Across Michigan, hospitals, primary care settings, physician offices, professional and trade organizations, community-based organizations, state and local agencies, and many other organizations and agencies are taking action to significantly reduce the cancer burden in our state. You can help, too. Here are the types of things you can do:

• If you are a health care provider, you can work to ensure that your clients receive regular and age-appropriate cancer screening, with timely follow-up of any abnormal results, by:

  • using standing orders for age-appropriate cancer screening;

  • sending personalized notices to patients to remind them that they are due for screening; and

  • assessing how well they are doing in terms of client compliance with cancer screening recommendations.

• If you work for a health care organization, you can provide your clients with culturally appropriate, easy-to-understand information about:

  • cancer risk and prevention;

  • diagnostic and treatment options;

  • clinical cancer trials; and

  • the role of hospice and end-of-life care services.

• If your organization is a business or a corporate group, you can modify your employee benefit packages and company policies to ensure that they provide:

  • paid time off for cancer screening;

  • incentives for non-smokers; and

  • coverage for cancer treatments, including participation in clinical cancer trials.

• If you are a health care provider who works with community-based coalitions, service organizations, churches or other religious organizations, or survivor groups, you can raise awareness and promote access to cancer care services by:

  • sponsoring organized health and wellness events;

  • providing needed transportation to screening, diagnostic and treatment services; and

  • actively advocating for cancer prevention, early detection, and proper treatment.

• If you belong to a professional or trade organization, you can educate your members about the Michigan Cancer Consortium Initiative and important cancer prevention and control issues by:

  • including cancer-related articles and updates in member newsletters and journals;

  • offering cancer-related workshops and seminars at annual meetings and special conferences; and

  • encouraging members to advocate for public policies that will help further cancer prevention and control efforts.

• If your organization already is an MCC member, you can communicate with existing member organizations and reach out to new partners, looking for ways to:

  • conserve or obtain new resources for the fight against cancer;

  • pilot new ways to improve the quality of care for cancer patients; and

  • adopt cancer prevention, detection and treatment strategies that have been proven to work.

Contact the MCC to learn more about what you and others in your organization can do to:

• Help Michigan residents lower their cancer risk;

• Enhance the level of cancer prevention and control services available at Michigan doctors' offices, clinics, and health care systems;

• Improve the quality of care for Michigan residents who are diagnosed with cancer; and

• Recruit other organizations to join with us to reduce the human and economic toll cancer takes on our state.