{"id":10567,"date":"2026-04-02T16:58:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/sherc\/?p=10567"},"modified":"2026-04-02T17:11:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:11:56","slug":"ppp-year-9-hammer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/sherc\/ppp-year-9-hammer\/","title":{"rendered":"Identifying the Psychosocial Impact of Cancer on American Indian Cancer Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Pilot Project, Year 9<\/h2>\n<div class=\"eplus-bg-color-row bg-color-extra-light-gray\"><div class=\"eplus-bg-color-row-content\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Summary of project:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cancer diagnoses often lead to depression and anxiety, which lowers quality of life and makes it harder for patients to follow complex treatment plans.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Long travel distances and multiple medical appointments can make treatment harder to complete, which may contribute to worse health outcomes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The study will create an adapted distress survey for adult cancer patients in a rural community to identify key psychosocial barriers and supportive factors affecting their treatment experience.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Findings will help inform support services (such as support groups, patient navigation, and resource connections) and produce a free screening tool that oncology providers can use to better support patients in a rural community.\u00a0<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Funding:<\/strong> The study is funded by NIMHD\/NIH 5U54MD012388<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>About the investigators<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<h4 class=\"p1\"><b>Sheila Hammer, MSW, LCSW<\/b><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Principal Investigator<br \/>\n<\/b>Associate Clinical Professor, Social and Behavioral Sciences<b><br \/>\n<\/b><b>Email: <\/b><a href=\"mailto:sheila.hammer@nau.edu\"><span class=\"s1\">sheila.hammer@nau.edu<b><\/b><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"p1\"><b>Steven Barger, PhD<\/b><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Co-Investigator<br \/>\n<\/b>Professor, Psychological Sciences<b><br \/>\n<\/b><b>Email:\u00a0<\/b><a href=\"mailto:steven.barger@nau.edu\">steven.barger@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/sherc\/pilot-project-program\/year-9\">Back to PPP Year 9<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pilot Project, Year 9 Funding: The study is funded by NIMHD\/NIH 5U54MD012388 About the investigators &nbsp; Sheila Hammer, MSW, LCSW Principal Investigator Associate Clinical Professor, Social and Behavioral Sciences Email: sheila.hammer@nau.edu Steven Barger, PhD Co-Investigator Professor, Psychological Sciences Email:\u00a0steven.barger@nau.edu Back to PPP Year 9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":782,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/782"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10567"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10661,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10567\/revisions\/10661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/sherc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}