Abstract

Abstract

Cancer patients, survivors, and their families have significant needs for 1) information about diagnosis and treatment, 2) help with symptom management, 3) communication and coordination of care, and 4) prevention and surveillance of further problems. Provision of cancer-related information helps patients and their families to accept their diagnosis, improve symptom management and treatment compliance, and reduce anxiety and uncertainty, thus increasing overall quality of life. Our research team has designed a web portal to serve as the application architecture for online access to evidencebased cancer information and interactive interventions. In this seminar, we will share the results of our research and discuss implications for practice.Peer support is an evidence-based approach for chronic disease prevention and control. However, models of peer support differ on important dimensions including how peer supporters are identified, whether they are paid or volunteer, and how peer support is delivered and tracked. With a background of common core functions of peer support (assistance in daily behavior, social/emotional support, linkage to clinical care, ongoing support), this seminar will teach participants how to design feasible and effective peer support programs through key tasks of identifying, recruiting, training, and tracking peer supporters. Instructors will draw on their experiences with multi-ethnic populations and programs based in communities and health centers in Alabama, California, and Michigan as part of Peers for Progress, an international program of the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation to promote peer support in prevention and health care. Participants will learn about varied methods for identifying, recruiting, and selecting peer supporters and how these might differ based on cultural and contextual factors, including payment/incentive structure. Participants will receive examples of training materials and discuss how these materials were conceptualized from both a theoretical and practical perspective. Participants will also learn varied approaches to evaluating training outcomes, including methods to assess intervention fidelity during implementation. Concepts and strategies will be reinforced through case examples, simulations, and a hands-on exercise.This seminar will cover the application of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for individuals with a variety of health related problems (e.g. smoking, cancer, diabetes etc). ACT is based on the view that most psychological difficulties and suffering are a result of experiential avoidance and fusion with literal thinking getting in the way of value guided action and living. ACT teaches clients how to connect with their values, become more accepting of the world within (thoughts, memories, experiences, sensations etc) and move towards valued action and change in their lives. Concepts will be illustrated using live demonstrations, experiential exercises (acceptance, mindfulness, defusion), metaphors, and worksheets. This worksh...

Understanding long-term HIV survivorship among African American/Black and Latinx persons living with HIV in the United States: a qualitative exploration through the lens of symbolic violence

“…Participants for Study 2 were enrolled in a larger intervention optimization trial for PLWH with non-suppressed HIV viral load and sub-optimal engagement in HIV care using the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) [ 46 ]. MOST is a pioneering engineering-inspired framework for testing the efficacy of individual intervention components prior to combining them into a multi-component intervention that can be tested in a randomized controlled trial [ 46 ]. Study 2 was a factorial experiment designed to test the efficacy of five separate culturally salient intervention components (patient navigation, counseling sessions, pre-adherence habit formation, peer mentorship, and support groups).…”