As long as I can remember, April has been recognized nationally as Daffodil month. Pins and flowers are sold across Canada to raise funds and awareness for cancer. This year I was fortunate enough to spend the tail end of April in Vancouver BC with cancer researchers, health care providers, community organizations, advocates and patients at the Canadian Association for Psychosocial Oncology (CAPO) annual conference.

This year’s theme was Shifting Paradigms: New Directions in Psychosocial Oncology. While the conference was fantastic, spanning 2.5 very full days with 8 streams of talks, symposia and workshops, my favorite part was my participation in a pre-conference afternoon meeting with Canadian Psychosocial Oncology Partners (CPOP). CPOP is about connecting, collaborating, sharing and creating. It is ‘an online space created to serve community based organizations, health care professionals and researchers engaged in psychosocial oncology care’. Every year, members of CPOP gather immediately preceding or following the CAPO conference for a half-day to brainstorm, share and expand what CPOP has to offer. Themes are addressed by way of short presentations and break out groups broadly addressing ‘what next?’, ‘what else can we do?’, ‘who else can we serve?’, ‘who aren’t we serving and why?’, ‘how can we expand our reach’ and ‘how can we support one another?’

Again this year, the meetings were magnificently led by Lynne Robinson and Rob Rutledge with Jan Matthews (CPOP’s very own ‘Radar O’Reilly') making it all happen. While this is only my second year working with this group, I continue to be impressed by the dedication and commitment demonstrated by each individual. I am honored to have a front seat to witness the progress that is made yearly and am excited to watch the future plans of CPOP online. I encourage you to bookmark their site and check it often!

posted by Heather Palmer, May 4th, 2012