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‘Women's Cancer Survivorship’ programme at Cork University Hospital
‘Women’s Cancer Survivorship: Supporting and Innovating for Change’ at Cork University Hospital is one of two pilot clinics funded by the Irish Cancer Society as part of the Women’s Health Initiative.
The Women’s Health Initiative aims to address a long-standing gap in the identification and management of symptoms and side effects for women which have resulted from their cancer and treatments. The Initiative aims to improve health and wellbeing for women cancer survivors at all stages of their cancer journey through the establishment of pilot clinics to be based in Cork and Dublin. The clinics will involve initial groups of selected participants, and it is hoped that the two-year pilot scheme will eventually lead to the roll-out of a national programme for cancer survivors.
As part of the initiative, the ‘Women’s Cancer Survivorship: Supporting and Innovating for Change’ programme led by Medical Oncologist UCC Professor Roisin Connolly at Cork University Hospital and the ‘Life After Cancer Clinic’ (LACC) led by UCD Professor of Gynae-Oncology Donal Brennan at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital will provide the first dedicated clinics for female cancer survivors nationwide.
Developed in collaboration with researchers from the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Centre at Johns Hopkins in the US, and supported by Prof Josephine Hegarty from the UCC School of Nursing and Midwifery, the ‘Women’s Cancer Survivorship’ programme will work with women at Cork University Hospital and regional hospitals who have completed their primary cancer therapy.
Using symptom management pathways developed as part of the programme, those using the new Survivorship Clinic will receive a Survivorship Plan and education on the management of important symptoms, and will be needs-assessed for referrals to appropriate specialists.
Read more in Independent Thinking Magazine.