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The burden of prostate cancer on Black men is much greater than on
others in the United States. Age-adjusted prostate cancer rates of
new cases per year for Blacks have been close to one and a half times
those for whites since at least 1978, indeed more than one and a half
times those for whites for the past decade. Age-adjusted prostate
cancer death rates for Blacks have been over twice those for whites
for over two decades, and for the last five years have been nearly
two and a half times those for whites. Further exacerbating this situation
is the limitation on, or lack of, access to health care as demonstrated
by the stage of disease at diagnosis.
African-Americans will be diagnosed
at clinically advanced stage disease rate over 144% greater than white
males. Though the trend in five-year survival rates is up for men
overall, African-Americans and Latino/Hispanics still lag significantly
behind white males and the gap is widening, as noted in SEER data.
One way to at least partially surmount those obstacles is to create
successful outreach programs which educate Black men in order for
them to make informed decisions about their personal risk of the disease,
obtain more education on options to manage the disease, enhance communication
in order to build trust and credibility between the medical and consumer
communities, and provide a network of trust that they can utilize
for better access to and participation in the health care system.
Empirical evidence from our various service matrices have shown that
women family members (spouses, daughters, grand-daughters, etc.) initiate
the primary contact for information and/or participation in the medical
system in over 62% of cases; with Black women the involvement is even
higher because of traditional roles in family leadership.
We proposed to codify that leadership role via an educational/motivational
program that will strengthen the woman’s role in guiding male
members of her family and/or community to become educated about
the risks from prostate cancer, the increased incidence rate of
advanced stage Pca within the Black community and enhancing the
T.E.A.M. approach to provide support for informed decision-making
by the men.
Promotion:
The wearing of high-styled, uniquely designed, lavish hats,
or Crowns, by the women in Black churches is a long-standing tradition
that continues to be celebrated in books, TV specials and local
fashion shows. We will provide a consumer awareness promotion that
will reinforce the concept of “crowns”
in the community through the ability of the women to lead their
men into personal health responsibility and screening for prostate
cancer and other diseases of negative impact on the community.
A typical promotional plan follows that could be put in place
to drive awareness and promote participation:
- Awareness/incentive package distributed to the pastors of the
5 to 10 largest churches in each market
- Supported by buy-in from each church’s Health Ministry
- Coordinated with local service agencies that are stakeholders
in the Health Ministry:
- Local Department of Public Health – free screenings and treatment
- Black Nurses Society – blood draws on-site
- Other social service agencies, e.g. American Cancer Society
- A three week flight of radio commercials should be placed on local
Black Gospel music related stations to generate awareness of the
program and the locations of the screenings
- Radio interviews to be held featuring local ministers and our program
coordinator talking about disease risk and the need to participate
in the screening
- At the event site an educational materials provided prior to agenda
items and subsequent during the screening session
- Speakers from the Department of Public Health, The Prostate Net
and the church emphasized the importance of building a team to best
manage the disease
- Printed T-Shirts were distributed to all men that get screened
Follow-on media awareness efforts will include:
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Unity First news release to minority media throughout the country
- Media coordination with all Black media to highlight program
- Placement of information in all Prostate Net, Barbershop Initiative
and Knowledge Net Websites
- Article in The Knowledge Net “In The Know” newsletter
- Contribution to the Health Ministry from The Prostate Net to the
church with best response and media release promoting it and the
program
We can customize a program for you that can meet your objectives in consumer
or patient education, community outreach, etc. Contact us to discuss your
requirements and objectives.
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New Program
Gentlemen, Check Your Engines
Details are available here and a flyer is available at this link.
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