A new program starting in March at Centra Health’s new Alan B. Pearson Regional Cancer Center will help former cancer patients make the transition into physically and emotionally healthy survivors.
The Wellness Community and Lance Armstrong Foundation recently awarded a $4,000 grant to the center to implement the nationally recognized program, “Cancer Transitions: Moving Beyond Treatment.”
“This is kind of an underserved area,” both locally and nationally, said Radiation Oncologist Dr. Joy Hilliard.
Cancer patients endure radiation, chemotherapy and oftentimes surgery, Hilliard said. It’s a process that may include treatments five times a week for months at a time.
Once they “graduate” from treatment, the nation’s 12 million cancer survivors then return to virtually no doctor visits.
The program aims to ease what may otherwise be a drastic lifestyle shift, Hilliard said.
Program Facilitator Tammy Anderson said the six-week program will include a two-and-a-half hour meeting once a week on topics such as nutrition, medical management and emotional health.
The grant pays for 20 participants who must be within two years of completing cancer treatment, she said.
Hilliard said the program goes beyond a doctor’s recommendation to stop smoking, improve diet and exercise; it aims to help survivors transition into a healthy lifestyle that will decrease their chances for recurrence.
“That gives them a sense of control,” she said. “That’s a real important strength you can give them back.”
One month after the final regular session, Anderson said, survivors will be invited back to evaluate whether the program has helped them.
Curt Baker, vice president of cancer care services, said such programs are new. “It’s going to become, down the road, a standard of care for cancer treatment.”
Currently, survivorship services usually aren’t paid for by insurance, Hilliard said, so health care providers rely on grants, community support and corporate sponsorships to pay for them.
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