Get involved in shaping better access to lung cancer checks and diagnosis for adults living with serious mental illness in South East London. Your experiences can help reduce health inequalities and improve how services work – from early screening to diagnosis and support.
Do you have a diagnosed serious mental illness (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or psychosis)?
Do you have a history of smoking?
Have you previously been referred for lung cancer screening or received a lung cancer diagnosis and been referred to a cancer treatment pathway in Greenwich or Lambeth?
If so, we would love to hear from you.
This is an exploratory study investigating what barriers may exist for people with a serious mental illness when accessing lung cancer pathways for screening, that may contribute to delayed diagnosis and worse treatment outcomes. This study has been funded by the South East London Cancer Alliance and independently reviewed by the NHS Ethics Committee.
What we are doing
In South East London, cancer is the largest cause of premature death for people living with a serious mental illness, with lung cancer mortality found to be highest in this group locally. We would like to understand service users’ experiences of being referred for lung cancer screening and where relevant, diagnostic or treatment pathways. This will help us to understand what needs to be done to address barriers and ensure early lung cancer diagnosis for people with serious mental illness. We hope that addressing the barriers will lead to improvements in treatment outcomes, quality of life and reduce cancer mortality for this population.
What we are looking for
We are running a series of focus groups to find out more about people’s experiences.
To take part you must:
- be aged 18 or over
- be diagnosed with a serious mental illness
- have a history of smoking
- have been referred for lung cancer screening or have received a lung cancer diagnosis and referred to a cancer treatment pathway within Greenwich or Lambeth
What to expect if you take part
- Invitation to either a virtual (via MS Teams) or in-person focus group session (with up to five other people in attendance, plus the facilitators)
- The focus group will run for approximately 90 minutes, where you will be invited to share your views regarding a range of questions related to the aims of this project
- Refreshments will be provided at in-person sessions
- You will be reimbursed £20 for your time, either into your bank account if you are happy to share those details with us, or with an All-in-one voucher (digital or physical)
- Your participation in this focus group will be confidential and anonymous
When will the groups take place?
The groups will be a mixture of in-person and online to ensure they are as accessible as possible.
Thursday 28th August, 10.30am – 12.00 noon and 3.30pm – 5.00pm (WSUP, 107 Brookhill Road, Woolwich, London SE18 6BJ)
Monday 1st September, 3.30pm – 5.00pm (online)
Wednesday 3rd September – 10.30am – 12.00 noon (Ground Floor, Counting House, Guy’s Hospital, SE1 9RT)
Thursday 4th September, 3.00pm – 4.30pm (online)
How do I sign up to attend a session?
To register, please fill out this short form. Participation will be granted on a first come, first served basis. The deadline to register is the 25th August, or once all spaces have been filled.
If you have any questions, please email getinvolved@wsupwoolwich.org or call 020 8316 6558.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this opportunity.
Find out more about the Mind & Body programme.
Photo by Kenny Eliason on Upsplash