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Service Development Initiatives - Mainstreaming Genetics

 

Cancer Genetics Pilots (Macmillan Projects)

Macmillan Cancer Relief and the Department of Health jointly funded seven pilot projects, which developed appropriate services for people who were at risk of cancer due to a familial genetic link.

 

Background

The Macmillan projects aimed to:

  • Raise awareness amongst the local health community with a series of workshops.
  • Train GPs and other healthcare staff to take a family history.
  • Be able to identify patient risk.

The projects worked in different and varied geographical areas, from a rural population through to an urban, ethnically diverse one. Clinical topics covered in the projects included:

  • Conventional face-to-face counselling service.
  • Telephone triage service.
  • Raising awareness in black and ethnic minority groups who were generally not accessing cancer genetics.
  • Establishing GPs with a special interest in genetics.

A national user group was established, bringing together both users and carers from across England. This group helped ensure that patients were at the 'heart' of the services developed.

 

Outcomes from the cancer genetics pilot projects

In developing these services, new roles and responsibilities were devised that required supporting programmes of education and training. The Centre worked with the Macmillan projects to draw together their experience in these aspects and the finding from this work, 'Competences, education and support for new roles in cancer genetics services: outcomes from the cancer genetics pilot projects', has been published in Familial Cancer 6(2): 171-180.

 

 

Last updated: 13 October 2011

Genetics in Practice