Aim: This project aimed to tailor Cancer Council Victoria’s Managing Cancer group education program to meet the needs of people affected by cancer in the Greek community.
Methods: Cancer Council Victoria, Monash Health and the Southern Melbourne Integrated Cancer Service partnered with the Greek community to co-design and pilot the Managing Cancer program to be culturally appropriate.
The project working party included health professionals, Greek interpreters and Greek community representatives who co-designed a culturally specific education program.
A semi-structured focus group with 18 people affected by cancer was undertaken to inform program redesign, cultural inclusions and prioritisation of topics. The interpreters assisted with recruitment with all material written in Greek and English. Presentations, activities and group discussions were delivered by both Greek and English-speaking health professionals supported by the interpreters. All program resources were bi-lingual.
Focus group results informed the development of a pilot program which was delivered three months later to 15 participants. Evaluation included pre and post participant questionnaires of cultural appropriateness and usefulness.
Results: The focus group prioritised Treatment; Nutrition and Medications as the top three program topics, consistent with the existing program. Program design changes included involving the interpreters in program planning; recruitment; including Greek food; scheduling extra time for interpreting and allowing for faith discussions if lead by participants.
The interpreters support, cultural inclusions and bilingual presentations and resources were determined to be integral to the success of the program.
Evaluation of the pilot program supported the program design with participants agreeing that the program was culturally appropriate, informative and provided useful strategies that they could implement during cancer care.
Conclusion: Working with the Greek community and interpreters ensured that a culturally appropriate cancer program was successfully designed, developed and delivered. This co-design approach can be adopted for other culturally and linguistically diverse communities.