What's new in March, with links to support, information and other items from the cancer sector.
- Women's Health Victoria Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan
- Counterpart at the 6th National Cancer Survivorship Conference
- Exercise brings benefits for treatment of cancer
- Education video – Radiotherapy
- Video for people diagnosed with head and neck cancer
Women’s Health Victoria’s Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan
Our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan has been formally endorsed by Reconciliation Australia.
As the second stage of our RAP journey, this Innovate RAP sets out a series of 15 key actions and associated deliverables under four main headings: Relationships, Respect, Opportunities, and Governance.
View the Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan on the Women's Health Victoria website.
Counterpart at the 6th National Cancer Survivorship Conference
In March, we had two conference posters on display at the 6th National Cancer Survivorship Conference. The posters were about Counterpart’s expansion to all cancers and recruiting peer support volunteers
- Counterpart’s service expansion – lessons for peer support in a small cancer support organisation
- Recruiting and selecting cancer Peer Support Volunteers
See more information and download the posters from the Publications page.
Exercise brings benefits for treatment of cancer
The old approach was to prescribe bed rest after surgery. Now patients are told to get out of bed and to move.
Radio National interviewed Robert Newton from Edith Cowan University about the benefits of exercise in preventing and treating conditions such as cancer. He says there are important molecules released when our muscles work. These molecules suppress cancer and reduce tumour development. They also reduce the toxicity effects of chemotherapy allowing full doses to be administered. Robert Newton says exercise is a medicine bringing highly coordinated biochemical changes within the body with no side effects.
Listen to the interview online.
Education video – Radiotherapy
The Western and Central Melbourne Integrated Cancer Service (WCMICS) has developed a series of animated videos narrated by their virtual nurse Joanne, to assist in providing education to patients about chemotherapy, radiation therapy and bone marrow transplant cancer treatments.
Their most recent video is 'Understanding radiation therapy'. As well as an English language version, they have also created versions in Vietnamese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Italian and Greek.
View WCMICS's animated patient education videos.
Video for people diagnosed with head and neck cancer
Head and Neck Cancer Australia recently released 'What to expect next – when newly diagnosed with head and neck cancer'. This animation has been created to help support people who are newly diagnosed with head and neck cancer to access much needed information and support. This video was created with a Federal Government grant.
Topics covered in the video include:
- diagnosis
- prognosis
- treatment types, including radiation therapy, surgery and chemotherapy
- Human Papillomavirus
- the importance of a Multi Disciplinary Team
- living remotely
- mental health and looking after yourself
- finding support.
Watch 'What to expect next – when newly diagnosed with head and neck cancer'.
