Practicing what we preach: Linking practices, priorities and

health goals"Terry Slevin, "

Education and Research Director"Cancer Council Western Australia"

August 2012"

The biggest challenge in cancer prevention is achieving change"

•  Some things will have to change to prevent the cancer burden increasing eg tobacco, alcohol, eat healthy food, physically active"

•  People (including our own staff and volunteers) find change difficult"

•  Unless we can make the changes we recommend for others, we will have no credibility"

How do our communities assess who we really are ?"

•  What we DO – both privately and in our “public” role – Eating Drinking, smoking, exercise and more"

•  How do we raise our funds - Whose money we use and take and how we make it"

•  In simple terms does “What we SAY” ultimately align with “What we DO”"

"

WHAT WE DO… EATING, DRINKING, SMOKING, EXERCISE"

Do we lead by example ?"

Establishing our own policies on important issues of relevance to cancer"Smoking- are we smoke free?"

Eating- do we serve healthy food?"

Drinking do we serve alcohol ? Ever ? If so when ?"

Exercise – Do we promote our staff and volunteers to be active –walking meetings etc""

�Alcohol at any Cancer Council functions (strictly prohibited)�.

HOW DO WE RAISE OUR FUNDS ?"

What we Say – “Alcohol contributes to many cancers, including breast cancer” What we do….?"

�The Trickle Down Theory, Buy Wine = Cure Cancer A Simple Proposition: Buy Wine, Cure Cancer We all know wine, especially red wine, has curative properties….�

�Brewvember: Beers for Prostate Cancer Awareness�

�Brewvember: fight Cancer with Beer�

Working out some ground rules…"

Cancer Council WA Checklist of companies with whom we will do business and under what circumstances https://dl.dropbox.com/u/84585753/Cancer%20Council%20Western%20Australia%20Corporate%20partnership%20guidelines%20succinct.pdf

What could we do more of ?"

We cannot do our job if the people we serve cannot believe what we say"

To protect our credibility we must strive to… " “Practice what we preach”"PRACTICE"1. Lead as role models in our professional

behavior"2. Ensure we cannot be accused of providing

advice driven by financial considerations"3. Be transparent with our funding sources"PREACH"1. Our advice of course must be based on the

best available scientific evidence "

What test do we apply to our decisions about who we take as partners ?"

Imagine your decision will be scrutinised on the front page of the newspaper read by the majority of your supporters."

Are you really comfortable you can defend your decision ?!

*

* Please note – This front page was never published. It was created to make the point for this slide

Terry Slevin

Cancer Council Western

Australia

terry@cancerwa.asn.au"