Welcome to Cancerandwork.ca
Cancer and work is a team collaboration directed by Dr. Christine Maheu, from McGill University, and Ms. Maureen Parkinson, from the British Columbia Cancer Agency and a working and an advisory group.
The working and advisory group members are made up of cancer survivors, interdisciplinary clinicians, legal experts, management and policymakers, and academics who contribute to the content of the website.
The website provides detailed information and resources about returning to work for cancer survivors, healthcare providers, and employers. We continue to develop and test new resources on topics such as support for returning to work, staying or leaving work, and managing challenges after returning to work. We welcome your suggestions for improving the website and new topics to cover. Contact us to send your ideas and feedback.
The initial development of Cancer and Work was made possible through financial support from Health Canada and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer. The views expressed herein represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Health Canada or the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer.
To help maintain, update, expand the website, and provide work-focused programs for cancer survivors, please consider donating to Cancer and Work.
Cancer and Work Co-Directors
| Christine Maheu |
RN, Ph.D. – Associate Professor, McGill University Co-Director Research Lead |
| Maureen Parkinson | M.Ed. C.C.R.C – Vocational Rehabilitation Counsellor
B.C. Cancer Co-Director Content Lead |
Cancer and work Working Group
| Lori Bernstein | Ph.D., CPsych, University Health Network |
| Naomi Dolgoy | M.OT, CLT, Ph.D. Occupational Therapist, Ph.D. Rehabilitation Science |
| Claudia Hernandez | PT, BPT, MRSc – Patient Representative |
| Mina Singh | RN, Ph.D., York University |
| Shao Tao | Ph.D. Stanford University, Project Manager, Business and Marketing Team Lead, Cancer and Work |
IT Team
Simon-Pierre Dupuis IT Director | Web Strategist
Darren Hewer MTS
Initial Development Team (2014-2017)
| Mathew Gancarz | Hon. BSc |
| Darren Hewer | MTS |
| Allan Holtzman | BSc |
| Malcolm MacKinnon | BFA |
Co-Investigators Team Members
| Lori Bernstein | Ph.D., CPsych, University Health Network |
| Mary Jane Esplen | RN, Ph.D., University Health Network |
| Claudia Hernandez | PT, BPT, MRSc – Patient Representative |
| Margaret Oldfield | M.E.Des., PhD |
| Mary Stergiou-Kita | O.T., Ph.D., University of Ottawa |
| Margareth Zanchetta | RN, Ph.D., Ryerson University |
| Mina Singh | RN, Ph.D., York University |
Advisory board and authors:
The Cancer and Work project would like to thank the following people for their contribution:
View profiles of our advisory board & authors
Community partners:
We would like to thank our following community partners for their reviews and contribution to some of the website’s content. Thank you to each of the community partners.
View our community partners
Principal Investigators and Project Leads
Dr. Christine Maheu, RN, PhD
Dr. Christine Maheu is an Associate Professor in the Ingram School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University and FRQS Chercheur Boursier Junior 2. Dr. Maheu is also an Affiliate Scientist at the University Health Network and the University of Toronto. At McGill University, she teaches research methods, supervises graduate students (masters, doctoral, post-doctoral), mentors practicing nurses and students in research, and conducts research in English and French. She has held research awards with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Cancer Society, and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer. These awards funded her research in psychosocial oncology, which focuses on developing and testing psychosocial interventions or measurements tools for various cancer populations. Additionally, in partnership with Ipsos Canada and funded by the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, she is co-leading a nationwide survey of the needs of cancer patients for transition care from the end of their treatment to three years after their diagnosis. Dr. Maheu received awards for excellence in nursing research (2013, 2015, 2016) from Ovarian Cancer Canada, the Canadian Association of Nurses in Oncology, and the Quebec Association of Nurses in Oncology.
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Ms. Maureen Parkinson, M.Ed. C.C.R.C
Ms. Maureen Parkinson is the province-wide vocational rehabilitation counsellor at the BC Cancer. She has also been vocational rehabilitation counsellor at a public rehabilitation hospital and vocational rehabilitation consultant to insurance companies and the court system. She has instructed and facilitated Service-Canada-funded programs on job searching and career exploration. Ms. Parkinson has a Masters in Counselling Psychology, is a Canadian Certified Rehabilitation Counsellor, and completed the Certified Return to Work Coordinator Program through the National Institute for Disability Management and Research. She has developed return-to-work and job-search seminars for cancer patients and created the guidebook “Cancer and Returning to Work: A Practical Guide for Cancer Patients” as well as on-line articles about returning to work and school. She also co-authored a paper commissioned by the Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology, “Cancer and Work: A Canadian Perspective”.
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Simon-Pierre Dupuis, IT Director | Web Strategist
Simon-Pierre Dupuis is a web artisan and our strategist involved in UI/UX, marketing campaigns and meshing everything together visually, adding new features to manage and improve our website’s constantly renewed content. Recently, he took a new leading role exploring how the advent of Artificial Intelligence innovations could benefit cancer survivors’ path to their successful return to work.
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Cancer and Work Working Group
Dr. Lori Bernstein, PhD, CPsych
Dr. Lori Bernstein is a licensed clinical neuropsychologist and works as a clinician investigator in the Department of Supportive Care at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, and holds a faculty position in the Graduate Psychology program at York University. Dr. Bernstein’s clinical practice includes neuropsychological assessment and psycho-educational interventions to teach patients self-management skills to better cope with cognitive impairment during and after cancer treatment. Her research focuses on understanding and characterizing cognitive changes that cancer and/or its treatment has on people and ways to help cancer survivors improve functioning so they can return to pre-cancer activities.
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Dr. Margareth Zanchetta, RN, PhD
Dr. Margareth Zanchetta is an Associate Professor in the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, Ryerson University. She has undergraduate and graduate degrees in the disciplines of nursing and education. Throughout her career as an oncology clinician, she has had countless opportunities to apply her knowledge of Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of popular education to the area of self-care. This work preceded her research in individual and family health literacy and in culture-specific care.
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Dr. Mina Singh, RN, PhD
Dr. Mina Singh is a faculty member in the School of Nursing at York University and was the Coordinator of the Program Evaluation Unit from 2011-2013, at the York Institute for Health Research. She is presently Associate Director, Research. She has been a program evaluator for over 16 years and has conducted several types of evaluations (input, process, outcome and impact) and has developed a methodological framework which is being used internationally and nationally for evaluation. She has been a co-investigator on several projects relating to Fear of Recurrence of Breast Cancer. She teaches research methods to both undergraduate and graduate students and is a statistician.
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Ms. Claudia Hernandez, PT, BPT, MRSc
Ms. Claudia Hernandez’s personal experience as a cancer survivor, clinical experience in cancer rehabilitation, and passion for patient and family education and patient advocacy have motivated her to promote and support patient engagement at every possible level of the health, education, and labour systems and in cancer and community-based organizations. She is a registered physiotherapist in Ontario with a master’s degree in rehabilitation sciences from the University of British Columbia. She participated in curriculum development of the oncology module for the Ontario Internationally Educated Physical Therapy Bridging Program at the University of Toronto. She is a patient representative to the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and the Canadian Breast Cancer Network.
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Naomi Dolgoy, M.OT, CLT, PhD(c)
Naomi Dolgoy is an Occupational Therapist, Certified Lymphatic Therapist, and Clinician Researcher currently completing a PhD through the University of Alberta, faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine. Naomi’s clinical practice and research interests lie in cancer survivorship and functional outcomes, including the effects of cancer fatigue on workability. She serves on multiple committees for the Guideline and Research Unit (GURU) with Alberta Health Services for guideline and protocols in Cancer Care, and has been involved in education for occupational therapists, physiotherapists, therapy assistants, nurses, and radiation technicians. She is currently involved in bridging exercise and functional, work-related outcomes as part of the Alberta Cancer Exercise (ACE) study (www.albertacancerexercise.com).
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IT Design Team
Mr. Darren Hewer, MTS
Mr. Darren Hewer is a web developer whose full-stack development work includes collaboration with companies like Mackenzie Investments, Toronto Star, and Blue Ant Media to create dynamic modern websites. With de Souza Institute he has contributed to several projects including their own corporate website, Cancer and Work, and Cancer Chat. Darren holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Guelph in Information Systems and Human Behaviour, and a Master’s degree from Tyndale University College & Seminary in Theological Studies.
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Supporters
McGill University Health Center Foundation
Together with our network, we support research, teaching, and the best care for life at the McGill University Health Centre.
The Cancer and Work project would like to thank MUHC for their generous donation.
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