A follow up to #WeCanICan on World Cancer Day.
Last week we blogged about this year’s World Cancer Day and their #WeCanICan campaign. We urged you to get involved and highlighted the SCPN annual conference which was happening on the same day with the same goal: to raise cancer awareness, and press governments to take further action against the disease. Debbie Provan (National AHP Lead for Cancer Rehabilitation) was at the event and she and many others tweeted throughout the day. If you weren’t able to attend and you’d like to catch up on the highlights check out the storify. You’ll see it was a very interactive event with lots of influential and inspiring speakers.
Near the end of the programme the audience were shown a selection of 4 cancer prevention video campaigns; they were asked to choose their favourite which would then be awarded the 2016 Communication Prize. Dr Drew Walker spoke earlier in the day and highlighted the issue of health literacy. This affects a large number of people across Scotland with as many as 23% of people essentially being considered illiterate when it comes to reading and understanding health information, and a further 32% experiencing real difficulty in understanding. With this in mind it is evident we should consider how we communicate potentially life saving messages. Perhaps videos are the way forward? The winner of the day was the David Cornfield Melanoma Fund’s video “Dear 16-year-old Me”.
The runners-up can be viewed directly via the SCPN website. And if the statistics about health literacy have made you think about your practice and how you relay important information more information about NHS Scotland’s Health Literacy Action Plan for Scotland can also be found here.
The Cabinet Secretary Shona Robison was also present on the day. She reiterated our potential to impact on cancer through engaging in screening, making healthy choices and working together on issues such as tobacco and alcohol. She also highlighted the opportunity to influence the direction of government through engaging in the National Conversattion. To find out more and have your say go to: http://healthier.scot/.
Hopefully you’ll agree that this year’s World Cancer Day and the SCPN Conference both played a huge part in, and succeded in their aims of, raising awareness of cancer and cancer risk factors whilst highlighting ways to influence government. However it is perhaps a little to early to say we have ‘conquered’! Despite that it is clear we are making progress, and if we all keep up the momentum of World Cancer Day we may be able to say this in future, so remember #WeCanICan.
AHPs across health and social care. 