Delivering Discrete Psycho-social Care in Parallel with Targeted Cancer Therapies
10 Nov, 2014, 09:00 GMT
HERZLIYA, Israel, November 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
Cancer seems like nothing but a vague and distant malice until you actually have to confront it. With all the positive impact of prevention campaigns and the rising awareness of risk factors, worldwide statistics suggest an alarming fact: a little less than half of us may expect to be diagnosed with cancer at some point in our life. In the blink of an eye, the ghost may become a real threat.
Expert Israeli oncologists at Herzliya Medical Center believe they are on the right track with the massive research and increasingly widespread application of targeted cancer therapies and precision diagnostic tools that make early detection possible. The convincing results of the hospital's oncologic department indicate that we are fighting off cancer with greater odds than ever.
Imagine you had metastatic lung cancer. Would the above statement ease your distress and console you? Hardly. In Israel's top private medical center, many years of experience with cancer patients have taught doctors that sometimes healing is not merely an exact science but carries a deeply humane factor as well. Bearing this in mind, Herzliya Medical Center has put strong emphasis on the implementation of a strong patient support system to run in parallel with the up-and-coming targeted therapies.
Doctors give unanimous accounts on how targeted therapies spare you from the physical distress caused by traditional methods such as surgery, chemo and radiation therapy, therefore they impose considerably less emotional turmoil on cancer patients. Still, caregivers affirm that psychological and social support should always be an integral part of targeted cancer therapies to further minimize the negative impact cancer might exercise on your emotional and social well-being.
Conservative targeted therapy treatment protocols can last for months and leave behind permanent pathological, psychological and social repercussions.
According to medical staff observations at Herzliya Medical Center, patients who have recently undergone targeted cancer therapies have testified to the following spectrum of emotions.
- Feelings of powerlessness, being out of control.
- Even if targeted therapies induce less severe side-effects, physical weakness and frustration stemming from the inability to exercise basic daily tasks may accompany the treatment.
- Diagnostic tests and even targeted cancer therapy treatments are physically demanding, pain and fatigue and resulting hopelessness is a constant presence in patients' lives.
- During targeted cancer therapy, patients are forced to face the fact that their life will never be the same again: they will have to live with a chronic illness.
- Binary emotional alterations of depression and anxiety and hope and illusions.
- Lost ability to work and feel like a useful, productive member of the community.
- Communication breakdowns with family members, lost contact with friends.
- Anxiety that may derive from a loss of income, or from the fact that you lose touch with our professional environment.
The Oncologists at Herzliya Medical Center try to respond to these challenges by giving you clear information about your options, stressing that the final decision is always in your hands.
Also in the hospital there is a unique service intended specifically for foreign patients, who might feel uprooted and lost in a foreign country. Right after you confirm your wish to participate in the cancer programs of Herzliya Medical Center, the institution appoints you a Case Manager, who is ready to take care of all your administrative and technical business, appointments and meditations, discreetly always there for you when you need them to be.
Caregivers at the center understand that targeted therapies, especially those in the clinical trial phase, pose many questions and uncertainties in patients, so they are constantly acquiring techniques to address depression and manage stress.
In response to the social issues observable in some targeted therapy patients, Herzliya Medical Center has designed home-resembling living arrangements with a warm and friendly atmosphere.
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