Friday, November 22, 2024
11/22/2024
Organizational Background: Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC) was founded in 1991 as one of the first organizations created specifically to fill patients’ needs for breast cancer-related information, connection, and support. Today, LBBC is a national leader in developing high quality, evidence-based information and supports for all people with breast cancer, reaching over 600,000 patients and families each year. It excels at providing tailored resources to underserved groups, including young breast cancer survivors (YBCS), women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer (MBC), and those who come from minority racial, ethnic, and sexuality/gender identity groups and those who are socio-economically disadvantaged. LBBC’s programs targeting women diagnosed under the age of 45 are known collectively as LBBC’s Young Women’s Initiative (YWI), which LBBC launched and has grown continuously through its 2011 and 2014 cooperative agreements with the CDC. Purpose: The programs proposed herein are designed to improve the quality of life of young women diagnosed with early stage and metastatic breast cancer by: (1) training their HCPs, including patient navigators, to respond effectively to their specific needs, as determined by their stage of treatment/survivorship, race/ethnicity, sexual/gender identity, and socio-economic condition, especially in regard to psychosocial and emotional supports, lifestyle programs, and clinical care; (2) educating YBCS and young women living with metastatic breast cancer directly about these same topics, and connecting them to supportive resources; and (3) creating a network of experts, HCPs, patients, and survivors who will collaborate to guide LBBC’s future programs and identify opportunities to address policy, systems, and environmental barriers facing young women living with breast cancer. Outcomes: The success of these programs will be measured by post-program evaluations and other tracking metrics that monitor YBCS’s physical and mental health, quality of life, healthy behaviors, and use of available primary care. LBBC expects to achieve, independently and via collaboration, the following outcomes: (1) increased awareness of strategies to mitigate sexual dysfunction, fertility, mental health, and healthy lifestyles among cancer survivors and caregivers; (2) increased awareness among HCPs on the needs of cancer survivors; (3) increased access to emotional/psychosocial support systems among cancer survivors; (4) increased access to lifestyle programs, clinical preventive services, and follow-up cancer care for cancer survivors; and (5) increased use of lifestyle programs, clinical preventive services, and cancer care among cancer survivors. These short- and intermediate-term outcomes will lead to LBBC’s five-year award-period goal of improving quality of life among young women diagnosed with early stage and metastatic breast cancer and reduce disparity gaps for underserved minority, LGBTQIA, and lower-income populations. In order to achieve these outcomes, LBBC will expand on its 2012 and 2018 assessments of the psychosocial needs of and quality-of-life supports available to diverse underserved breast cancer patients and survivors and develop innovative ways to meet those needs, including convening a Young Women’s Initiative Action Network to advise LBBC on collaborative actions to eliminate policy, systemic, and environmental barriers between young breast cancer survivors and the services they need. This work will strengthen YWI by enhancing its texting, online, and in-person resources and programs targeted to underserved populations. LBBC will also improve systems of care for young women by expanding healthcare provider education programs and its Young Advocate Program, evolving its Survivorship Series to address metastatic breast cancer and increase its impact by reaching more underserved young women, and creating new partnerships with oncology patient navigator to expand program reach.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
