Support Group That I Had Been At The Same Time

When my mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness, we used the service a hospice team. The team was considered in all aspects due to my mother’s physical and mental needs. They were always sensitive and caring to not only my mom’s needs but my family’s needs.

This project proposal aims to seek funding of $50,000 to expand the existing Prostate Cancer Support Group by employing a part-time

My mother’s side of the family has a history of cancer. My maternal grandmother and great aunt and uncle all died of some form of cancer. My mother, as well as her siblings are at risk for cancer.

We will be leading a support group for women residents of the Stearns County jail. We will have adult coloring books for the women, if they wish to color during our group time. Additionally, we hope to have conversations about self-esteem, healthy relationships, addictions, and any other topics that the women would like to discuss.

Family caregivers have the important role in assisting their loved one through their cancer experience. Our society needs to acknowledge informal caregivers as a valuable members of the cancer patients healthcare team. Cancer care is becoming increasingly more complicated and difficult. Numerous caregivers are family members and close friends who tend to be unprepared and untrained for their position as caregiver to a older individuals with cancer.

Unfortunately, 25-75% of patients will lose their capacity to make medical decisions at the EOL (Sudore et al., 2014). Therefore, family are involved to support the patient on their EOL journey by assisting them with medical decision making that is reflective of their wishes (Sudore, 2014). Therefore, as family involvement increases, patient advocacy improves (Sudore, 2014). Family involvement was unitedly defined as a family or friend caregiver who was most involved in the patient’s care. Caregiving tasks were direct, such as personal care and meals, or indirect, such as management and monitoring, and was provided on weekly to monthly basis (Williams et al., 2012). In the last month of life, 63% to 94.2% of decedents had family involvement with 87.5% of families being satisfied with the overall care they received (Sudore et al., 2014; Williams et al., 2012; Thompson et al., 2012). According to Williams et al. (2012), the indirect task of monitoring, such as advocating for medical care, diet and medication, had the highest involvement rate of

Carolyn is a Social Worker that works for Hospice Branch Springs. She has been working with a married couple, Li and Raymond Johnson, for the past few weeks. Carolyn has gotten to know the couple pretty well and has established enough rapport with the family that they are comfortable sharing their concerns with her. Li, the wife, is a 48 year old Vietnamese American dying of cancer. Raymond, the husband, is Caucasian and is a retired vet. Aside from the family and the Social Worker, the other key players in this case would be the staff at Hospice of Branch Springs such as the chaplain, nurses, and volunteers. This writer could even extend that network to the Johnson’s Friends and Family.

What was once believed to be a form of neglect has resulted in a change in practice with the idea that doing less is more. Culture is an important factor in how care is rendered and thus, the limitations of palliative and hospice care lie within the desires of the family and patients. A thorough understanding of our surrounding demographics helps to ensure a seamless approach to providing care without bias or imposition of ones beliefs. However, just as with all things, providing care for the sick and comforting the dying should be rendered in moderation as to prevent the effects of burn out. Likewise, the same effects occur in the caregivers who sacrifice their responsibilities in order to care for their love ones. Finally, and with some closing thoughts, the writer wishes to express with gratitude the benefit of having taken this course to better understand oneself and others in the realm of healthcare. The lessons learned throughout have expanded this writer's knowledge and understanding of the human desire to make a connection through communication, emotion, compassion, and spiritually - the platform from which this writer wishes to continue seeking further knowledge and

As many patient´s illness beings to progress, many are left feeling “useless” as their health begins to deteriorate and they are unable to function as they used to. And from scheduled check-ups to surgeries, the hospital bill begins to rack up which may cause patients to feel like burdens to the family. According to a case study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a 56-year-old man with leukemia and his wife/caregiver were unemployed due to his condition and her efforts to care for him. She had many caregiving responsibilities such as “cleaning, driving, preparing meals, and coordinating medication, oxygen and other treatment-related activities”. From having no source of income, her finances were limited leading to her close watch on expenses. Meanwhile, as she focused on her husband’s health, she had failed to address her own health conditions. Lacking a support system, the intense and unpredictable future associated with shouldering the burden of her husband's outpatient care created a stressful atmosphere as she alternated her daily life schedule in order to meet his needs. In many instances of cancer, a patient's’ chances of becoming mentally and physically disabled increases. Resulting from such disabling illnesses often leaves the patient's feeling helpless as they begin to lose parts of their minds and bodies.

Hope Cancer Resources is an organization that “provides compassionate, professional cancer support and education in the Northwest Arkansas region today and tomorrow (Support Groups of NWA, n.d.).” Hope Cancer Resources serves a large variety of cancer patients in NWA and surrounding areas, including Central Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. They provide many services and interventions to clients such as financial assistance, emotional support, tobacco cessation, and transportation. From a social services perspective, one of their most effective interventions is support groups. Hope Cancer Resources offers seventeen different supports groups that are diagnosis, gender, or activity specific. Many patients engage in the services,

Cancer is Chronic disease in which abnormal cells divide without control and are able to invade other tissues. Cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems (NCI, 2013). Breast cancer in particular affects both women and men, though our focus is on Ella Miller who is the heart of the Miller family. Ella has been battling cancer for years now and even though she went into remission, the cancer has returned. This Situation is affecting her view on life and well as her family view on life with and without her. The purpose of this paper is to inform and introduce factual background of breast cancer, medical treatment options, suggestions of coping with this illness for the family and Ella as well as an outlook regarding the micro, macro and mezzo influences of the patient and family. This paper will educate Ella and her family on lifespan development and outcomes pertaining to breast cancer.

The authors MacKinnon, Smith, Henry, Milman, Berish, Farrace, Korner, Chochinov, and Cohen (2016) revealed a receipt of the several financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of the article. The Canadian institute of Health Research (CIHR) studentship to the main author: the CIHR/Canadian Cancer Society Stratiegic Training Program in Palliative Care Research and the Family Caregiving at End of Life New Emerging Team (Mackinnon, Smith, Henry, Milman, Berish, Farrace, Cohen, 2016).

This past summer, I, along with my mother and father, travelled to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. My mom had been invited to participate in the St. Jude For Life Study because when she was around six to eight years old, she had a form of leukemia called Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. This particular study is to help all present and future St. Jude patients and help to research for a cure. While there, I saw first-hand how cancer can affect a family. You can just see all of the stress, the worry, the exhaustion, the tiredness, the fear, and the tears on the families’ and the patients’ faces.

Researchers from the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) conducted a study to review the psychosocial care and needs within the cancer continuum of caregivers. With multidimensional approaches, the guidelines and models for psychosocial evaluations were produced.10 Researchers proposed that community based sectors with a variety of services could improve by including nurse and clinicians within the psychosocial care and stressor treatment. Meanwhile, researchers in China conducted theoretic framework for a smartphone app that was constructed for providing better managing the psychological needs and stressors for patient’s parents. Interviews, focus groups, and discussions with both health professionals as well as caregivers lead to what the app would focus on. 12 Modules were designed for the caregiver to walk through that included numerous subjects. This app was administered through a web-based portal and included both systematic and qualitative approaches for data collection.12 A huge issue of concern did arise with money and transmitting health information online and the privacy of individuals. To decrease future gaps in treatment and find improvements, researchers also suggested professional training, strategic and assistance videos, and improved involvement from health systems. An intended focus would be to better design and implement online programs and propose work throughout communities to include more time, involvement, and information between caregivers and professionals such that this intervention will hope to better solve. Findings from the planned intervention will hope to coincide with these focuses in suggestions for future research of caregivers

Bibliographic information: Richard C. Cardoso & Peter J. Gerngross & Theresa M. Hofstede & Donna M. Weber & Mark S. Chambers. Support Care Cancer (2014) 22:259–267 DOI 10.1007/s00520-013-1960-y.