Carolyn Adams Ticket for the Cure - Patient Navigation Grant

Carolyn Adams Ticket for the Cure - Patient Navigation Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Illinois Department of Public Health
Amount: Up to US $2,500,000
Last Updated: August 19, 2025

Summary

The Carolyn Adams Ticket for the Cure Grant supports organizations in Illinois to enhance patient navigation services for breast cancer. By addressing barriers to care, this initiative promotes timely diagnosis and treatment, ultimately improving outcomes for underserved communities. Funding will be allocated to programs that provide culturally competent education and link individuals to critical screening and prevention services. The grant aims to develop infrastructure that fosters equitable access to breast cancer care and support for survivors.

Overview

A. Program Description What is the Carolyn Adams Ticket for the Cure? On July 6, 2005, PA 94-0120 was signed into law, creating the Illinois Ticket for the Cure instant lottery ticket. Net revenue from the sale of this ticket goes to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), Office of Women’s Health and Family Services, which awards grants to public and private entities in Illinois for the purpose of funding breast cancer research, education, and services for breast cancer survivors. For the FY26 Carolyn Adams Ticket for the Cure Community Grant Program, grants will be given to organizations to conduct work that promote equity in breast cancer outcomes by conducting Patient Navigation activities. Program Details: Patient navigation helps guide patients through and around barriers in the complex cancer care system to help ensure timely diagnosis, treatment, and support. This is also critical to survival and early detection, and the medical community in the U.S. is seeing huge successes through patient navigation programs. Patient navigation refers to the individualized assistance provided to patients through the cancer care continuum to navigate the complex health care system. Patient navigation generally provides assistance to individual patients for a defined episode of cancer-related care, targets a defined set of health services to complete a specific cancer care goal, has a defined end point in which service delivery is complete, focuses on identifying and resolving barriers to receiving care, and aims to reduce delays in accessing services throughout the continuum of breast cancer care. Patient navigation programs vary widely in terms of the personnel and services provided. Patient navigators may be health care professionals (e.g., nurses, social workers) or lay/community health workers (e.g., peer supporters, cancer survivors) with various educational backgrounds and training. Depending on the needs of patients, barriers identified, and targeted cancer care goals, navigators provide a wide range of support, including emotional, logistical/practical, and informational. Community navigation activities include identifying priority populations in the community; providing culturally competent health education and social support; help reduce participant’s barriers to accessing clinical services; and linking individuals to screening and prevention services. Clinical patient navigator activities include enrolling patients from priority populations; assessing patient barriers to breast screening/diagnostics; providing culturally competent health education and social support; facilitating resolution of patient barriers; conducting patient tracking and follow up; and ensuring patients and primary care providers receive prevention, screening, and diagnostic services. Navigation activities must include the care coordination model as clients are navigated through diagnosis and treatment. Navigation Principles Navigation is a client-centered approach to health care delivery.The primary purpose of navigation is to remove or reduce barriers to timely care by building a one-on-one relationship with the client.The role of the navigators should be clearly defined and separate from that of providers. Services should be cost-effective and correspond with the navigator’s level of training.Services should be cost-effective and correspond with the navigator’s skill level.Services should be customized to meet the unique needs of each client.Plans for routine follow-up of client.Include plan for hospice or end of life care if needed. Services that navigators provide may include: Education and outreach in the community.Guidance through screening and diagnostic exams.Support through treatment and survivorship.Assistance with financial, administrative, and emotional issues. Program Specifics: The Navigation can be conducted in a few ways: Enhance an existing Patient Navigation program within your organization survey your initial patient navigation services and create a plan to expand upon the existing patient navigation efforts, in terms of broadening services, adding additional navigators, training for existing navigators or identifying additional ways to enhance existing services. Build a Patient Navigation program within your organizationCreate a patient navigation program at your organization to best serve individuals dealing with breast cancer screening or treatment. Provide extensive training for navigator(s). Discuss your plans for follow up throughout treatment and diagnosis including how you would navigate the client through the continuum of care. Program Goals per the Workplan: Develop or sustain infrastructure to navigate patients to breast cancer screening or treatment.Provide navigation services or patients in need of breast cancer screenings or treatment.Conduct outreach that identifies patients in need of navigation services and connect them to the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program, if needed.

Eligibility

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