YACC’s Newest Support Program - In Development!

by Lesley

YACC has recently been awarded government funding to develop a new cool program for young adult cancer survivors!

This past summer an opportunity presented itself in the form of funding from the Canadian Partnership Against Cancers’ (CPAC)Cancer Journey Action Group (mouthful!). This group put out an RFP (request for proposals)  to community groups, health care institutions and national associations to develop an understanding of best practices in Canada for the implementation of survivorship care plans in various settings.

Now, you may be asking yourself… ‘What exactly is a survivorship care plan?’ Good question. The plan we have in mind will assist survivors in attaining the personal goals they have set for themselves and help them live the life they want… for those of you who have ever attended a Survivor Conference, it is based on the philosophy of ‘making the rest of your life, the best of your life’.
This is something that YACC is striving to do. We had the idea of creating a relevant, meaningful and accessible care plan for our community for a while, when this opportunity popped up and said ‘hi’! So we jumped on it!

While we are only in the ‘developing stages’ of the plan right now, we do have a vision of what we feel this plan will look like. As I said above, our survivorship care plan (which we promise will have a much cooler name!) will assist patients/survivors in attaining their personal goals. Because our community of survivors rely heavily on technology for communication and socialization, such as the internet, email, social networking mediums, etc, the resulting plan will be web-based (password protected of course!) and will (hopefully) be integrated with these various mediums.
So now that the funding has been approved (yea to CPAC!)… the fun begins! The first stage in this development was a focus group that we held during our Survivor Conference in October with several of our awesome participants. The next phase is going to be a survey that we will be sending out to our community. This survey will ask questions about your personal preferences, expectations, likes and dislikes…. This will enable us to plan for, and build, our newest program. Once the care plan has been developed (and the bugs worked out) it will become YACC’s newest support program for our community of young adults. It will be accessible everywhere and it will empower our patients/survivors to take control of their lives and make them better – or maintain the awesome lives they have going on right now. Whatever the user decides…it is their plan after all!

This is a very exciting project to be involved with. As with all of our programs, survivors will have the opportunity to have a say in how it is developed, how it looks, how it works, etc. This project will be a huge step forward for cancer care in Canada… let alone for young adult cancer care! If you want to participate and make your opinion heard, keep checking this site for updates. We will be posting information on the site all throughout this process (which will take about a year in total!). You will have the opportunity to help us develop the product and even potentially be the first people to try it, once we get the pilot up and running.

I am excited about this project. It is something that we have had in the back of our heads for some time… now it is becoming a reality – and we need you to help make it happen! Stay tuned for details, and let your opinion be heard!

Posted on Dec 07, 2009 - 07:18 PM

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