2019 West Coast Conference Review!

Nicole Franklin, MPH on November 11, 2019

tags: At Work, Back to Work, Balancing Work & Cancer, CAC Event, CAC On the Road, Career Change, Disclosure, Event, Events, Health Insurance, Job Search, Legal & Financial Issues, Working Through Treatment

On October 26th, we hosted our 5th annual West Coast Conference on Work & Cancer. It was an incredibly memorable day! With 115 participants, it was CAC’s most well-attended West Coast Conference to date. We presented a range of topics relevant to navigating employment after a cancer diagnosis to a room filled with patients, survivors, healthcare professionals, nonprofit professionals, HR professionals and caregivers. From working through treatment and taking time off work, to disclosure and health insurance options, we touched on some of the most critical issues related to the work-and-cancer experience.

This year we were thrilled to add a new session and speaker to the agenda — “Setting Boundaries,” presented by Ali Schaffer, LCSW. After receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback on this session at our National Conference on Work & Cancer in June, we knew we had to bring this important topic (and incredible speaker) to the West Coast! Ali’s expertise and insight were a welcome addition to our array of content.

For the second year in a row, we brought a group of patients, survivors and healthcare professionals to Los Angeles as travel scholarship recipients, in an effort to ensure our conferences remain accessible to all those who need this critical information, regardless of their financial circumstances or where they live. Additionally, for the first time, we provided a real-time captioning service for attendees who were deaf, hard of hearing or may have otherwise benefited from the technology.

Thank you to our sponsors for making this day possible through their very generous support. Many thanks as well to our Community Partners for spreading the word about the event. And last, but definitely not least, thank you to our attendees for making this one of Cancer and Careers’ best West Coast Conferences ever! We look forward to seeing you again in the fall of 2020.