Project Manager: Emily Lonsdale       Principle Investigator: Leah Lambert

This project is being led by a team of BC Cancer staff, researchers, lived experience advisors, community-based partners, and collaborators from the University of British Columbia and EQUIP Health Care. The project funders are the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer. 

We will design a new approach to caring for cancer patients, building on team-based care by creating an Equity-Oriented Model of Care. This model will integrate key dimensions of equity-oriented healthcare:  trauma- and violence-informed care, cultural safety/anti-racism, and harm reduction/substance use health.

Additionally, our work will be guided by the expertise of people with lived experience of health and social inequities as team members on the Project Advisory Committee and through other engagement strategies. The model will be piloted in specific cancer clinics to assess their effectiveness. 

Background

In BC, some individuals and groups face unfair and unnecessary barriers in receiving adequate cancer care due to factors like racism, stigma, discrimination, poverty, mental health and substance use challenges, and/or disabilities.

As part of British Columbia’s 10-Year Cancer Action Plan, team-based care is being introduced across BC Cancer’s six Regional Cancer Centres to build high-functioning care teams that include doctors, nurses, and other care professionals. Team-based care is designed to provide services from the point of cancer diagnosis through to survivorship or end-of-life care.
 

The overarching project goals are to:

Make cancer care access, experiences, and outcomes better for community members facing health and social inequities

Expand on the foundations of team-based care by piloting, evaluating and sustaining a new equity-oriented care model that brings together different care disciplines and sectors.

Strengthen the research tools used to study and measure the impact of equity-oriented cancer care

Work To-Date

This project follows a three-phased approach: 

Together, these three phases will support the implementation of a comprehensive, person-centered approach to care that promotes equity-oriented improvements at BC Cancer – Vancouver. 

Phase 1 planning activities, including community engagement workshops and model co-creation, concluded in September 2024. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and key takeaways to promote equitable and accessible community partnerships from Phase 1—stay tuned! Our project’s Implementation Phase began in October 2024 and includes three main components:

  1. New tools and resources to support staff and clinicians in providing equity-oriented cancer care.
  2. At-the-elbow support from two Clinical Nurse Specialists to support equity-oriented service provision through Nursing Mentorship.
  3. A new approach to interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration though Care Conferences.

Looking To Get Involved?

At this time there are no active engagement opportunities for the project, however stay tuned or reach out to our team if you would like to be aware of future opportunities.

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