The SelfMade Health Network (SMHN) operated by Patient Advocate Foundation has focused its work, and will continue to do so in the new project funding period, on people with low SES characteristics. Because the term “low SES” is often broadly interpreted, the SMHN’s early work included the construction of a framework under which recommendations can be made to State Tobacco and Cancer control programs for interventions specific to characteristics. The SMHN prioritizes vulnerable populations by: 1) Income: “low annual income” at or near the Federal Poverty Level, according to family or household size with geographic consideration; 2) Level of Education: fewer than 12 years of education, those with a GED as their highest level of education, or high school graduate; 3) Health Insurance Status: uninsured and underinsured (those with limited medical insurance or lack of comprehensive healthcare coverage); 4) Geography: residing in medically underserved areas, which include areas with a shortage of primary care providers, high infant mortality, high poverty or a high elderly population; 5) Employment Status: unemployed and “low” income employees, including full- and part-time minimum wage employees, part-time and seasonal employees; and/or 6) Populations residing in low-income housing communities and underserved areas with limited healthcare resources, high concentrations of poverty or drop-out rates are also included, as are those receiving assistance from food banks or other forms of state/federal assistance and social services.
To accomplish our goal of reducing cancer and tobacco related cancers among low SES populations, SMHN will continue to provide training and technical assistance to state National Tobacco Control and National Comprehensive Cancer Control Programs. Our ability to help enhance capacity at the state and local level will further expand implementation of evidenced based strategies designed to promote tobacco cessation and prevent late stage cancer diagnosis among this population. Critical to SMHN efforts will be continued engagement and activation of the SMHN leadership Council, SMHN members and a host of committed national partners, including our fellow sibling networks. In addition to our partners, our project officers will play a critical role in our success. We will collaborate with our project officers to build internal linkages from states that have identified populations with low SES as a population of focus to SMHN, while sharing developed tools and resources broadly.
In implementing its approach, the SMHN will implement evidence-based strategies to: 1) improve the capacity of CDC- funded tobacco and cancer control programs in collection and use of data specific to populations with low SES characteristics; 2) strengthen relationships between organizations serving low SES populations, CDC-funded programs, and other funded networks; 3) increase of the delivery of evidence-based interventions to reach and impact populations with low SES characteristics; 4) increase quit attempts among populations with low SES characteristics; 5) increase cancer screening among African American women with low SES characteristics; and 6) decrease incidence of advantage stage cancer disease among populations with low SES characteristics.
As we implement this project, evaluation at all forms of the process will be critical. Our evaluation plan will be paramount to measuring our success and making modifications to ensure that the identified outcomes are accomplished.
