00:00My team reviewed study on cancer outcomes for people with disability from all around
00:08the world.
00:09What we found was that it doesn't matter where you look across the whole cancer journey.
00:16This is from screening diagnosis to survival and mortality.
00:21People with disability do worse than people without disability.
00:25So people with disability are missing out on screening programs that could help them
00:31detect cancer early, including bowel cancer, cervical cancer and breast cancer.
00:38And after diagnosis, people with disability are also less likely to survive than people
00:44without disability.
00:46We see these consistent inequalities across different groups of people with disability,
00:52but also true that for some groups, for example, people with intellectual disability and people
00:59with psychosocial disability do much worse than people without disability.
01:03Okay.
01:04So why is this happening?
01:07So there are many underlying issues as to why we see these consistent inequalities faced by
01:14people with disability.
01:16We know that many people with disability live with additional health conditions, which may
01:22lead to routine care like cancer screening being pushed down the priority list.
01:28And also the buildings where services are provided may not always be accessible.
01:34Also navigating the healthcare system can be overwhelming for people with disability, especially for those
01:41with needs for assistance for transport or communication.
01:47And also, we know that more time and resources are needed to support informed consent from people
01:53with disability, especially those with intellectual disability, but it's hard given the overstretched
02:00public health system.
02:03So are people with disability being diagnosed later than otherwise, and therefore the cancer is
02:09more advanced?
02:11Yeah, this could be a contributing factor and the other factor could be the inequitable access
02:18to treatments and cares for people with disability.
02:23So both could be contributing to that.
02:26What's happening with treatments?
02:29So there is another study earlier found that cancer patients with disability receive substandard
02:38quality cancer care.
02:39This included things like delays in treatment, being undertreated or having excessively invasive
02:48treatments.
02:49And that study also found that people with disability also had less access to in hospital service care
02:57and things like pain medication.
02:59And are people with disability, they're more likely to develop cancer than the general population?
03:05We're unsure about that.
03:08But this is very likely because we know that people with disability are more likely to be
03:14living in disadvantageous circumstances that put them at a higher risk to cancer risk factors
03:21such as smoking, unaffordable healthy food and drinking high levels of alcohol.
03:28So all these factors could be disproportionately affecting people with disability.
03:34You're painting a very grim picture, Yi.
03:37What can be done to improve the situation and ensure that people with disability receive the
03:42care they need?
03:43So in Australia's new cancer plan for the next 10 years, people with disability have been identified
03:51as one of the priority populations.
03:54So the solution is not to find new treatments for people with disability, but to make sure
04:00that the programs we already have are inclusive.
04:04So there are a lot of things we can do.
04:06For example, cancer prevention interventions can be co-designed with people with disability
04:13so that they actually work for them.
04:16National screening programs need to take active steps to include people with disability,
04:23making clinics and information as accessible as possible, and also allow extra time to get
04:31genuine consents from people with disability.
04:34And also it's important to ensure that people with disability have a voice.
04:39So this will need to involve them in the conversation about their own treatment and care so that they
04:49can make informed decisions.
04:51We also need to train the health professionals and the workforce so that they can understand
04:59and can respond to the needs of people with disability.
05:02In this way, they can make the reasonable adjustments to provide optimal cancer cares for people with disability.
Comments