Network 12-1.pdf - Canadian Women's Health Network

STRENGTH
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Project plans to unite support services for
women with breast and reproductive cancers
By Jane Shulman
Cancer support networks in different parts of the country
are looking at grouping women’s gynaecological
cancers with breast cancer for the purpose of offering
more support to women who have had a cervical,
ovarian or uterine cancer diagnosis. Manitoba has been
working on this for some time, explains Barbara Clow,
director of the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s
Health, and now New Brunswick and Newfoundland
and Labrador are looking at their own models for
delivering programming under the same umbrella.
In a 2008 report for Canadian Partnership Against
Cancer, called “Where Do We Go From Here? Support
services for women with breast, cervical, ovarian and
uterine cancer in Atlantic Canada,” Clow and co-authors
looked at the idea of merging services to meet
the needs of the underserved gynaecological cancer
population.
The idea is not without its detractors. Some have
expressed concern that breast cancer groups might
jeopardize their funding or lose their identity if they
expand their mandate, or stretch their already overextended
resources.
But the focus on breast cancer over the past several
years, with fundraisers and awareness campaigns popping
up all over the country, means that the disease has
a lot of attention, and Clow notes that it’s the kind of
attention that gynaecological cancers desperately need.
While she says that fewer women are diagnosed with
cervical, ovarian and uterine cancers combined than
breast cancer in Canada each year, with the exception
of cervical cancer, their prognosis is not as good. And
the psychosocial support specific to their kind of cancer
just does not exist.
Clow cites the work of volunteer-based Ovarian
Cancer Canada as the only national gynaecologicallybased
cancer group. There are no national groups for
people with cervical or uterine cancer. The needs are
different, but there’s overlap, which is why a program
that pools resources for cancers that affect women is so
appealing.
The report recommendations included:
Foster new research on the needs of women from
vulnerable and disadvantaged communities who are
faced with a diagnosis of cancer;
Explore the possibility of adopting and adapting the
processes and products developed by breast cancer support
networks in Atlantic Canada to meet the needs of
those with other women’s cancers;
Promote the creation of publicly funded cancer patient
navigator programs throughout Atlantic Canada.
Clow says the next step is to look at how feasible
this idea is, and where the desire lies. So far, nurses
and service providers involved with the planning and
delivering of programming are most passionate about it
because they see the possibilities that lie in making the
most of the services they can offer.
Jane Shulman is a the Director of Knowledge Exchange at the
Canadian Women’s Health Network and a former staff member
of Breast Cancer Action Montreal.
CANADIAN WOMEN’S HEALTH NETWORK FALL/.WINTER 2009/2010 15