There is increasing acceptance that avoidable and unjust differences in health status cannot be explained by genetics, biology, and individual behavior or choices. To achieve broad health equity in oncology and beyond, healthcare workers must attend to the structural forces, including structural racism and ethnocentrism, that shape health outcomes. This presentation is an overview of structural competency, a shift in healthcare training from individual patient or provider factors toward attention to forces that influence health outcomes at levels above the individual. We will cover structural

In this talk, Lorelei Bonet will propose a model of work that she has been developing that she calls “HeartWork”. To do “HeartWork”, one does not view “self-care” as outside of, but rather very much as part of how we craft and perform our jobs on a daily basis. It seeks to position the work of the oncology social worker as reciprocal—with the ability to replenish and restore, not merely or exclusively to drain. Using literature from the fields of Social Work, Nursing, Chaplaincy, and Industrial Psychology, Lorelei Bonet would like to explore how and to what extent the unique challenges of our

In this interactive session, attendees will learn more about the history of medical mistrust in various communities, hear about current research being conducted in the areas of medical mistrust, and share their own experiences with fostering and maintaining rapport and trust.

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Despite our best efforts, it continues to be difficult for people to access palliative care across the disease trajectory, as palliative care is often conflated with end-of-life care by US healthcare professionals as well as patients and families. If you are poor, speak a language other than English, identify as a person of color, or are part of a marginalized group, access happens very late in the disease process if at all.  For people with cancer, it becomes very complicated as it is rarely suggested when they are receiving "aggressive" treatment. Oncology social workers occupy a critical

Are you interested in providing better care for sexual and gender minority cancer patients but don't know where to start? This session will be an overview of different issues sexual and gender minority patients can present with and basic steps providers should have in place to help counter discrimination-related disparities experienced by this population. The session will review what is known about increased physical and especially psychosocial risks for this population; how that constellation of experiences creates differential care considerations; how medical mistrust and social support are