Victoria Cabrera, Salinas, CA
Tina Cole, Marina, CA
Bernard Gough, Sacramento, CA
Milagros Hernandez, Santa Cruz, CA
Dale O’Brien, Pacific Grove, CA
Marian O’Neal, Del Rey Oaks, CA
Charles Randall, Fair Oaks, CA
The mission of Alianza de Pacientes and Cancer Patients Alliance (CPA) is dedicated to improving health outcomes for patients through
- education
- addressing health disparities and
- enabling patients and their families to become active partners in their medical care.
Initially focused solely on cancer patients and their families, CPA has broadened our mission in recent years to focus on health disparities and challenges of low-income Latino patients that impact, and extend beyond, cancer. With this comprehensive approach, we continue to help underserved cancer patients access life-saving care, education and support.
Cancer Patients Alliance (CPA) was founded in 2001 in Monterey County, California by physicians and community members alarmed at the lack of sufficient, reliable information to enable cancer patients to be partners in their medical care. CPA’s experience is in initiating innovative community approaches that build on creating collaborations with organizations and health providers and engaging the community to address diversity in care for Salinas Valley’s underserved.
Additionally, CPA initiated and supports the information-intensive web resources known as Pancreatica.org in order to provide current, credible and comprehensive information about pancreatic adenocarcinomas, and related neuroendocrine tumors.
Since the Covid era, the Board of Directors of CPA began to expand the organization’s scope to additionally include outreach on Covid issues, and to address other pressing needs of Latino communities including those of behavioral health and medical-legal matters.
No one should have to fight cancer alone. Yet for many patients, the challenge isn’t just the disease—it’s also the overwhelming cost of treatment, the stress on their family, and the uncertainty of what comes next.
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At Cancer Patients Alliance, we believe every patient deserves access to care, support, and hope.
Initiatives
Alisal Medical-legal Support: together with the Salinas office of California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. a nonprofit law firm founded in 1966 to provide free civil legal services to low-income residents of California’s rural counties AND the Alisal Integrated Health Center of the Monterey County Health Department, Cancer Patients Alliance has helped provide legal guidance in the context of a medical framework at a clinic setting for primarily low income Latinos in Monterey County, California. This includes variegated topics at the interface of law and medicine.
Behavioral Health Behavioral Health Recovery Access and Equity for Latinos (BHRAEL): Cancer Patients Alliance was the lead in establishing a four-organization alliance additionally consisting of Monterey County Behavioral Health (health department), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI Monterey County), and Mujeres en Acción to guide low-income Latinos to mental health and substance abuse disorder resources. Thousands of clients have been counseled, including more than a fifth who speak Spanish only. Additionally, the initiative has trained five bilingual, bi-cultural Behavioral Health Certified Peer Support Specialists, attended more than 50 community outreach events, and revived and established several local peer support groups.
Pancreatica.org: The purpose of this site is to act as a worldwide gathering point on the Internet for the latest news and disinterested information in regard to clinical trials and other responsible medical care in the treatment of primarily ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. Additionally, our aim is to present impartial knowledge where interested parties can sort through a large amount of information efficiently in order to give a sense of the range of existing treatment options, to aid patient/doctor partnerships, and thus to help optimize personal treatment strategies.
Salinas Valley Alliance for Cancer: SVAC is an initiative offering one-on-one support and advocacy for individual Latinos and farm workers with cancer in the Salinas Valley agricultural region of Monterey County, California. This includes such efforts as help with medical access, with financial resources including insurance, guidance regarding Medi-Cal, overcoming logistics (transportation, childcare, etc.), encouragement to finish initial treatment, help with obstacles (language, cultural, etc.), and help with follow-up after initial treatment.
Salinas Valley Alliance for Cancer Care Equity: Beginning in 2021, CPA has been the recipient of multiple Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awards to further our work with the Latino community, immigrants and farm workers in the Salinas Valley. The mission of this initiative is to give voice to the underserved in Monterey County, California – with an aim to help effect policy change that will ensure that all residents have access to at least adequate and decent treatment and care.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS & SCIENCE BOARD
Board of Directors
Board of Directors
Science Board Members
Science Board Members
James Abbruzzese, MD
Duke University
Markus Büchler, MD
University of Heidelberg, Germany
Ralph Hruban, MD
Johns Hopkins University
Eileen O’Reilly, MD
Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Margaret Tempero, MD
University of California, San Francisco