How to use this toolkit
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander users are advised that this website may contain images, voices and names of deceased persons.
This toolkit comprises three main sections to assist the Aboriginal health workforce in supporting Aboriginal clients:
1. Supporting your clients with staying healthy and preventing cancer
This section contains information to further your knowledge and understanding of cancer screening and prevention, and better engage with mob.
Here you'll find information on:
- Healthy living to prevent cancer
- Bowel screening
- Breast screening
- Cervical screening
- Quitting smoking
- Testing for other cancers (lung and prostate cancer)
You can print pages from this section and share these with your clients or staff.
Note: Bowel, breast and cervical cancer are the focus of this toolkit as there are current screening programs available for all eligible Australians.
We acknowledge that other cancers affect mob, and recommend you always encourage your clients to talk to their doctor or nurse if they notice a change in their body or are concerned about cancer.
2. Supporting your clients social and emotional wellbeing
This page introduces social and emotional wellbeing. It lists recommended links to further information to help you better support your clients.
3. Resource hub
Our resource hub includes:
- Practical tools for having a yarn - a collection of resources developed for this toolkit. These practical resources support community outreach and health promotion on cancer screening and healthy living actions that help prevent cancer.
- Cancer screening and prevention resource directory - this resource directory lists our top recommended resources on cancer screening and prevention from other trusted organisations that may be helpful in your work.
- Find local health and support services in NSW - a collation of links to help you find and refer your clients to local services to support them along their health, cancer screening or treatment journey.
Download the resources, share them with your colleagues and use them to support your yarns with clients.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about this toolkit
FAQs
The toolkit has been designed for the Aboriginal health workforce - Aboriginal Health Workers, Aboriginal Health Practitioners, health professionals with Aboriginal clients and anyone working to improve the health of our mob in NSW.
We encourage all non-Aboriginal healthcare workers working with Aboriginal clients to undertake cultural awareness training. For example, for those working in NSW Health see Respecting the Difference training.
This toolkit was developed due to an identified gap in consolidated and culturally tailored information on cancer screening and prevention for Aboriginal people.
This toolkit was created in response to feedback from and in collaboration with stakeholders working in Aboriginal health. Their feedback highlighted the need for more holistic, culturally tailored resources focusing on cancer screening and prevention.
We took a phased project approach and teamed up with specialist Aboriginal communications and research agencies Cox Inall Ridgeway and 33 Creative. Throughout every phase, we also ran consultations with community and the Aboriginal health workforce to ensure we received critical input to refine content and resources.
Throughout the project, we sought guidance and contributions from members of the Cancer Institute NSW Aboriginal Cancer Advisory Group (including project planning and resource development).
For more information on how this toolkit was created and who was involved, visit our About this toolkit page.
National screening programs are only currently available in Australia to detect breast cancer, bowel cancer and cervical cancer.
These screening programs have the evidence to show major benefit at both the individual and health system level, but unfortunately they are still not widely used or accessed. Hence the toolkit aims to increase the awareness of these programs, their benefits and how to access them.
The toolkit also provides some information on prostate and lung cancer as while there are no current screening programs for these cancers, there are actions you can take to improve chances of early detection.
More information on other cancers is available via Our Mob and Cancer.
The Cancer Institute NSW reviews website content every 3 months to ensure the information we provide you is up to date and relevant.
For any questions, please reach out to: information@cancer.nsw.gov.au.
Get started with the toolkit
Build your knowledge and confidence to yarn about cancer screening and prevention and help make a positive impact in your community.
Learn about what social and emotional wellbeing means for Aboriginal people. Access links to resources to help support your clients.
Access a suite of resources to support your work promoting cancer screening and early detection with your mob.
Discover the aims and development process of this toolkit, co-created with Aboriginal stakeholders for a culturally-tailored resource.
