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Smart Sisters Program Helping to Decrease Cancer Disparities
Smart Sisters is an innovative program that began in an effort to educate women and decrease the health disparities that exist among African American and Hispanic women. Linda Dickey- Saucier, OutreachCoordinator for the Yale Cancer Center Breast Cancer Program, and Health Disparity Coordinator, created and designed the program based on her outreach experience and with input from women in the New Haven community. Participants in Smart Sisters dedicate 60 days nurturing their spirituality, investing in sister kinship, learning about nutrition and physical activity, and exploring genetic variances unique to African American and Hispanic women. The unique focus on prevention teaches women how to take control of their health and monitor their own health risks.
“The goal of this program is to modify and change behaviors through education and training. Better educated people are healthier and have the resources to manage their health,” Dickey-Saucier explained. A component of the Yale Cancer Center Office of Eliminating Cancer Disparities, led by Dr. Lyndsay Harris, Smart Sisters educates women and presents them with options and ways they can stay healthy by providing them with access to resources, including nutrition classes, exercise physiologists, patient liaisons, and other community sources that help women manage their health.
Faith and spirituality are also a large part of the program, as is social interaction. The 60 day Smart Sisters journey uses daily prayer, exercise, nutrition, and weekly interactive kinship sharing gatherings with health experts to encourage health prevention practices. It has been revealed that spirituality has a positive effect on African American women and helps to make it easier to talk about cancer and to notice breast cancer messages in the media.
African American women in the State of Connecticut have higher breast cancer mortality compared to white women. In addition, more than one-third of African American women in the State report that they do not engage in physical activity and do not consume more than five fruits and vegetables a day. Research has determined that socio-economic variables including the population of women at federal poverty level, lack of knowledge of preventive procedures, delay of treatment, and the cost of mammograms for screening may explain the differences in health and breast cancer survival rates.
Building on the Smart Sisters concept, the Lance Armstrong Foundation recently funded a culturally based six – week class for women of color with breast cancer through a $100,000 grant awarded to M. Tish Knobf, PhD, the American Cancer Society Professor of Nursing at Yale University School of Nursing. The program, Building a Foundation for Health for Women of Color, will educate, engage and empower survivors to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviors, which have the potential to moderate their risk for cancer, diabetes and heart disease. For more information, please contact Tish Knobf at (203) 737-2357.
Dickey-Saucier continues to help women continue their Smart Sisters journey and empower themselves with access to better health information through her program. She -is currently working with the New Haven Housing Authority to involve more women from the community. Linda Dickey-Saucier may be reached at (203) 785-6208.