Programs | Community Support

Cancer Survivorship in Rural Oklahoma

The Oklahoma Area Health Education Center (OKAHEC) was funded by the Lance Armstrong Foundation in November 2007 to establish an awareness and education program on cancer survivorship issues for survivors in rural Oklahoma communities.  In addition, the OKAHEC established discipline-specific continuing education programs, and brief one-on-one office encounters where health care providers were given the cancer survivorship LAF LIVESTRONG™ materials and briefed on the Community Program. 

This project addresses the cancer survivorship-related objectives of the National Action Plan for Cancer Survivorship and the implementation plan of the Oklahoma Comprehensive Cancer Network in the following three ways:

1. Educate and empower survivors of cancer to “live strong” and navigate their health care.
2. Encourage health care professionals to improve delivery of services and increase awareness of issues faced by cancer survivors.
3. Establish a sustainable network of partners to continue educating rural Oklahomans about cancer survivorship issues beyond the period of the grant project.

The four AHEC regional centers coordinate cancer survivorship education sessions in each quadrant of the state (for a total of eight per year).  The sessions provide important and helpful information and resources to people who have been diagnosed with cancer and their friends, family members and others who are impacted by the disease. 
Two-hour sessions using Power Point focus on how to use the LIVESTRONG™ notebook as a tool to organize documents, share the experience with others, and to learn more about cancer.  Once the participants have an understanding of the tool, they learn how to use it to communicate with their health care team and their families/friends.  The program emphasizes using the Ask Me 3™ questions when communicating with their physicians: 1) What is my main problem?  2) What do I need to do? and 3) Why is it important for me to do this?
The planning of the sessions is a community effort.  OKAHEC, the regional AHEC center and community members meet twice in each community to discuss the logistics of the event.  All other correspondence is  done via email.  In most cases, community members provide a meeting space for the meetings, and the workshops.  Refreshments door prizes, and local advertising are also contributed by the community members.  The community members also attend the sessions and help with registration, refreshments, and technical assistance.

In 2008, OKAHEC provided 3 continuing education programs for health care professionals social workers, health educators, and nurses.  Opportunities were made possible by Oklahoma Society of Clinical Oncology, the Cherokee Nation, and the Oklahoma Osteopathic Association.  Two hundred and four (204) professionals learned about cancer survivorship issues and the LIVESTRONG™ notebook and system.

The OKAHEC center coordinators visited the physicians in the local communities and surrounding towns where a workshop was planned.  The center coordinators used the “drug rep” model.  Each visit was no more than 15 minutes and included a summary of the project, a LIVESTRONG™ notebook and a quick reference card with communication tips on how to relate to patients.  There were at least 5 visits in each community.  We were fortunate because sometimes we were able to give books to other health care professionals such as PA’s and dentists.  The interest in the materials was encouraging.