Promoting Access to Health (PATH) for Women

The California Endowment funds the Special Services for Groups (SSG) Inc.'s Promoting Access to Health (PATH) for Women, a Los Angeles-area collaboration that focuses on reducing disparities in rates of breast and cervical cancer among Asian American and Pacific Islander women. SSG held focus groups and interviewed 2,100 Pacific Islander (Chamorro, Samoan, and Tongan) and Southeast Asian (Cambodian, Laotian, Thai, and Vietnamese) women in Los Angeles and Orange counties. SSG works with seven ethnic populations (Cambodian, Laotian, Thai, Vietnamese, Chamarro, Samoan, and Tongan) and draws on the leadership of its Pacific Islander and Southeast Asian community members and health care providers to develop customized community action plans and materials for each ethnic group. Each ethnic group implements its community action plan at its own level of readiness.

The goal of this program is to extend lifesaving prevention programs and screening services across a variety of cultures by giving communities the materials and plans to implement an effective intervention while allowing them to execute these plans in a manner and at a pace that resonates with their own culture and community.

The Samoan National Nurses Association is an example of one group that has been executing almost all facets of PATH for Women, including offering community outreach and education services, promoting a cancer ministries program with local Samoan pastors, establishing a cancer support group, and setting up mobile screening programs for community women.