A Participatory Approach to Improving Cancer Screening and Early Detection among Individuals with Incarceration Experience (P4C)

Project Funding: The Public Health Agency of Canada
Project Period: 2012 – 2014

Men and women who have been in prison are an underserved group with higher rates of all types of cancer. In addition, they have higher rates of several cancer risk factors, such as infectious disease exposure (such as STD and HPV infection) and cigarette smoking, along with poor socio-economic health determinants including poverty, unstable housing, low literacy, and/or low education levels, and mental health and physical disability. Post-release, men and women are often overwhelmed by the complexities of seeking and receiving health care in the community. Receiving primary care, including cancer screening and early detection, can become a “back-burner” issue, coming well after housing, parole, financial, and family responsibilities. Another significant barrier to accessing care and early screening stems from the lack of trust between this population and service providers, including healthcare practitioners. Cancer screening services are effectively non-accessible to individuals with incarceration experience (IIE) due to perpetual stigmatization.

This two year project was designed to activate BC individuals with incarceration experience (IIE) to direct their own care in cancer screening and early detection, by removing barriers and raising awareness with and for them. Participatory processes were used to engage IIE to pinpoint gaps in existing cancer screening and awareness tools/programs and self-management tools. With the help of these men and women, this project modified existing tools/programs to make them more accessible and relevant to this population. We held a Cancer Prevention Tools Feedback Session in December 2012 and held a series of interactive workshops on Cancer Screening and Awareness for breast, cervical, and colon cancer in Metro Vancouver and Nanaimo in late 2013. Cancer Walks Free, a short documentary film, was produced based on interviews with individuals with incarceration experience and the healthcare practitioners who treat them (see link below). This project developed a model that has the potential to be replicated nationally and within correctional institutions.

The P4C had shared some joint goals and activities with the P4H project. The P4H project focused on general preventative health among men and women with incarceration experience (IIE). The P4C focused mainly on ONE aspect of preventative health, namely cancer prevention. Both the P4H and the P4C projects shared the same coordinators, co-investigators and principal investigator. The Project Advisory Committee (PAC) for this P4C project is made up from members of the P4H committee who have a specific interest in cancer screening.

Project Resources:

Arresting Cancer: Using Community-based Participatory Approaches to Improve Cancer Screening and Awareness with Formerly Incarcerated Men and Women. English version | French version
Cancer Walks Free: An educational documentary by Women in 2 Healing’s Mo Korchinski about the impact of cancer within incarcerated populations. Click here to watch Cancer Walks Free