Building the Case for Expanded Support Services to Young Breast Cancer Survivors: Evaluation of a Cooperative Agreement

Background: In order to determine effective and appropriate communication interventions to address the psychosocial needs of young breast cancer survivors (YBCS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established a cooperative agreement (CA) with organizations offering tailored support and education services to YBCS.  The evaluation of this program aimed to document strategies used to reach YBCS and the extent to which the CA (via funding, subject matter expert support, technical assistance, and training) affected organizations’ delivery of programs to YBCS.

Methods: The evaluation utilized a multiple case study design, entailing document review, site visits, program observation, and in-depth interviews with relevant program staff to document and describe program implementation and perceptions related to program effectiveness.  Thematic analysis was used to analyze all qualitative data collected.  

Results: Organizations offered a range of services, including psychosocial support and education to YBCS, YBCS caregivers and health care providers.  Services offered covered the cancer care continuum, ranging from the provision of community outreach and education via multiple platforms (e.g., partnership development, social media) to the offering of structured support services (e.g., patient navigation, structured support plans) to relevant YBCS audiences.  Overall, program staff reported that cooperative agreement funding helped to expand and strengthen their organization’s YBCS-focused efforts.

Conclusions: Finding from this evaluation demonstrated the use of federal funds to help organizations augment existing or create new resources and services for YBCS.   Further, findings from this evaluation support the use of tailored interventions as a promising strategy to improve YBCS communication and education efforts.