Committee Chairs: 

Thomas Blank and Anees Chagpar

Strategies to be Implemented by Education and Workforce Development Committee in Collaboration with Partnership Committees

Prevention

• Partner with groups such as Regional Action Councils, MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) and mental health organizations to develop a forum to help support efforts to reduce high risk behaviors in youth and adults related to alcohol and sexual activity and share effective programs.

• Educate the public, employers, health professionals, and policy-makers about cancer-related environmental exposures, especially radon, pesticides, and home use products, including disparities in exposure risk for specific population groups.

• Educate pediatricians on the importance of informing parents about caring for the skin of babies and young children.

• Increase awareness of the dangers of artificial sun tanning.

Early Detection

• Identify and/or develop information regarding early signs and symptoms of lung, ovarian, prostate, testicular, skin and oral cancer for dissemination to the public, ensuring appropriate informational resources are available to underserved and minority groups through appropriate channels.

• Develop and implement Plan to reach targeted audiences (i.e. specific populations underutilizing cervical cancer screening for targeted educational activities).

• Identify and promote and/or provide educational opportunities to healthcare providers to increase knowledge of the early signs and symptoms of ovarian, prostate, testicular, skin, and oral cancers, for which there are no widely accepted, evidence-based, screening modalities (through medical student training, outreach to rural providers and continuing education programs).

• Identify and promote evidence-based cancer prevention and screening education and outreach initiatives aimed toward disparate population groups, including materials designed for multi-cultural and low literacy populations.

• Increase awareness of breast cancer risk factors and benefits of early detection.

Treatment

• Increase number of mechanisms in place for organizations to list professional educational opportunities, including link to Connecticut Cancer Partnership web site.

• Educate professionals and the public about the importance of clinical trials.

• Promote training/education on clinical trials for health care professionals.

• Promote dissemination of current and accurate information on clinical trials to patients.

Survivorship

• Educate community members, groups, and organizations about survivor issues and the value of support services (during and post-treatment) and how to access services, with special focus on reaching underserved population groups.

• Make survivorship care guidelines and information available on the Partnership web site.

• Use the Partnership web site to provide timely notification of educational opportunities, conferences, and continuing education on survivorship.

• Partner with academic institutions and professional organizations to develop and offer educational opportunities for health care providers on topics such as survivorship issues and care guidelines.

• Disseminate information on the importance of psychological screenings to address depression and other factors that may impact quality of life.

Palliative

• Disseminate information on programs designed to help educate staff of hospitals and long-term care facilities in integrating palliative care into clinical services.

• Include palliative and hospice care curricula in programs at medical, nursing, counseling and pastoral care schools.

• Provide links to information and resources for healthcare professionals on palliative and hospice care on the Cancer Partnership web site.

• Support partner efforts to educate public on benefits and availability of palliative and hospice care, including benefits of creating a living will and efforts targeted to broad spectrum of health care providers and diverse communities.

• Promote educational programs in colleges, healthcare facilities & communities about best practices in pain management targeting health care professional audiences (physicians, nurses, administrators, social workers, pharmacists, substance abuse counselors).