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Cancer Screening: Awareness and Education

Categories:

  • Cancer screening,
  • Social environment,
  • Community,
  • Facilities & organizations,
  • Workplace,
  • Schools,
  • Healthcare facilities,

Awareness and Education

Research shows that cancer screening is important because it saves lives. When cancer is detected early, it is easier to treat and improves the chances of survival. Regular cancer screening can help find some types of cancer before symptoms begin. It is important to get checked for cancer even if you feel fine and enjoy a healthy lifestyle.1 Cancer screening can also be positively influenced by community environments.

The mobile health unit travels to isolated communities and help reduce barriers to accessing important health information. Together, dedicated partners and community members are making positive impacts on health and wellness across the province. Gift Lake residents are working toward making the healthy choice the easy choice.

Ways to get started, Work with Alberta Health Services to:

  • Narrow down your topic area for your campaign (Human papillomavirus (HPV), Colorectal, Hepatitis C.).
  • Create communication strategies in the form of letters, videos, brochures and newsletters to motivate individuals to get screened. Consider a social media component when designing the communication campaign.
  • Work with community health providers to develop and deliver messages on cancer screening.1
  • Create a culturally appropriate campaign to increase cancer screening among minority groups and ethnic communities.
  • Create education sessions with your messaging.

For further action related to cancer screening in your community, see

Multi-component community-wide interventions that increase awareness about and access to cancer screening in your community will have greater impact than implementing single one-off strategies. Multi-component interventions may include policies that increase the availability, affordability and access to cancer screening in a community.

Evaluation measures the impact of all the hard work that went into developing a community initiative. Evaluating impact examines: 

  1. What you expect to learn or change
  2. What you measure and report
  3. How to measure impact

What you expect to learn about awareness and education may include:

  • Learning that the strategy was implemented as planned
  • Learning that the strategy reached those you wanted to reach
  • Increased knowledge on topic
  • Intent to share knowledge
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External Resources

Screening for Life

Provides the information you need to make informed decisions about cancer screening

View Resource

Screening for LGBTQ+ Communities

Information for cancer screening for LGBTQ individuals and communities.

View Resource

AHS, Alberta Colorectal Cancer Screening Program

Provincial colon cancer screening program coordinated by Alberta Health Services

View Resource

Breast Cancer Screening: Screen Test Mobile Clinics

This website provides background, contact and scheduling information on mobile breast cancer screening vehicles in Alberta.

View Resource

References- Awareness

  1. Healthier Together. Get screened. 2019. Available from:  https://www.healthiertogether.ca/living-healthy/get-screened/
  2. The Community Guide. What Works - Cancer Prevention and Control: Cancer Screening. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2012.