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10 Wednesday October 28 2015 HEALTH WELLNESS BREAST CANCER www.auroracollege.nt.ca School of Trades Apprenticeship Industrial Training Trades Technology Week 2015 Invites you to an Open House to celebrate Please join us to tour our state-of-the-art Trades training facilities and speak with our instructors. Thebacha Campus Foyer Fort Smith NT November 4 2015 - 530 p.m.-730 p.m. Everyone welcome Refreshments will be served. Aurora College By DALI CARMICHAEL After mapping out the typical breast cancer journeyintheNorthwestTerritoriesonegroupis usingitsresearchtochartapathtoholisticcare. The NWT Breast HealthBreast Cancer Ac- tion Group is initiating a two-year demonstra- tion project testing out newly developed can- cersurvivorcareplansandpeersupportgroups forpatientsinFortSmithandFortGoodHope. What weve found was that it was very in- teresting nobodys ever documented what the experienceisfromdiagnosisthroughtotreat- ment to survivorship said Rosanna Strong a spokespersonfortheActionGroup.Fromthat informationwecameupwith18recommenda- tions on how to improve making that journey a little bit easier and a little bit more attainable for people here. Thoserecommendationsconsidereverystep of the journey from diagnosis to treatment af- ter-care to palliative care. They have now been included in the GNWTs new Cancer Strategy tabled during the final sitting of the 17th Leg- islative Assembly. Wecameupwiththreerecommendationsthat we would be pursuing she said. One of them was survivor care plans for the North another one was peer support programming through- outtheNorthandtheotheronewascomingup with a document about the rights and respon- sibilitiesofbeingacancerpatientStrongsaid. A survivor of breast cancer herself Strong said the project is close to her heart. Yourebasicallyinsurvivormodeandyoujust do anything you have to do to take care of the physicality of it she said. A lot of times the emotional side just gets put in the background and the research is saying that people that go through cancer suffer a little bit from PTSD so its a huge shock to your body and its a huge shock to your mind as well. Consistency is key Thenewcancersurvivorcaretemplatesmod- eledafterothersfromAlbertaandManitobaaim to make the healing process more straightfor- ward by involving the patient in their care and making information more accessible. The group is also working with the Depart- mentofHealthandSocialServicestointegrate theprogramintoitsnewelectronicmedicalre- cordsystemsocareremainsconsistentwhether thepatientisworkingwithanursepractitioner in their home or a doctor in Yellowknife. Youcanworktogetheronyourgoal-setting you can work together on talking with some of the side effects and who is going to do what for the next little while Strong said. According to the Action Groups report be- tween nurses oncologists family doctors and so on there are often more than 20 healthcare professionalsinvolvedinonepersonstreatment. Howevernoonepositionisresponsiblefornavi- gating the system and coordinating care espe- cially once treatment is complete. Peer-to-peer healing Once we have gone through the treatment and everything were sort of left adrift. Every six months we do go and see our oncologist or whatever but other than that we have no sup- portgroupthatwecangotosaidLouiseFraser oneoftheFortSmith-basedprogramcoordina- tors also a breast cancer survivor. This is why we wanted to start a group here. Once it starts - maybe in December - the groupwillbeopentopatientsandtheirfamilies. ThenyougetthetwosidesofthestoryFra- sersaid.Thesemenareaffectedthroughtheir mothers their wives or whatever their family. They want to know how they can be support- ive and they want to know more about what is outthereforpeoplewhodohavecancersothey can understand and be more compassionate. TheActionGroupiscoordinatingthedemon- strationinpartnershipwithHSSLutraAssoci- atesLtd.individualsinthecommunityhealth- careproviderslocalgovernmentsurvivorsand regional health authorities. So far the project has secured funding until January2016andfundraisingeffortsareunder- waytofindsupporttofinishtheprojectin2017. HSS has been very generous and gave us 70000 to operate for this year Strong said but we need 72000 more to complete the first part of our demonstration project. A painter expresses her emotions at the Art of Healing breast cancer psychosocial support program held in Yellowknife by the NWT Breast HealthBreast Cancer Action Group. New cancer survivor care plans tested in NWT PhotoNWTBreastCancerActionGroup