Is there a screening project need?

Consider the health needs and the needs of health services servicing your community.

Find whatever data is relevant to your community and cancer screening project. For example:

• find all the necessary information on cancer screening participation rates, incidence and mortality rates of cancer
• find out the age demographics of community groups (i.e. what proportion of the community is eligible for screening)
• look at geographical community profiles (that is, where do large proportions of the community live).

The Australian Institute for Health and Welfare releases participation data to tell us how many people participate in cancer screening programs. Information about remoteness, socioeconomic area and Indigenous status is also provided. You can also find information about cancer incidence and mortality data at the Victorian Cancer Registry.

Consultation with potential partners

Identify who the target groups and stakeholders for your project are.

Things you could discuss with partners are:

• the views of your community towards cancer screening
• what processes exist to collect feedback and data collection for evaluation
  
• how your project fits within the work being already done
• the socio-political context this work sits in
• networks you can tap into for further insights and opportunities to collaborate.

Consultation with the community

Speaking with the community you would like to engage with at the beginning of your project planning is a must. This will give you an idea as to what their perceived needs are and insights into the experiences they have had when accessing cancer screening or health care.

If you are working with a linguistically diverse community, bilingual health facilitators are a great way to engage with the community.

Consultation with health professionals, health providers, funders (if you have one) and other stakeholders

It’s important to make sure you know the views of these stakeholders:

• What do they think the priorities are for activities in this community?
• What trends are they seeing that can give you insight?

This should also give you perspective on:

• issues that influence the community’s health outcomes locally
• the best approach to work with your partners
• capacity for health services to adapt their activities
• ability for the health services to adapt to your activities and the best way to work with them
• identify coordination or links between the services and how they can be improved, and
• barriers your community has in accessing screening.

Also consider the insights on barriers and enablers which Cancer Council learned from previous consultations with community groups. Under each community group you will find barriers to screening for CALD, Aboriginal, LGBTIQ+, Disability.

With the information you have gathered, you should now start to determine priorities for the project. Start with an assessment of the activities, programs and policies you have learned about in the analysis phase. Once you’ve identified a priority for your project, you can co-develop suitable initiatives with the community, stakeholders and health providers, and jointly assess the appropriateness of the proposed initiatives.

Questions to consider in this phase:

You can use the table below to keep track of all the information you have gathered.