Equipping Faith-Based Communities for Cancer Support Ministry: A Pilot Study of Cancer Support Training for Members of African-American Churches in the USA. J Relig Health 2024 Apr;63(2):1523-1537
Date
03/08/2024Pubmed ID
38453721Pubmed Central ID
PMC11672192DOI
10.1007/s10943-024-02013-8Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85186850594 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)Abstract
Church-academic partnerships focused on cancer, generally target cancer screening and prevention, with few focusing explicitly on cancer survivors. With the population of cancer survivors steadily increasing, highlighting the value of faith-based cancer support ministry is paramount. However, many churches may not have the resources to integrate relevant cancer support ministry and may need to identify ways to reach cancer survivors. We piloted cancer support training to help church members to start a cancer support ministry with African-American churches in Milwaukee, WI. We sought to measure the feasibility of a two-day training workshop to build the capacity of churches through recruiting and training church members on how to foster social support and to disseminate cancer information and resources throughout their churches. Our study was guided by the social networks and social support framework, which we applied to cancer survivorship. Our study supports the feasibility of engaging churches in a virtual training to support the development of cancer support ministries to address the needs of African-American cancer survivors. Based on our recruitment success, workshop attendance, evaluation and retention, our results suggest that a two-day workshop was successful in facilitating the initiation of cancer support ministries within African-American churches.
Author List
Kwarteng JL, White K, Nevels D, Brown S, Stolley MRAuthors
Jamila L. Kwarteng PhD Assistant Professor in the Institute for Health and Equity department at Medical College of WisconsinMelinda Stolley PhD Center Associate Director, Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Cancer SurvivorsCognition
Health Promotion
Humans
Neoplasms
Pilot Projects
