Public Health Action Model for Cancer Survivorship

Long-term objectives associated with cancer survivors have been suggested by Healthy People 2020, including increasing the proportion of survivors living beyond 5 years after diagnosis and improving survivors’ mental and physical health-related quality of life. Prior to reaching these objectives, several intermediate steps must be taken to improve the physical, social, emotional, and financial well-being of cancer survivors. Public health has a role in developing strategic, actionable, and measurable approaches to facilitate change at multiple levels to improve the lives of survivors and their families. The social ecological model has been used by the public health community as the foundation of multilevel intervention design and implementation, encouraging researchers and practitioners to explore methods that promote internal and external changes at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy levels. The survivorship community, including public health professionals, providers, policymakers, survivors, advocates, and caregivers, must work collaboratively to identify, develop, and implement interventions that benefit cancer survivors. The National Action Plan for Cancer Survivorship highlights public health domains and associated strategies that can be the impetus for collaboration between and among the levels in the social ecological model and are integral to improving survivor outcomes. This paper describes the Public Health Action Model for Cancer Survivorship, an integrative framework that combines the National Action Plan for Cancer Survivorship with the social ecological model to demonstrate how interaction among the various levels may promote better outcomes for survivors.