The Story Behind the Photo

LANCE ARMSTRONG FOUNDATION PUTS CINJ INTO A BREAKAWAY
When the world thinks of cancer survivors, we think of Lance Armstrong and his triumphant comeback. He founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) to help other survivors find their own quality of life after cancer. The LAF has awarded a $100,000 community education grant to CINJ to bring support to cancer survivors in New Jersey, now numbering 4% of our state’s population, 334,000 survivors strong.

CINJ’s “Buildings and Bridges” Intitiative will directly benefit the wide range of cancer survivors who face a multitude of issues every day. Young adults face the disruption of education, delays in establishing careers and possibly fertility implications. At the other end of the spectrum, the elderly must cope with unrelated medical problems that complicate treatment and daily functioning.

Medically, survivors may be at risk for developing additional health problems as a result of their disease or the effects of its treatment. For some survivors practical problems such as lack of transportation, job loss or work interruption, family caretaking responsibilities and lack of health insurance may be issues.

“Buildings and Bridges” will develop educational modules designed for healthcare professionals to meet the real life medical, practical and emotional needs of cancer survivors. Peer trainers will deliver this knowledge to local communities, build capacity and leverage resources across existing agencies, public and private, to include a network of some 139 private practices.

This initiative involves a broad spectrum of stakeholders in its development and oversight, including CINJ, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Department of Family Medicine, New Jersey Family Medical Research Network, New Labor, and the New Jersey Primary Care Association. The Curriculum Advisory Team includes health care workers from the primary care setting and cancer survivors.

Denalee O’Malley, MSW, CINJ Principal Investigator states, “I want to thank the Lance Armstrong Foundation, our community partners and colleagues who collaborated on this project to make it happen.”


Featured in the Photo: Curriculum Development Specialist Carmen Martino discusses concepts with the Curriculum Advisory Team that are contained in the training workbook, “What is Cancer?” This is the first training workbook in a series to be developed in the Buildings and Bridges initiative.