Agencies
Services
Call To Action - What You Can Do
Whether you are a cancer patient, cancer survivor, caregiver of a cancer patient, community member, student, employer, health care professional, or policy maker, everyone can play a role in helping with the prevention, early detection, treatment, and survivorship of cancer in Illinois.
Individuals
Prevention
- Quit smoking or never start smoking.
- Avoid/reduce exposure to secondhand smoke.
- Maintain a healthy diet by eating the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables.
- Exercise at least 30 minutes per day.
- Get vaccinated against vaccinepreventable cancers, such as human papillomavirus (HPV) and Hepatitis B.
- Reduce alcohol consumption.
- Test your home for radon and implement mitigation strategies, such as sealing cracks and other openings in the foundation and modifying house or room pressure and ventilation.
- Promote increasing air flow in your house by opening windows and using fans and vents to circulate air. Natural ventilation in any type of house is only a temporary strategy to reduce radon.
- Collect family health history and share with your provider.
- Reduce exposure to UV radiation and wear sunscreen.
Screening and Early Detection
- Get your recommended cancer screenings regularly and on time based on age and sex (colorectal, lung, cervical, breast, and prostate cancers).
- Visit a dental office and have an oral exam.
- Update family history and share with your provider.
- Ask about genetic counseling services.
Diagnosis, Treatment, and Survivorship
- Support cancer survivors through the continuum of survivorship from diagnosis to remission.
- Get a copy of your cancer treatment plan and instructions on what to do after treatment.
- Ask your medical provider about services to help with symptoms from cancer or its treatment.
- Ask about support groups.
- Explore clinical trials.
- Complete an advance care plan.
- Volunteer to help those affected by cancer.
- Share your knowledge with others in your family.
Community Organizations
Prevention
- Provide areas for physical activity.
- Encourage participation in wellness programs.
- Implement smoke-free policies.
- Provide healthy foods and drinks at events.
- Provide information on ways to prevent cancers.
- Provide at-home radon kits.
- Assist community members with signing up for insurance.
- Collaborate to address and to remove barriers to prevention.
- Provide family health history tools.
- Establish partnerships with local health care organizations to raise awareness and to educate community members.
Screening and Early Detection
- Provide screening events.
- Encourage individuals to receive their recommended screenings.
- Collaborate to address and remove barriers to screening and early detection.
- Establish partnerships with local health care organizations to raise awareness, educate, and increase access to screening and early detection services for community members.
- Disseminate family health history and genetic counseling services information.
Diagnosis, Treatment, and Survivorship
- Provide or host cancer survivor groups.
- Provide information for cancer patients and survivors.
- Collaborate to address and to remove barriers to diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship.
- Provide information about genetic services.
Schools
Prevention
- Implement healthy lunch programs.
- Implement smoke-free policies.
- Provide time for recess each school day.
- Educate about healthy foods and physical activity.
- Educate parents and students on the HPV vaccine.
- Test buildings for radon.
- Implement HPV vaccination campaign in conjunction with school nurses and other school health staff.
Screening and Early Detection
- Provide education on the HPV vaccine and cervical cancer and oral cancer screenings.
- Implement HPV vaccination campaign in conjunction with school nurses and other school health staff.
Diagnosis, Treatment, and Survivorship
- Educate staff and personnel on cancer treatment and survivorship.
- Provide counseling services for students and parents going through cancer treatment.
Employers
Prevention
- Offer employee insurance benefits for wellness programs.
- Provide breaks to encourage health behaviors.
- Provide education on cancer prevention.
- Adopt smoke-free policies.
- Increase awareness of importance of family history.
Screening and Early Detection
- Provide benefit time for employees to get their recommended screenings.
- Provide information on screening and early detection.
- Establish an incentive program to encourage employees to get recommended screenings.
Diagnosis, Treatment, and Survivorship
- Support cancer survivors to be able to continue being successful employees.
Health Care Professionals
Prevention
- Educate patients on recommendations for healthy eating habits and physical activity.
- Educate on the HPV vaccine.
- Encourage patients who are smokers to quit smoking by recommending smoking cessation programs.
- Educate on the risks of binge and chronic drinking.
- Encourage sun safety behaviors.
- Collect family health history annually and assess risks; refer to genetic counseling/testing when appropriate.
- Utilize community/patient navigators to conduct outreach to community members and stakeholders to educate and raise awareness of cancer prevention.
- Demonstrate ongoing leadership commitment to inclusivity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) patients and families.
Screening and Early Detection
- Encourage age-appropriate lung cancer screening for patients who are current or former smokers.
- Recommend age- and sex-appropriate cancer screenings (colonoscopy, Pap test, mammogram, or PSA test).
- Encourage patients to see a dentist and have an oral exam.
- Collect and update family health history annually and assess risks; refer to genetic counseling/testing when appropriate.
- Use electronic medical records and other reminder systems to keep individuals up to date on screenings and vaccinations.
- Utilize community/patient navigators to conduct outreach to community members and to stakeholders to educate and to raise awareness of screening and early detection services.
- Monitor organizational efforts to provide more culturally competent and patient- and family-centered care to LGBTQ patients, families, and communities.
Diagnosis, Treatment, and Survivorship
- Provide appropriate medical care for cancer patients and survivors.
- Provide referrals to patient navigation services.
- Encourage patients to participate in clinical trials.
- Refer patients to tobacco cessation programs if they are current smokers.
- Refer patients to lifestyle change programs.
- Be able to refer patients to palliative and hospice care when needed.
- Be able to refer patients to mental health services.
- Refer patients for genetic counseling and testing as appropriate.
Health Insurers and Policy Makers
Prevention
- Support the access and coverage of smoking cessation programs and nutrition programs.
- Support the implementation of policies for healthier environments.
- Support collection of family health history, risk assessment, and appropriate genetic counseling/testing services.
- Include LGBTQ community members in policy planning steps.
Screening and Early Detection
- Promote the coverage and access of all recommended cancer screenings.
- Ensure no cost sharing for recommended cancer screenings and immunizations.
- Support coverage of genetic counseling/testing services.
- Include LGBTQ community members in policy planning steps.
Diagnosis, Treatment, and Survivorship
- Support legislation that funds cancer treatment, including palliative care.
- Reduce out-of-pockets costs for participating in clinical trials.
- Support coverage of genetic counseling and genomic testing.