Resource Type: Toolkit/guidebook/ handbook

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2019 Colorectal Cancer Screening Messaging Guidebook: Recommended Messages to Reach the Unscreened

In 2018, the NCCRT and the American Cancer Society researched screened and unscreened populations to better understand and address screening disparities. The goals of the market research were to:

  • Measure general awareness of colorectal cancer screening methods.
  • Understand the rationale, attitudes, and motivations for being screened or not.
  • Analyze priority populations such as adults aged 50-54, rural dwellers, and the marketplace insured.
  • Identify logical and emotional drivers that could encourage screening.
  • Use the drivers to create and test messages that would motivate unscreened individuals.

This guidebook shares the findings and recommendations gathered from that research and is further designed to help in the education, empowerment, and mobilization of those who are not getting screened for colorectal cancer. Our hope is that our partners can take this research and the recommended messaging provided to strengthen your own communications campaigns, creating resources that resonate with the target audiences even more by using your own creativity, innovation and spokespersons.

The NCCRT would like to thank the Public Awareness and Social Media Task Group members who participated in the conceptualization of this Guidebook’s research and content. Also, a very special thank you to the 80% in Every Community Market Research Advisory Group for their participation, expertise, and oversight. 

Other Guides and Resources: 

The Hispanics/Latinos and Colorectal Cancer Companion Guide and Asian Americans and Colorectal Cancer Companion Guide introduce market research about the unscreened from these populations and include tested messages in Spanish and several Asian languages. The 2017 Communications Guidebook is also still a useful resource for developing your messaging campaigns. 

2019 Messaging Guidebook – Table of Contents (Section Downloads Below)

Other tools were developed during the 80% by 2018 campaign and can still help you promote and evaluate your communications:

More communications tools and resources will be coming soon!

 

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paying for colorectal cancer screening
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Paying for Colorectal Cancer Screening Patient Navigation Toolkit & Interactive Website

The NCCRT and the Colorado School of Public Health have developed this suite of resources that provide practical advice on paying for and sustaining colorectal cancer screening patient navigation to help health care professionals at every stage of a navigation program. The Toolkit (PDF), originally released in 2017, has been updated in 2019, and we’ve also added an interactive website and technical assistance training modules to further support screening navigation.

The toolkit provides practical advice to help professionals at every stage in a variety of settings sustain navigation. The new, interactive website provides an overview of the fundamentals of sustainability with the Toolkit providing additional case studies, resources and support. In addition, for those agencies and organizations who are ready to apply the principles, an assessment and curriculum has been developed to guide agencies in developing their own plans for sustainability. Contact pnsustaincrc@gmail.com for inquiries about the curriculum. 

The content of the toolkit and curriculum developed was drawn from published and public information about patient navigation, as well as the experiences and expertise of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, the Colorado School of Public Health, the NCCRT Patient Navigation Toolkit Advisory Committee, and over 75 people and organizations who shared their time and expertise. Thank you to all who contributed to the toolkit, and special thanks to NCCRT Steering Committee member Andrea (Andi) Dwyer of the Colorado School of Public Health for her vision and leadership in developing this much requested resource.

View the June 27, 2019 webinar release and download the June 27, 2019 webinar slide deck to learn more. 

Watch the January 10, 2017 webinar introducing the original toolkit for more information.

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Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month Social Media Toolkit – March 2019

This toolkit, developed by the George Washington University (GW) Cancer Center, is designed to help public health professionals establish a Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month social media strategy, implement Facebook and Twitter best practices, disseminate Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month messaging, and manage and evaluate social media efforts.

This toolkit provides a short introduction to use of social media in a health system context, a list of Twitter and Facebook best practices for messages, a list of sample tweets and Facebook posts, other ideas for participating in colorectal cancer awareness month, tips on evaluating social media efforts, and a list of references and other resource links.

Public health professionals, cancer control professionals, coalitions, community-based organizations and stakeholders can all use this toolkit and adapt its messaging for their unique audiences and areas of expertise.

Evaluation: The recommendations and sample messages in the toolkit were designed using evidence-based social media and colorectal cancer messaging best practices.

Evaluation assets: The toolkit includes a section on Measuring Success, which explains how to use analytics to evaluate the impact of social media messages and campaigns.

Permissions: Made publicly available online by the GW Cancer Center.

Publication date: February 2019

Post date: September 2017, revised February 2019

Contact: Send comments, questions, and suggestions to cancercontrol@gwu.edu.

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Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices: A Handbook for Hospitals and Health Systems

The purpose of the Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices: A Handbook for Hospitals and Health Systems is to provide advice on the design and delivery of a variety of effective CRC screening interventions to help all hospitals and health systems strengthen their colorectal cancer screening efforts.  With their expertise in both improving health and in serving as leaders in their communities, hospitals and health systems are uniquely positioned to play a pivotal role in increasing colorectal cancer screening for those they serve.  The handbook is divided into four sections:  Critical Steps, Case Studies, Implementation, and Tools & Resources. It is intended to provide you with needed information drawn from real life examples about how to ultimately improve CRC screening rates within the hospital and health system setting.

A corresponding webinar was held in July 2018 announcing the release of the handbook and included presentations from two health systems featured in the guide. View the Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices for Hospitals and Health Systems webinar.

Many thanks to the hospitals and health systems featured in the guide for sharing their time and their tremendous expertise, as well as to handbook’s expert advisory group, which was chaired by Drs. Michael Potter and Dorothy Lane, Co-Chairs of the NCCRT Professional Education and Practice Implementation Task Group.

This handbook is dedicated to the memory of Marie LaFargue.

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Sample Screening Algorithms

Risk Assessment And Screening Toolkit To Detect Familial, Hereditary And Early Onset Colorectal Cancer

Limited or inaccurate family history collection and risk assessment is a major barrier to successful cancer screening. Individuals who have a first-degree relative with colorectal cancer (CRC) are at least two times more likely to develop CRC, with the risk increasing with earlier ages of diagnosis and the number of relatives diagnosed with CRC. Therefore, screening and prevention efforts must focus on those with familial or hereditary risk, which requires collecting the necessary family history information for risk assessment. Primary care clinicians play a pivotal role in identifying people at increased CRC risk and facilitating recommended screening.

This new NCCRT toolkit aims to improve the ability of primary care clinicians to systematically collect, document, and act on a family history of CRC and adenomas polyps, while also educating clinicians on the need for more timely diagnostic testing for young adults who present with alarm signs or symptoms of CRC and ensuring that those patients receive a proper diagnostic work up. This toolkit serves as a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to improve operations within practices and suggests many useful resources and tools to aid these changes. 

Companion Quick Start Guide

Accompanying the full toolkit is a short, quick start guide with recommendations on how to ease into the transition process, while still making the critical improvements necessary for successful system-wide implementation. 

Thank you to the outstanding work and guidance provided from the NCCRT Family History and Early Age Onset Colorectal Cancer Task Group and the smaller project advisory group. Also, thank you to the excellent work from our project developers at The Jackson Laboratory. 

 

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Guide to the Development of State-Level Colorectal Cancer Coalitions

This guide provides partners with a framework for the development of state-based coalitions focused on colorectal cancer control. The shared 80% colorectal cancer screening goal requires a coordinated approach from various stakeholders committed to the implementation of strategic interventions at state level. This guide highlights lessons learned from five states that have effective, well established collaborations that focus on increasing colorectal cancer screening rates. 

The states highlighted were chosen in consultation with members of the Comprehensive Cancer Control National Partners. While other high performing states could have also been highlighted, these five were chosen because they offer a range of models, funding levels, and diverse approaches. States include: California, Delaware, Kentucky, Minnesota and South Carolina.

The guide is organized around ten recommended tasks that statewide collaborations can consider when seeking to develop a plan of action to advance colorectal cancer control efforts.

Executive Summary and Workbook

The companion workbook provides partners with an abbreviated, yet action-oriented, outline for the development of state-based coalitions focused on colorectal cancer control. This executive summary and workbook complements the expansive findings in the NCCRT’s Guide to the Development of State-Level Colorectal Cancer Coalitions by providing brainstorming prompts, checklists, and frameworks to best prepare you for the rewarding coalition work that awaits.

Each task worksheet linked below is formatted as an interactive PDF and available for individual download to better meet your planning needs. 

1. Prioritize colorectal cancer in their state (Task 1 Worksheet)
2. Establish a structure (Task 2 Worksheet)
3. Develop a vision (Task 3 Worksheet)
4. Recruit leadership and staff (Task 4 Worksheet)
5. Build a network of partners (Task 5 Worksheet)
6. Convene partners (Task 6 Worksheet)
7. Set goals (Task 7 Worksheet)
8. Maintain momentum (Task 8 Worksheet)
9. Get creative with funding and resources (Task 9 Worksheet)
10. Hold the group accountable (Task 10 Worksheet)

 

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evaluation toolkit
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“The 7-step process is helpful. It is a guide/outline that can be used to ensure that you have developed a great program and the ability to evaluate the effectiveness of your program.”

Evaluation Toolkit, Version 4:

How to Evaluate Activities to Increase CRC Screening and Awareness: Evaluation Toolkit – Now With Case Studies That Include Policy and Systems Change!

This latest version of the evaluation toolkit is intended to help organizations and communities evaluate a wide variety of interventions designed to increase awareness and use of colorectal cancer screening. The toolkit will help you learn the seven basic steps to evaluation, whether you are working to increase community demand for colorectal cancer screening, encouraging health care providers to recommend screenings, or trying to implement policy, systems, or environmental (PSE) changes.This toolkit will provide you with:

  • A basic understanding of evaluation strategies.
  • Tools that you can use and adapt to assess baseline screening rates, or the effectiveness or impact of the intervention.
  • Basic skills to collect outcome data to inform and improve decision-making.
  • Tips for incorporating evaluation results into grant proposals, reports, and other dissemination activities.
  • Practical yet comprehensive evaluation references and resources.

Download this comprehensive resource.

Evaluation Tip Sheets – designed to give you a quick overview of the evaluation process.

Click here to download four separate Evaluation 101 learning modules.  These four pre-recorded webinars are designed to walk you through the evaluation process in greater depth.

New! Guidance on Evaluation 80% by 2018 Messaging

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best practices handbook for health plans
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“Thank you! This is exactly the type of information health plans need to pass to one another to improve partnership/collaboration, as the consumer will benefit at the end.”

“I really enjoyed that each of the health plans featured in the toolkit highlights a different intervention or opportunity. That gives our partners many approaches to choose from.”

Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook for Health Plans

Health plans have an essential role to play in the effort to screen more Americans for colorectal cancer, particularly given that seven out of 10 people who are unscreened are covered by insurance.

Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook for Health Plans, provides a first-of-its-kind compilation of best practices, case studies, templates and tools, that will kick start or infuse health plans’ efforts to save more lives and prevent more cancers.

To develop the handbook, the NCCRT convened an advisory group of health plan experts and interviewed high-performing health plans to understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to increasing screening among members. Thank you to the many individuals and organizations who contributed their time and expertise to developing this much requested resource.

In the future, we hope to update this handbook with more case studies from high-performing health plans. If you have a story to share about how your health plan has worked to raise colorectal cancer screening rates, please email nccrt@cancer.org.

NCCRT’s issue brief, The Importance of Waiving Cost-sharing for Follow-up Colonoscopies, provides additional information on the colonoscopy copay issue.

View the March 28, 2017 webinar introducing the Handbook for a guided tour of the best practices, case studies, and templates and tools found within the handbook, and hear from one of the profiled health plans.

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CRC Communications Guidebook
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80% by 2018 Communications Guidebook: Recommended Messaging to Reach the Unscreened

This Guidebook is based on market research from the American Cancer Society with guidance from the NCCRT Public Awareness Task Group. The Guidebook is designed to help educate, empower and mobilize three key audiences who are not getting screened for colorectal cancer:

  • The newly insured
  • The insured, procrastinator/rationalizer
  • The financially challenged

The goal of the Guidebook is to share what we know about reaching these hard-to-persuade groups using tested messages.

The 2017 Guidebook includes additional templates, tools and customized resources. (Note: Some versions of Internet Explorer create errors in the document. If you experience problems please use an alternate browser, such as Firefox or Google Chrome.)

The Hispanics/Latinos and Colorectal Cancer Companion Guide and Asian Americans and Colorectal Cancer Companion Guide introduce market research about the unscreened from these populations and include tested messages in Spanish and several Asian languages.

Use the following tools to help you promote and evaluate 80% by 2018 communications:

The Guidebook reviews what we know from market research about the unscreened and introduces and explains new tested messages. It also provides tools with the messages incorporated to get you started:

Our hope is that partners can take this research and messages provided in the Guidebook and make the message resonate with the target audiences even more by using their own creativity, innovation and spokespersons.

View the following webinars to learn more about the market research that went into this work, and the tools that are available.

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Asian Americans and Colorectal Cancer Companion Guide

The Asian Americans and Colorectal Cancer Companion Guide is a supplement to the 80% by 2018 Communications Guidebook, created in 2015 and updated in February 2017. This Companion Guide, based on both qualitative and quantitative research, seeks to provide advice about how to communicate about colorectal cancer screening with seven Asian American subgroups. The Companion Guide includes:

  • Perceptions about colorectal cancer and barriers to screening among unscreened Asian Americans
  • Recommendations for reaching unscreened Asian Americans
  • Tested messages in several Asian languages

Visit the the 80% by 2018 Communications Guidebook to find additional tools and resources to help you promote and evaluate your communications. Find additional guidance on communications for Hispanics/Latinos in the Hispanics/Latinos and Colorectal Cancer Companion Guide.

View the February 9th, 2017 webinar introducing the Asian Americans Companion Guide and new communications tools.