Cancer does not discriminate: working with mainstream cancer services to enable people with disabilities to access cancer screening

Introduction: Adults with intellectual disabilities experience serious health inequalities, including reduced access to cancer screening. One reason is that people with disabilities are dependent on their carers or support workers to enable them to access healthcare. Online learning is one way to increase coverage. Aim: This presentation will describe the development and evaluation of online educational modules for disability support workers to enable them to support people with disabilities in their care to access the national cancer screening programs for bowel, breast and cervical cancer. Methods: This project involved adapting face to face teaching into 4 modules using principles of adult learning, literature review and experience regarding eLearning principles. Once developed, the evaluation consists of before and after evaluation, interviews and surveys. Secondary data, regarding reported numbers of people with disabilities participating in the national screening program is currently being collected. Results: Four modules were developed; one for each of the three national cancer screening programs (Bowel, breast and cervical) and one overall module on cancer and people with disabilities. Evaluation consisted of before and after surveys and interview. Data on rates of cancer screening uptake for this population is currently being collected. Conclusions: Occupational therapists understand disability, health, education and occupational analysis and as such are ideally placed to enable and empower people with disabilities and their caregivers to access health and well-being. This project demonstrated how an occupational focus improved access to basic healthcare screening for people with disabilities