Table 4.

Subthemes and exemplar quotes corresponding to the regarding access to regional resources theme

Subtheme: health communication with health care professionals
Speaker	Quote
Leader	No effort’s made to make sure that the patient is connected with appropriate services, that they have followed up, that they have kept their appointments. Is there a transportation issue? What’s going on?
Leader	Show them how to do the colostomy bag
Provider	Nobody cares about you more than yourself. Make sure that you know what’s going on. Make sure you have a copy of those records and know what the plan of action is. Because what it all comes down to is you love yourself more than anybody else on this earth. Your oncologist’s gonna help with this plan, but you also need to know what’s going on and be a advocate for yourself.
Resident	Avoid goin’ to the doctors.
Resident	Unfortunately, by the time they go to the doctor, it’s too late.
Resident	Interviewee: But, uh, a lot of this is mostly communication and people just don’t—they seem like they don’t care anymore. You know, just—you tell ‘em ‘bout cancer and— Interviewee: A lack of hope? Interviewee: Yeah.
Resident	I always make a joke that I don’t go to the doctor cuz, whenever I go to the doctor—if I go to the doctor with a headache, I come out with cancer of the toe.
Resident	I had to give shots in my husband’s stomach, and his little tummy got so—where it looked so bad, and I just needed somebody to say, “that’s okay. that’s—that’s gonna—that’s gonna look like that.”
Subtitle: health communication with other residents
Leader	We don’t have a lot of resources, we do depend on people to say.
Leader	I mean they may put it out there we just may not read it. Word of mouth is the biggest thing.
Leader	Cancer is a bad word.
Resident	Through another ladies group in our church, we like to go in from time to time and sit and, you know, talk and see what’s going on about healthcare and about screenings and who goes where.
Resident	So, if I had to talk about a support system, my—our support system was each other. We were all we had.
Resident	I’ve been a caregiver, as well, and there’s just not a lot, uh, really that I’m aware of. I have a large family, so we all kind of like figure it out, you know.
Resident	You sit in a group talkin’ like that, most men are not comfortable with that.