Help & Care host event sharing key findings around disabled and neurodivergent access to Cancer Care

Help & Care hosted an inspiring event in Southampton yesterday to celebrate ‘What I’d Like to Change’: a project exploring disabled and neurodivergent experiences of cancer care.

Over the last year, we have worked with four local disability community groups to hear firsthand what cancer care is like for them – including screening, treatment and prevention. Workshops took place to identify what would improve access and make things better in the future – the event was hosted to share our research findings and engage in active discussion.

Katie and Rosie, the two community researchers who led the project, facilitated the event. We were delighted to be joined by colleagues from the NHS, Wessex Cancer Alliance and Macmillan, among others.

We began by watching a powerful video, sharing quotes directly from the people involved in our research. You can watch the video here. Following the screening, participants responded creatively to the video through art, poetry and word clouds.

The event then looked to the future and the steps we can collectively take to put the solutions shared with us into action. As part of this, we are moving into a joint project with University Hospitals Southampton and our sister project Trans Aware Cancer Care to explore how to make breast / chest screening more inclusive for disabled, neurodivergent and trans+ individuals.

We were delighted to welcome our partners from the UHS Breast Screening team who spoke about our partnership, and we also heard from the Wessex Cancer Alliance about the steps they are taking to take this research forwards.

We closed the event by sharing our pledges and each identifying one thing ‘I Will Change Today’. One participant wrote “I will ask patients what would make things easier for them” while another shared “I will call out practice that isn’t inclusive / accessible”. It was clear from the pledges and the energy in the room that there is a shared commitment to drive the findings of this project forward.

You can read the full report of our findings here. There is an audio file, large print, summary and one page summary available.

If you would like to discuss the event or the project, please reach out to us at involvingpeople@helpandcare.org.uk.