Cancer Council of Australia - Case Study Example

Running header: Cancer Council of Australia Student’s name: Instructor’s name Subject code: Date of submission: THE CANCER COUNCIL AUSTRALIA INTRODUCTION The Cancer Council Australia is a non-profit organization (NGO) based in Australia. It deals with matters relating to the control of cancer. These maters include the prevention, detection and the treatment of cancer among the patients. The vision of the council is to minimize the threat of cancer to Australians through successful prevention, best treatment and support facilities and programs. The mission of the council is to lead a cohesive approach to reduce the impact of cancer. The vision and mission statements of the council are the driving forces of the company in the achievement of its intended goals and impact to the society. Under the leadership of the organization chief executive officer (CEO), Professor Ian Olver, it has soared to great heights. He is one of the most respected medical oncologists in the country. HISTORY The Cancer Council Australia was founded back in the year 1961. When it was founded, it was known as the Australia Cancer Society. Its formation was as a result of the merging of six different State Cancer Councils. The merger made the cancer society a national organization which had more resources and an even greater reach than the earlier founding councils. In the year 1997, eight jurisdictional members came to an agreement on the expansion of the society. This came with the renaming of the council to the Cancer Council Australia from the previous name of the Australian Cancer Society. Preceding its formation, the Australia Cancer Society had an aim of helping in the formulation and in the maintenance of an overall national reach. Its focus was only on cancer and cancer related issues and this has been the continued trend to date. Over the recent past, the Cancer Council has played an important role in the education of the general public on matters pertaining to cancer. This includes the preventive measures, hygienic foods, safe lifestyles and cancer free trends and patterns of life. As a result of this, it has emerged to be the leading national non-governmental cancer control organization. Through this, it has acquired recognition and respect from all governmental and non-governmental bodies. As a result of this, different bodies seek advice and information pertaining to cancer from the Cancer Council Australia. Advice is offered through a network of committees which advice the organization on what it sees as being the most pressing and vital of urgencies. The strength of the organization comes from its deep rooting in both the local, the regional and even the international organizations. This makes it easy for it to embrace the difference that comes with this different localities and trends. The benefits that arise out of this are very many to all the parties concerned. The Council is considered as being at the front in the use of research based evidence and as a result of this, it has come up to be seen as the most powerful and an unbiased source of cancer and skin care information available in the whole country. Research has shown that Australia has the highest cases of skin cancer in the world. Arising from this, the council has tried to its level best to see to it that information is provided to the people in Australia both local and visitors regarding to cancer prevention and in the minimization of the threat of skin damage and also the developing of other skin related cancers. The high cases of skin cancer arise from the fact that the country experiences high degrees of sunlight exposure for the better part of the year. The fact that the presence of the sun is a natural occurrence, it means that the degree of prevention from such exposure is minimal as compared to other artificial sources. As such, the council is very crucial in the strategies that are used in the prevention of occurrence of cancers. It has also played an important part in the advocating for the rights of the cancer infected and effected people for the highest possible levels and standards of treatment and supportive care. The organization has different services which make it complete and well established. They include; a. Research The cancer council has emerged to be the leading cancer research funder in the country. Research is very crucial in arriving at answers to the questions arising from cancer related issues. A good indicator of the fact that the Cancer Council Australia is a good funder of the research is the fact that in theyear 2014, research grants through the Cancer Council funded $42.9 million towards research. This shows the big part player by the council towards research on cancer. Research is very crucial to any organization in order to arrive at better ways and faster strategies to deal with a thing which affects a person of a society. In this case, research is very crucial so as to identify the habits and ways which increase the rate of the spread of the disease. It is also crucial in arriving at better ways to curb the effects of the disease. b. Information The Cancer Council Australia provides evidence based information which is up to date about all aspects of cancer. It is believed that information is the strongest weapon that a person can possess against something that affects them. As such, through the passing of crucial information and the availing of relevant facts and figures to the people, they will be better placed to deal with the occurrence and the effects of cancer. People with adequate knowledge about something are better placed to deal with it once it occurs or once the chances of its occurrence are high. Through educating the people about cancer, they will be better placed to well protect themselves and how to reduce the rates of prevalence of the disease. Such information is provided to various parties. Such parties includes; 1. Doctors together with other such health professionals- this information is crucial to them to help in the prevention, detection and the treatment of cancer and cancer related infections. Through the availing of such information to the doctors, they will be well placed to put in place the best procedures they can to control the spread and also the effects of the cancer disease. 2. Cancer patients and the general community- this information if very crucial to them due to the fact that they are able to derive and get advice and information about cancer from it. Research has shown that more than 100,000 Australians contact cancer councils in the country every year to get advice and information. Through adequate awareness, the patients will be better placed to deal with the disease and how to prevent its spread. Research has shown that well educated people are better placed to deal and to reduce the occurrence and the spread of the disease. Provision of information henceis in line with the vision of the council of minimizing the threat of cancer to Australians, through successful prevention, best treatment and support facilities. This is only made possible with the availing of the required resources. c. Prevention The organization puts into use the early detection and prevention programs which have an aim of helping people in reducing cancer causing behavior. Such habits that cause cancer include smoking, consumption of some foods, the sun exposure and lack of physical body exercise. Through the identification of such habits, the organization has offered advice on how the habits and behavior can be changes in order to reduce the risk of contracting cancer to the people. They include the application of such steps as the reduction of smoking levels among the people, the consumption of healthy foods which are not junk and are cancer free, introduction of sun protection measures. Due to the fact that Australia has the highest cases of skin cancer in the world, the need for putting in place protective measures arises. Statistics shows that in the year 2011 alone, more than 2000 Australians succumbed to skin cancer. This and other high cases have necessitated the council to increase services such as guidance to the people on how to protect themselves from such. Advice in this case is on the amount of sun needed by an individual and how they will protect themselves from getting too much exposure from the sun. There is also the encouragement of people to engage in physical activities and exercise which will enable their bodies to be physically fit and hence reduce the chance of the occurrence of cancer and other related diseases. All these have played an important part in the prevention of the occurrence of cancer and other cancer related ailments. To facilitate its protection procedures, the council has developed offering of high quality, affordable sun protection products which enables the people to stay safe from the rays of the sun which are cancer causing. Through the prevention strategies of the disease, the cancer council believes that it will be able to reduce the cases of cancer and the degree of prevalence among the people of Australia. d. External relationships The council seeks to develop, investigate and promote cancer control strategies. This has been see to it through the facilitation of partnerships and ongoing relationships with organizations. They include other affiliations and partnerships, government partnerships and other international alliances such as the World Health Organization (WHO). Through such affiliations, the council is able to improve its reach and how it gets in contact with the people. It also gets access to crucial information about cancer and research about it such as from the World Health Organization. e. Patient support The cancer councils help in the promotion of a customer support network. This is usually through the formation of support groups, services and support programs. This is usually to help in the improvement of the welfare of the cancer patients. Welfare in this case refers to the quality of life of the patients. They also seek to improve the life of their families and of those who care for them. Through the improvement of the levels of morale among the patients of cancer and also those who are affected by the disease, it is expected that the people would make the most out of their lives. Through this, they would be of benefit to not only themselves but also to the government and the general society around them. Through this also, they would foster economic growth and similarly an improvement in their living standards as individuals. f. Treatment The council has established a wide network all over the country. This network is comprised of various health professions. The clinical guidelines network (CGN) seeks to provide the best possible evidence based treatment and care to patients suffering from cancer. The organization is also in close collaboration with clinical partners in order to ensure there is complete incorporation of the best advice possible to the patients. Advice in this case is in both treatment in the medical and scientific disciplines. g. Sun protection products The Cancer Council Australia also market a variety of high qualityaffordable sun protection products. These include sun screens, sun glasses, protective clothes, beach shelters and other cosmetics which have sun protection. The income received from the sale of such is used by the organization to finance its activities. As earlier stated, Australia has the highest cases of skin cancer in the world. All these is attributed to the sun as the main cause. This is the main reason underlying the council putting in place the production and the selling of such things as protective wear and sunscreen to the people. This is in line with the mission of the council of reducing the rate of contraction of skin cancer. This is in line with the saying that prevention is better than cure. The production and sales of the products are beneficial to the company in two different ways. First, it helps in the reduction of the cases of cancer occurrence in the country. Second, it helps the council in raising revenue from the income received from the sales. This revenue enables it to run its daily activities and other funding procedures. h. Networks The council has also sought to strengthen the networks which it has with other bodies and organizations. They include better relationships with both the national and the international cancer organizations. This is in a bid to help further the shared objectives which they have. Through coming together with organizations with similar interests, it becomes easy to undertake tasks and to fulfil certain set objectives. It also becomes easy and faster to contain the spread of cancer among people. Through coming together, there develops a state of pooling together of resources amongthe organizations. Through bringing together of resources, research undertaken becomes easy, faster and even more accurate than that conducted with the absence of such resources. i. Advocacy The Cancer Council Australia offers advisory services to the government on the need of all the stakeholders and their relevance in the carrying out of organizational tasks. Through this, the stakeholders are accorded all the recognition which they deserve and they are able to develop a unified voice so as to demand for improved cancer control policies based ion the evidence which is provided. Through the recognition of the stakeholders, they feel motivated even to undertake the tasks even better and with improved vigor. The council also oversees the publishing of the National Cancer Prevention Policy which advocates for the concerted and comprehensive national approach towards the prevention of the occurrence of cancer. The policy sees to it the setting of specific recommendations which are for national action by both the governmental and the non-governmental organizations. This includes also the strategies set to reduce the incidence and spread of cancer cases. FUNDING The council gets funding from different sources. The main source of funding for the main activities of the council comes through membership subscriptions. These are subscriptions which are paid by the member bodies which make it up. These are the eight Cancer councils which came together to form the Cancer Council Australia. They cover the whole part of the country. Over the recent past, the subscriptions received from the members have grown significantly. This can be attributed mainly to the funding of the national priority driven cancer research grants and the projects of standardization of the national cancer publications and massive increases witnessed in the benchmarking activities. Other funds have also been received from the government. This is in order to assist it with the progressive transition of the printed cancer guidelines which it possesses to an online environment. This is due to the fact that the government believes that by putting the guidelines in an online environment, more people and audience will access it. By accessing it vital information can be passed to them. The internet over the recent past has been subject to much growth and development. This has been to the benefit of such organizations as the council. This is because it can pass useful information about cancer prevention, detection, testing and treatment to the customers. FUNDRAISING AND PARTNERSHIPS The council organizes events, receives donations and also works with corporate partners so as to raise the resources and money required to support and control the activities of the company. Through this, it earns income on behalf of all its members which are the eights state and territory cancer councils. The funds that are received are directed back to the member councils in order to support their education, research and other patient support programs. In the year 2012, the income of the organization grew by over 40% which was equivalent to $3.2million to $10.8 million. This was quite a significant growth for the incomes of the organization. The growth can be termed as a result of gifts and bequests each of which exceeded $1million. The growth is also as a result of increased income from the licensed products of the organization and also from higher rates of workplace giving. This giving comprise of the amounts of revenue which are generated by long standing corporate partners of the council. The biggest portion of the Cancer CouncilAustralia comes from corporate partnerships. These include the support for the national fundraising events. In such events, a percentage of the sales made from the products are donated to the Cancer Council and workplace giving. The council also receives gifts and general donations from the general public and also from other parties. Graphs of the performance of the council show clearly that the amounts received by the council form bequests and donations have been consistently growing over the years. This translates to increases in the incomes earned by the council over that period of time. Over time, the Cancer council has put in place some long term measures to assists it in its operations and in the fulfilment of the vision and the mission of the organization. In the period between 2013 and 2014, the organization was involved in the development and the promotion of evidence based actions in order to reduce the incidence of cancer in the Australian society. They included among others the advocating for a fast-tracked National Bowel Cancer Screening program. This was a long term project which is set to be completed by the year 2020. The council believes that with the maturity of this program, it will have made massive strides in the fight against cancer. This would be through the putting in place of adequate screening and testing services along with proper treatment procedures for those adjudged to have the disease. The council also seeks to put in place a public campaign to increase the participation in cancer screening programs. It is believed that with more people turning up for the screening programs, the early stages of development of cancer will be identified and treated without delays. The earlier the better is the slogan used to refer to the screening process of cancer. This is where early detection turns out to be safe and better for people who might have contracted cancer. A range of measures have also been set out by the council in bid to reduce cancer deaths in the country and disease caused by smoking. Smokingis one of the main causes of cancer in the world. The council has as a result of this put in place such procedures as to educate the people on the effects of smoking in their health. This has been through advertisements to the press and also in newspapers. Through educating of the public, the council believes that this will be very crucial for them and will eventually result to a general reduction in the cases of smoking. The council has also initiated a program whereby it encourages clearer labelling of food substances and the verification of claims arising out of health so as to encourage the people to make even healthier choices of the food they consume. The council has also widened its scope of education to the public in order to improve the behaviors of the people on sun protection. The sun being the main cause of skin cancers which are prevalent in Australia, it is crucial for the people to put in place strategies to facilitate their protection from such dangerous ultra violet rays of the sun. Education includes advice on the rightful protective wear and garments, sunscreen lotions and sun glasses use. Through this, the cases of skin cancer will gradually reduce. The council has also put in place strategies to reduce exposure to carcinogens in the work places and homes. Through the control of exposure, the cases of cancer arising from these will also reduce. All the above stated strategies have been put in place to see to it that there is a reduction in the cases of cancer among the people. The council has first identified the main causes of cancer as carcinogens, the sun, unhealthy foods, and smoking among many others. Through paying attention on this, it is assured that there will be a great success in the cases of cancer among the people and this is expected to decrease over the period of time. Through this hence, the disease will be controlled from its roots. Through this, much progress is assured and the council is more prone to succeed in its pursuit against the disease cancer. Through all this strategies and procedures, the council can hence be described as a timely organization to deal with the effects and the control of cancer occurrence. It has put in place procedures that seek at reducing the rates of occurrence of cancer. Through a goal oriented management hierarchy, it strives to its level best through leaps and bounds to see to it that its operations are in line with the mission and the vision statements of the organization. Being a non-profit organization, its sole reason of existence is for the benefit of the general public. The benefits in this case can be seen by all people. Reduction in the cases of new cancer infections means that there will be a reduction in the cancer related deaths which have been on the rise. Similarly, due to the fact that Australia is the most affected by skin cancer diseases, the products of the organization which include sun glasses, sun screen and sun shades are very crucial for the people of the country. This is due to the fact that they will reduce the rate of exposure of the people to the sun and hence a reduction in the cases of skin cancer. The organization also focuses on the provision of education to the general public on cancer, to prevent it, detect and treat it. The importance of such information is much to the people and theusers of the information. By putting the information in online sites, it helps increase the accessibility to the information and also the audience. Increase of knowledgeto the users of the information about cancer makes them to have an upper hand in the strategies aimed at prevention and control of the disease. It is through this strategies that the council has emerged to become a force to reckon with in the cancer prevention and treatment program. The success it has made to date is visible for all and sundry. The success it has achieved to date is all attributable to the strong relationship which exists between the staff and the management of the organization. They have improved their closeness and interaction and this has made goal attainment for the company an easy task to fulfill. Through well maintaining the staff and motivating better performance from them, they have reaped the best from the m. the best quality self-driven and self-initiated service is all they can boast of from the staff. The staff in this case refers to those in the various departments of the organization. The recruitment process of the staff if a competitive one and this helps in increasing the levels of accountability. The Cancer Council Australia is hence an organization which can be defined as one in course to fulfill its promises to the people of Australia. It is an organization that is in line to attain its set objectives which includes the reduction of the cases of cancer in the country. Steered by a powerful management team and well comprised of optimistic, self-driven and well-motivated human resource team, the organization is optimistic of attaining the best it can and reaching its full potential and get the best results it can. It believes that according to the trends being shown by the data, it is in line with getting to the best possible levels it can. The organization believes that journeys of thousand miles begins with a single step and on their part, they have made many strides in the fight against cancer. This hence shows clearly that they will put the issues in hand under control and with time will curb and counter the effects, and spread of the killer disease. REFERENCES CANCER COUNCIL AUSTRALIA. (2000). Cancer Council Australia. Sydney, N.S.W., The Council. CANCER COUNCIL AUSTRALIA.(2001). National cancer prevention policy, 2001-03. Sydney, N.S.W., Cancer Council Australia. CANCER COUNCIL AUSTRALIA. (2001). Working together against cancer. Sydney, The Cancer Council Australia. CANCER COUNCIL AUSTRALIA. (2000). Annual review. Sydney, The Council. CANCER COUNCIL AUSTRALIA, & CANCER COUNCIL VICTORIA.(2004). National cancer prevention policy 2004-06. Sydney, Cancer Council Australia. CANCER COUNCIL AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN CANCER NETWORK, & NATIONAL HEALTH AND MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (AUSTRALIA).(2004). Clinical practice guidelines for the prevention, diagnosis, and management of lung cancer. Sydney, Cancer Council Australia. CANCER COUNCIL AUSTRALIA.(2009). Annual review.http://www.cancer.org.au/about- us/annual-review.html. Read More