With a Welcome to Country provided by Bankstown Elder Uncle John Dickson at the launch, ‘What is Cancer Screening’ is available in 15 translations including Arabic, Assyrian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Dari, Farsi, Greek, Italian, Korean, Macedonian, Pashto, Spanish, Tamil, Thai and Vietnamese, with more coming early next year.
Chief Cancer Officer and Cancer Institute NSW CEO Professor David Currow says people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are a priority for the Institute.
“We know multicultural people and migrant groups are less likely to participate in cancer screening for many complex reasons. Often their health takes a backseat to housing and employment,” Professor Currow said.
“It’s crucial we continue finding new ways to connect with people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and to support them to make informed decisions.
“The brochure is one way to empower these groups to make their health a priority.”
According to surveys, screening participation rates remain lower for multicultural groups.
Bowel screening is between 25-34 per cent, compared with 41 per cent of those who are of eligible age in the general population.
Encouragingly, more multicultural women are participating in breast screening but participation rates are still lower than the general population – 48 per cent as opposed to 53 per cent.
“Screening is a crucial step in giving people the best chance of detection and treatment of cervical, bowel or breast cancer,” Professor Currow said.
‘What is cancer screening?’ is available at cancer.nsw.gov.au.
Migrant ‘cancer screening’ help
UNDERSTANDING cancer screening will now be easier for migrants thanks to a new information brochure by Cancer Institute NSW on bowel, breast and cervical cancer myths.
