A commitment to ‘closing the gap’ in breast cancer outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women will help to reduce lives lost to the disease. Ensuring breast cancer is detected as early as possible in Indigenous women is key to achieving this objective.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and the second leading cause of cancer death. While breast cancer survival has improved markedly in Australia in recent years, Indigenous women continue to experience nine per cent higher rates of breast cancer mortality than the Australian female population as a whole.
Indigenous early detection initiative
The indigineous early detection initiative was developed in collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, communities and networks to promote the importance of early detection in surviving breast cancer.
The Indigenous early detection initiative aims to provide Indigenous women with information about breast changes and mammographic screening, encouraging them to be proactive about breast health.
As part of this initiative, two Well Women Workshops were held in 2009 to provide Indigenous women with important information every woman should know about breast cancer. The workshops were held in Cairns (1 May) and Yarrabah (2 June), in partnership with the Wuchopperan and Yarrabah Health Services. The workshops brought together Indigenous well women, Indigenous breast cancer survivors and local health workers to share stories of strength and survival and start talking about breast awareness, symptoms to look out for and mammographic screening.
Early detection messages are also being delivered through interactive, touch-screen health promotion kiosks (‘HITnet kiosks’) in Indigenous communities across Australia.
2006/07 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health worker training workshops
In 2006/07, National Breast Cancer Centre** ran two national breast cancer training workshop for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers, in Cairns (26 May 2006) and Albury (7 March 2007). Over 100 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers attended the workshops from across Australia to learn skills to improve the care and outcomes of women with breast cancer in their communities.
View Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health worker workshop presentations
View 2006/07 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workshop report
** In February 2008, National Breast Cancer Centre (NBCC), incorporating the Ovarian Cancer Program, changed its name to National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre (NBOCC). In July 2011, NBOCC amalgamated with Cancer Australia to form a single national agency, Cancer Australia, to provide leadership in cancer control and improve outcomes for Australians affected by cancer.