Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2003. Mattie was seven months old and he was sitting in a jumper. The jumper was a God sent. A friend of mine gave it to me as a gift. Basically it clips onto the top frame of a door. Within this thing, Mattie could touch the ground, jump around, and I could even swing him. I can't tell you how many nights we spent in this jumper just trying to calm Mattie down in order to go to sleep.
Quote of the day: Hospitals often have limited resources, so when coaches are available to support patients in taking a more active role in their cancer care, it benefits everyone. ~ Dawn Wiatrek
A friend of mine gave me a copy of an article entitled, "Cancer coaches help guide patients during and after treatment." The premise of the article is that patients have many psychosocial concerns that are not being adequately addressed at the hospital and in treatment. Therefore they are turning to alternatives! I would say that the number one reason such psychosocial providers aren't adequately available in a treatment setting is because hospitals do not have the resources to provide care to adults as there isn't a reimbursement pathway in most cases for this care. Therefore without a payment source (other than philanthropy), the treatment center has NO incentive to offer this care.
Just because psychosocial care is not adequately provided to adults with cancer, doesn't mean it isn't necessary or greatly needed. In fact it is! Which is why the article highlighted how cancer patients are turning to the community....... to cancer coaches in particular!
Coaches offer help with physical, emotional, and intellectual challenges. They provide advice on nutrition, exercise, weight management and other health issues. In many cases these individuals are cancer survivors themselves, so they have walked the journey personally. Do keep in mind though that coaches can cost up to $100 to $300 a session! Which is an out of pocket expense that not every patient can afford.
As a mental health professional (and chair of a licensure board), I guess my first question would be..... why go to a coach when you can go to an a licensed counseling professional in the community? In some cases for the very same cost, but with a licensed professional having met substantial educational and training requirements. I visited two professional coaching training sites and the first one says..... "At this time, coaching is not regulated by any country or state. However, if you are serious about becoming a professional coach, your first step needs to be obtaining coach-specific training." The other site I visited discusses the 7 course training module in order to become a coach (http://www.thecancerjourney.com/cancer-coach-training/the-program/). I laughed because how do you compare a seven course training module to someone who earned a master's or doctoral degree in counseling/psychology, with years of training under one's belt before getting licensed?
Coaching is an issue that has come before me several times in my licensure board work. The problem is that there is a fine line between coaching and professional counseling, which is why I predict within the near future coaches will be regulated. But in the mean time they are not and I wonder how well coaching is actually working for cancer patients? After all coaches have no professional entities expecting them to uphold ethics and practice standards, which means to me that the experience patients have with a coach will be VERY coach specific.
At the end of the day, the real problem is our medical system. A system that continues to compartmentalize care! Instead of embracing the impact of psychosocial support on treatment outcomes. The real news story should be about health insurers and how the advocacy community needs to press payors to mandate psychosocial care from treatment facilities, in order for these facilities to qualify for reimbursement of services.
Cancer coaches help guide patients during and after treatment:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/cancer-coaches-help-guide-patients-during-and-after-treatment-1537149901
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