BETTER Women
It’s true. There’s a lot you can do to reduce your cancer risk.
Canadian Cancer Society recognizes that healthy behaviour changes can be difficult to achieve alone. That’s why we worked with Women’s College Hospital and Peter Gilgan Foundation to offer the BETTER Women program.
BETTER Women was a free program that provided support to women aged 40-68 to take control of their health to prevent chronic disease, including cancer. The program offered personalized medical advice about chronic disease prevention and virtual access to a Peer Health Coach (PHC) for up to six months. Peer health coaches received specialized training to help program participants to reach and maintain their health and cancer screening goals.
The program was offered by three sites:
Barrie and Community Family Health Team: Family Medicine Teaching Unit
Summerville Family Health Team
Women’s College Hospital Family Practice Health Centre
Participants:
Worked with a prevention practitioner at their site to identify personal and modifiable health and screening goals
Engaged on a regular basis with a peer health coach who was similar in gender, age and location, and who had lived experience setting personal health goals like getting active and quitting smoking
Since the start of the program in April 2020, CCS has onboarded and trained 85 Peer Health Coaches, 268 participants across the 3 sites joined the program and 143of those participants choose to use the support of PHC.
“If it weren’t for the weekly calls, I would not have met my goals, accountability to someone plays a huge role!”
-BETTER Women Participant
“It’s a wonderful preventative strategy. I think it’s cost-effective, a lot of people struggle with behaviours and just having someone to talk to about it, hopefully can make a difference and particularly those who may not be able to afford personal coaching.”
-BETTER Women Peer Health Coach
To learn more about the journey of BETTER Women from the research team and Peer Health Coaches, watch the video below and look for the BETTER Women 5-part podcast series on Matters of Engagement Podcast
CCS is proud to continue this impactful work through the BETTER for All which is a free program designed to support racialized communities and newcomers to Canada in reducing the risk of chronic diseases, including cancer through access to Prevention Practitioners and Peer Health Coaches. For more information and to apply for this program, please visit the BETTER For All webpage.
To find your place at CCS with a volunteer experience that best suits you, visit Get Involved Volunteer, it takes all of us to take on cancer. Volunteer with us.
Partners
BETTER Women is a partnership between the Canadian Cancer Society and Women's College Hospital. BETTER Women is made possible through joint funding from the Canadian Cancer Society, the Peter Gilgan Foundation, Women’s College Hospital Foundation and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
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