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

¹ an assistant research scientist at the Center of Community Alliance for Research and Education (CCARE) in the Population Sciences Division at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California.
² an associate professor in the Department of Health Science at California State University, Fullerton.
³ a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School (UCLA) of Public Health and Asian American Studies Department.
⁴ a doctoral student at the UCLA School of Public Health and a program manager at the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA) and with the Weaving an Islander Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training (WINCART) Project.
⁵ executive director of the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA) in Orange County, California.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

	Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing number of programs employing health navigators to assist under-served 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

First published on December 13, 2006, doi:10.1177/1524839906290251

Health Promotion Practice 2008;9:356.

A more recent version of this article appeared on October 1, 2008


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