Lions Prostate Cancer Awareness Projects

Introduction

The Lions Australian Prostate Cancer website is a partnership between Australian Prostate Cancer Collaboration (APCC) and Lions Australia that has been in place since 2000.

For the bulk of those ten years Lions Australia has funded the annual upkeep of that website to the tune of many thousands of dollars, continuing the Lions commitment to the Australian community. The latest annual website report gives an insight into how valued that support has been.

Website Activity

The site offers basic information on prostate cancer, a news section, contacts for support groups throughout Australia, information on accessing treatment and an online helpline ('Ask Andy'). It is updated regularly. Three months after it was first launched in April 2000, the site had 2,300 unique visitor sessions per month and 58,000 hits. This has grown to 25,000 plus visitor sessions per month and over 300,000 hits. The site was redesigned in 2007 so that a flatter and more efficient structure made navigation is easier, and new features were added, such as the 'Timeline' which points to helpful information at different decision points in the journey. The average time visitors spend on the site in one session is 10-29 minutes.

The News section ('What’s Hot') is updated weekly and is the most frequently visited section. The Prostate Health Improvement Program (PHIP) materials which provide information useful at each stage of the disease, beginning with whether and when to be tested, was the next most popular. The first two issues of the PHIP series are available in 7 languages. The pages most frequently used, apart from English pages were the Polish, Croatian and Italian versions and have been frequently downloaded.

Nearly 3 gigabyte of information (70-80 files) has been downloaded from the site monthly, with the most popular resource being the Localised Prostate Cancer: a guide for men and their families. This resource is also in great demand in hard copy (over 100,000 copies distributed), and is commonly used by urologists for their newly diagnosed patients.

Online Helpline

Questions submitted to the online helpline 'Ask Andy' peaked in 2007. This may reflect the increasing number of already published questions and answers on the site (now around 1,500 questions with answers). These are searchable and grouped under topic headings (e.g. PSA level and prostate cancer, treatment for prostate cancer, treatment side effects, advanced prostate cancer, diet and prostate cancer).

APCC completed an evaluation of the Ask Andy questions. The purpose of the evaluation was to find if the question topics reflected particular unmet needs for prostate cancer information in the community.

APCC found that the great majority of questions (85%) were from or related to a man who had seen a doctor about prostate cancer. Many of the questions were about clarifying the clinical information men had received. Some were looking for new information. The most common question topics were interpreting the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) or digital rectal examination (DRE) tests, treatment and treatment side effects for localised and advanced prostate cancer. APCC felt that men needed more time with their clinical team to understand these issues, particularly before making decisions in relation to treatment.

The Lions Australian Website has helped men with prostate cancer, their partners, daughters and sons, as well as those concerned about prostate cancer. The APCC estimates that up to 600,000 men and their families have sought help from the site over its 10 years of operation. The internet is increasing in importance as a way of finding health information, support and access to services. The need for authoritative websites such as this one is therefore likely to increase.

Andrology Australia

By Council resolution as from 1 January 2010 the Lions Australian Prostate Awareness Website will be maintained by Andrology Australia, a Commonwealth funded NGO. There will be no obvious change to the website; there will also be no change to the management of visitor enquiries. However, Andrology Australia with the approval of Council can offer Clubs and Districts additional printed resources, not only on prostate cancer, but other men’s health issue. These resources can be single publications, or packs suitable for distribution at forums and convention.
For enquires regarding printed resources please contact Andrology Australia direct on: -

Tel: 1300 303 878

Email: info@andrologyaustralia.org

Website: www.andrologyaustralia.org

Online order of resources: www.andrologyaustralia.org/dbOrderResources.asp?pageCode=ORDERRESCOURCES

How Can Clubs Help

Donations can be made through me as chairman at

PO Box 760,
WODEN ACT 2606, or directly to the Multiple District Office in Newcastle

Ron Skeen
Chairperson

Lions Australian Prostate Cancer Website: www.prostatehealth.org.au