researchers to turn a spotlight on the underlying causes of cancer in this underresearched group
About This Cause
The phone rang in the offices of Latinas Contra Cancer as the daughter of a brain cancer patient asked for our help. Her 62-year-old mother, Maria, was scheduled to start her radiation and she was frightened and unwilling to go. People had told the Spanish- speaking woman that the radiation would burn her face and she would look like a monster. And she feared that the face mask, specifically designed to protect her while she was treated, would instead cause her to smother. Maria’s case, like others that come to Latinas Contra Cancer, is a work in progress. Some, we can move, from social and cultural barriers that inhibit life saving action, to a solution that meets their need for treatment and psychosocial care. Until Latinas Contra Cancer established a model navigator program at Valley Medical Center’s Sobrato Cancer Center in San Jose, California in 2010, patients never had someone to intercede for them in their language, to understand and calm their fears, to make sure they understood their treatment, to support them in their quest for a second diagnosis, to guide them and their family into hospice, an alien concept to many Latinos. In 2003 Latinas Contra Cancer was also just a concept. But since then it too has been a work in progress addressing the cancer continuum from prevention through diagnosis, treatment, survivorship and end of life. Our mission began in an attempt to raise awareness among under served, Spanish speaking, immigrant and low income Latinos. While Hispanics have a lower incidence of cancer then non-Hispanic whites and Blacks, they have a disproportionate mortality rate due to language and cultural barriers, including myth, misinformation and fear, as well as access issues related to low income and lack of insurance. In 2012 the American Cancer Society declared that cancer was now the leading cause of death surpassing heart disease. Over 1 in 5 Latino adult deaths are due to cancer yet the population remains largely uninformed and under-researched. 13% of Latino children and youth die from cancer. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Hispanics today make up a record 16.3% of the total U.S. population. At least a third of the Hispanic population is under or uninsured, impacting access to consistent quality care. Our mission is to challenge the norm, and to create an inclusive health care system that provides quality services to the Latino population around issues of cancers. This is a continual challenge looking for answers, due to the subpopulations of Latinos that include Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Central Americans, South Americans, Dominicans and Cubans. We need to understand whether genetics and varied environmental exposures create different levels of risk in these subgroups. These are the kind of questions that drive us to bring the research experts together at the bi-annual National Latino Cancer Summit with our CBO’s (Community Based Organizations) along with our community health care educators aka promotores to learn, network and collaborate in an effort to address research needs, health inequality, lack of educational awareness, and access to care that should be a right not a privilege. Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, Deputy Medical Director of the American Cancer Society wrote in his July 24th, 2014 blog, that Latinos face challenges addressing cancer risk..none more potent, then poverty..which he called a carcinogen. Latinas Contra Cancer has spent the past decade battling those determinants by increasing awareness with the education of over 3100 men, women and teens, moving almost several hundred into screening, providing patient navigation services in the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center _Sobrato Cancer Center for 370 Spanish speaking patients to elevate the quality of their experience and encourage compliance. Our pilot program introduced in 2010 has proven successful so that our contract was increased last year to hire and train a second navigator providing coverage in the center 5 days a week. To measure the value of our work and the quality of the care as the they perceive it, we will conduct a satisfaction survey of up to 600 Spanish and English speaking cancer patients who have received care in the past 4 years following the implementation of our pilot program. We expect to show with this survey, that culturally and linguistically appropriate care, can increase both satisfaction with the health care experience as well as increased patient compliance resulting in cost savings to the provider and most importantly, better health outcomes for the patient.