Originally published March 6 2005
Cancer “navigators” help patients cope with disease
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A growing number of training programs are available for healthcare workers and patient advocates to assist them in guiding people diagnosed with cancer, cope with their disease. New cancer patients can face a bewildering variety of choices, and can also find themselves without ongoing support as they pass into remission. Cancer navigators, or CancerGuides, are trained to support patients at each step in the process, as well as introduce them to supportive treatments that can aid in healing.
Hearing the words "you've got cancer" is like blithely crossing the street and then getting slammed by a Mack truck - there's no way to prepare for it.
"Getting a cancer diagnosis is not like being pregnant - a happy event, go get a massage," says Cindy Cantril, breast program coordinator at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae.
A navigator is someone who takes a cancer patient in hand from the initial diagnosis and supports the patient through treatment, recovery and during the journey back to health - all the while pointing to options and offering guidance on the overwhelming array of life-altering decisions.
Gordon, chair of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy, formerly was head of the National Institutes of Health alternative and complementary medicine program.
"Virtually everyone with cancer wants to know which complementary and alternative therapies to use," Gordon said in a recent interview.
"They want to know where to go to find them, and how to put together a program of truly integrative, effective and humane care."
The goal of CancerGuides, Gordon added, is to train oncology and other health professionals and patient advocates to "help all Americans with cancer and their families to do just that."
"The treatment is just so focused on the tumor itself, not the whole person," said Walston, 31, who is signed up for the March CancerGuides training.
The training will not only explain the phases of cancer, but will try to have participants feel what it must be like to experience them: the shock of diagnosis; the puzzle of integrating conventional and complementary care; dealing with side effects of treatment or with recurrences, or facing the issue of death and dying.
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