Table of Contents
The sun smart program aim is to minimize the threat of skin cancer to Australians through prevention. They funded by the cancer council research and provide information and support for all affected by skin cancer. Through the use of the action areas of the Ottawa Charter and the Cancer Council research these stats can be reduced and people can be educated about skin cancer and all of its risk factors.
Creating supportive environments and Strengthen community action are the two significant action areas when relating to skin cancer. This is because it shows linkage to the Sun Smart program in preventing and reducing the incidence of skin cancer.
Building healthy public policy
BHPP refers to the government intervention concerning policies and legislation and emphasizes that individuals need to recognize the consequences of their decisions and accept their responsibility towards health. Such policies include compulsory advertisement like ‘No hat, no play’ regulations in schools prevent the onset of skin cancer. The Sun Smart program builds healthy public policy regarding skin cancer by reinforcing the message of protecting yourself against the sun as well as the policies within each environmental area.
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Creating supportive environments
CSE is vital in regards to decreasing the burden of cancer by creating environments where people feel comfortable in making health decisions without compromising themselves. It also maintain support for people in Australia
The Sun smart program creates supportive environments by reminding the community about skin cancer through visual representation on billboards or short videos.
Strengthen community action
SCA helps empower the community and help utilize the resources in the community to enhance self- help and social support by improving public participation in establishing healthy choices. Such as local pools are involving in adding additional shading to reduce the risk of sunburn.
Example of SCA is commercial which reinforce the message to stay protected from the sun. The advertisement’s main message is ‘No tan is worth dying for‘, which features of Clare Oliver who had stage four skin cancer talked about her sun exposure and desire for a tan and that it’s not worth to risk. In Clare’s own words, ‘choose life, choose to be fair’.
Her story is then turn into advertisement on skin cancer would have an impact on young people more broadly and therefore have a greater public health impact. People would start to understand how big a burden skin cancer really is and encourages them to come together to prevent it.
Developing personal skills
DPS health promotion refers to the education and development of healthy personal skills to exercise control over their own health environments and to make better health choices. The Slip Slop Slap Seek Slide campaign develops personal skills to specifically reduce the risk of skin cancer by informing the community about the risk of excess sun exposure and what the underlying facts about skin cancer are. The campaign also shows the ways to prevent skin cancer (using protection and seeking shade) and what you should be doing in order to protect yourself and prevent skin cancer.
Promoting this can be done by mass media including newspapers, TV ads or radio advertisements provide deeper understanding of the risk skin cancer and ways to personally take action and decrease the risk for yourself or others around you.
Overall, the Sun smart program has proved to be both effective and ineffective. It has been ineffective in the sense people’s attitude and chooses to ignore the campaign’s attempts at keeping them protected from sun exposure. Through, the campaign has proven to be quite effective. Due to the increase awareness of risk factors and appearance of skin cancer, improved technology and the survival rate increased has due to education.
References
- Cancer Council Australia
- SunSmart
- Australian Government Department of Health – Skin Cancer
- National Center for Biotechnology Information – Skin Cancer Prevention and Control
- Mayo Clinic – Skin Cancer
- SunSmart NSW
- Skin Cancer Foundation
- PubMed – Skin Cancer Awareness and Prevention in Australia: An Overview of Progress and Current Efforts
- Google Scholar – Skin Cancer Prevention in Australia
