title: Circles of Care: Implementation and Evaluation of Support Teams for African Americans With Cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Community-based peer support may help meet the practical, emotional, and spiritual needs of African Americans with advanced cancer. Support teams are a unique model of peer support for persons facing serious illness, but research is rare. This study sought to (a) implement new volunteer support teams for African Americans with advanced cancer in two distinct regions and (b) evaluate support teams' ability to improve support, awareness of services, and quality of life for these patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study used a pre-post design. Community and academic partners collaborated to implement volunteer support teams and evaluate the intervention using pre-post surveys of volunteers and patients. Patients who declined support teams were also interviewed as a comparison group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Investigators enrolled and trained 130 volunteers who formed 25 support teams in two geographic regions. Volunteers supported 25 African American patients with advanced cancer (72%) or other diseases. After 2 months, patients with support teams reported fewer needs for practical, emotional, and spiritual support on a structured checklist. They more often communicated with someone about their cancer care needs (48% vs. 75%, p = .04), and were more aware of Hospice (4% vs. 25%, p = .04), but quality of life scores were unchanged. Comparison patients who refused a support team had fewer support needs at baseline and follow-up, suggesting that refusals were based on a lack of need.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Coordinated volunteer support teams are a promising new model to provide peer support for African Americans facing cancer and other serious illnesses. Further testing in a pragmatic clinical trial is warranted.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA lhanson@med.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Laura C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Hanson
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Green
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hayes
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Sandra J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Diehl
authors.affiliation: Project Compassion, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Warnock
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Giselle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Corbie-Smith
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Feng-Chang
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Jo Anne
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Earp
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010379:Peer Group; D011788:Quality of Life; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014838:Volunteers / Q000523:psychology
keywords: African American; church-based health promotion; health behavior; health disparities; process evaluation