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Academic/Clinical

Friday Educational Sessions 2

A Patient and Family-centered Approach to Cancer Rehabilitation Education

Friday, February 23, 2024
11:15 AM – 12:15 PM EDT
Location: Wekiwa 6
Cancer and its treatment can result in impairments that limit physical, psychosocial, and cognitive functioning, interfering with patients’ ability to perform work-related functions. Given these work limitations can carry significant personal and societal costs, there is a timely need to identify and refer patients to cancer rehabilitation services to manage adverse consequences of treatment and preserve employment. Cancer rehabilitation services are currently under-utilized with low referral rates. Patient and family support services are crucial to increase awareness of the significance of rehabilitation services in a cancer patient's life. Our session will highlight how we created a partnership between an established community resource for cancer patients (Gilda's Club Grand Rapids) and cancer physiatrists at Mary Free Bed Rehab Hospital to establish a workshop series geared toward topics relevant to cancer patients, caregivers, health care providers and other support staff. Each workshop covers different topics such as: caregiver burden, financial costs of cancer, intimacy after cancer treatment, how to break the news to your kids about diagnosis, and what a cancer physiatrist can offer.