Poster Presentation Cancer Survivorship 2017

LOW REFERRAL OF BREAST CANCER SURVIVORS TO REHABILITATION AND WELLNESS SERVICES: A project to improve service provider networking. (#81)

Denise Stewart 1
  1. Breast and Shoulder Rehab, Alderley, QLD, Australia

Pain, poor upper body performance measures and lower QOL are commonly reported by long term survivors of breast cancer. Low referral rates by cancer care doctors has been identified as a barrier since 2012. This barrier of very low referral rates for breast cancer survivors to specialist rehabilitation and wellness services continues to be reported by specialist practitioners across the world and from Australian data published in 2015. The online Summit format has been used over the last 3 years, in other areas of health, as a means of increasing awareness of specific health issues and solutions. The online health summit format using a variety of health care experts as speakers was the basis for this project. The creation of a virtual team of local and international specialists provides an opportunity to establish a new dialogue between presenters.The availability of free access was also employed to reduce financial and travel barriers with the aim of having more health professionals attending the event.  The data collected from the Summit will be presented: connections between the presenters, number of health professional viewers and number of virtual peer to peer networking opportunities created. Awareness of impairments, survivor needs, solutions and referral confidence by Summit listeners will be presented.