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

College of Humanities and Social Sciences at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF)

Sora Park Tanjasiri, DrPH, MPH

Department of Health Science at California State University, Fullerton

Marjorie Kagawa-Singer, PhD, MA, MN, RN

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Public Health and the Department of Asian American Studies

Jacqueline H. Tran, MPH

Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA)

Mary Anne Foo, MPH

Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA) in Orange County, California

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.

Key Words: breast and cervical cancer screening • cancer prevention and control • community health navigators • community health promotion • advocacy • Cambodians • Laotians • Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

This version was published on October 1, 2008

Health Promotion Practice, Vol. 9, No. 4, 356-367 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1524839906290251


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