Session B
CONFERENCE DAY 1 - THURSDAY, JUNE 5TH 2008 (11:15-12:45)
Concurrent Interactive Workshops (Select 1 of 9):
1B Peer Support: Inspire, Educate, Empower (30957)
Ms. Donna Sheehan & Ms. C. Nickel - Willow Breast Cancer Support (Canada)
The premise of this workshop is that breast cancer survivors have much to learn from one another. The Willow Peer Support Program offers compassion, and opportunity for women to share their own experience in seeking support, gathering information, and sharing lessons learned on their breast cancer journey.
Being informed is one of the coping strategies women choose and the Willow's Information Service supports the Peer Support Program by providing reliable, authoritative information about breast cancer diagnosis, treatment options, clinical trial opportunities and much more.
During the Q & A there will be opportunity for the audience to share their own experience in seeking support and developing coping strategies.
2B A Time to Heal: Outcomes of a 12-week Rehabilitation Program (29359)
Dr. Kay Ryan & Dr. Stephanie Koralekis - C3 Consulting (USA)
Survivors who have completed treatment for breast cancer often find themselves suddenly dismissed from the medical system at a time when they are weakened, frightened, and exhausted.
This presentation will review a twelve-week, whole-person, rehabilitation and wellness program for survivors who have completed treatment for a first-time occurrence of breast cancer. Data from the participants of ‘A Time to Heal', demonstrates positive and sustained improvements in symptoms, hope, satisfaction with life and coping.
A mini-session of A Time to Heal will be demonstrated which includes gentle exercise, education, discussion, energy pickup, a power tool, and journaling and affirmation writing. There also will be an opportunity to personally experience a taste of the program by joining the interactive demonstration.
3B Multi-Disciplinary, Multi-method research in Post-Breast Cancer Lymphedema and Survivorship (30555)
Dr. Jane Armer, Dr. B. R. Stewart et al. - U. of Missouri-Columbia (USA)
Researchers in nursing, computer science, psychology, education, biostatistics, physical and occupational therapy, and other health disciplines have collaborated in breast cancer research to examine breast cancer lymphedema and survivorship.
Findings and implications from these preliminary studies and research activities will be shared, and plans for future research will be identified. This multi-faceted, interdisciplinary, multi-method research program in breast cancer survivorship provides a foundation for expanded multi-national collaborative research endeavours in this important field.
4B Building the BCANS Resources Centre (29541)
Ms. Rosanna Bechtel, Ms. Barbara Thompson - Breast Cancer Action Nova Scotia (Canada)
This presentation will trace the evolution of the BCANS Resource Centre and provide tools and suggestions for survivor groups, educators, librarians, and community groups with limited budgets, including those in developing countries.
For financial reasons, the first Resource Centre was a virtual one and the BCANS Web site will be described and visited online. Web sites and online newsletters are great if your target population has access to the Internet, but many women in rural areas do not. To make information more accessible to them, BCANS published printed versions of their Resource Directory and compilations of posts from the Web site.
BCANS also embarked on a Library Project. The books and documents selected later formed the core of the Resource Centre collection when they were able to open their first office in 2006. They moved into their present office in 2007 and can provide pictures and a description of how to furnish an office and resource centre on the cheap.
5B A Journey with the Dragon Spirit - So Much to Share! (26333)
Ms. Michelle L. Hanton - Dragons Abreast Australia (Australia)
A 'feel good' presentation that will focus on harnessing the collective power of individuals to make things happen. The workshop will involve audience participation that will provide skills on how to grow and maintain a group with a professionalism that results in sustainability for the group. The development and evolution of Dragons Abreast will be used as a model. The pinnacle of the organisation was hosting the largest breast cancer regatta and Celebration of Life ever held in the Southern Hemisphere (Sept 07).
The workshop will include examples and demonstrations of how one can work across cultural barriers and age ranges, through rebuilding confidence, attracting sponsorship and the importance of building and maintaining relationships with other breast cancer groups nationally and internationally.
This workshop will provide take home knowledge that can actively be used within communities and organisations, and the understanding that sharing and working together are the keys to obtaining positive and sustainable outcomes for our futures, be it breast cancer advocacy, research, or dragon boat racing!
6B Everyday Spirituality, an Invitation to Live (31453)
Ms. Sandra L. Smith & Ms. B. A. Payne - Pilgrims Hospice (Canada)
It can be overwhelming trying to find meaning, courage and hope in the ever changing experiences from initial diagnosis through treatment and beyond. The journey is so complex that sometimes the obvious, the simple, escapes us. While much attention is rightly paid to the big things of diagnosis, treatment and follow-up, it is often in the so called ‘little things' that survivors, family and caregivers find the riches of life. Touching the human spirit, these riches allow us to be fully alive.
Through information sharing, story telling and reflection based on life experiences, current literature, and the daily experiences of hospice life, the workshop will explore the concepts and the power of everyday spirituality, spiritual friendship and relationship. This session will offer members of the audience an opportunity to explore and reflect on their own experience with breast cancer, and it presents tools to assist participants in this process as they attend the session and in days ahead.
7B A Cut Above - Recognizing Your Valued Carats (26339)
Ms. Adele Alfano - Diamond Within Resources (Canada)
It is all about putting you back into 'yourself' This lively, upbeat and interactive treasure-hunt, will demonstrate to audience members the benefits of unearthing our personal hidden gems and re-discovering a treasure-trove of our sparkling buried qualities.
Breast cancer is a life challenge but it doesn't have to dim the sparkle of your inner diamonds. Join us for a fun and energetic guided tour in a diamond mine that you didn't know you had.
8B-1 The Winners "Support Group of Prashanti" (32879)
Dr. Rama S. Sivaram - Prashanti Cancer Care Mission (India)
The Support Group at Prashanti is unity in diversity. Coming together from different walks of life, stages of disease and with their own unique sets of treatment and post-treatment issues, they meet on the 2nd Saturday of every month.
Yoga and Breast Cancer Recovery Programs have been initiated by survivors and visiting masters. Reiki is a desired therapy for the Support Group in the early stages of recovery. Art Therapy is used for self-perception and venting. Nutrition programs secretly fight off the fear with diets. Prashanti's activity with wigs, hair care, prosthesis and bras, is fun, bold and experimental. Wigs are exchanged or passed, bandanas and scarves gifted to a new member. When women give their time, energy and services to enable other women, they have conquered the disease and are ready to face life. These are the winners of Prashanti.
AND 8B-2 Highways Beyond Cancer (30579)
Dr. Ritu Biyani-Joseph - Project Highways Beyond Cancer (India)
Highways Beyond Cancer was founded in India in 2005, by a breast cancer survivor, Dr. Ritu Biyani Joseph. Her passion for driving sprouted a unique blend of an adventure sport with a cancer awareness mission across India. She has driven more than 60,000 kilometres, to the 4 tips of India and on the highest motorable roads in the world, to reach out and conduct awareness camps on breast, cervical and oral cancers to people in far flung areas with visual aids.
Personal interaction, dispelling myths, dissemination of information materials, and teaching self breast examination are the focus.
Highways Beyond Cancer connects you with people of different regions. It allows you to make long-lasting friendships and choose and change your paths. The best part is that it never ends - there is always a another highway you survive.
9B Provider and Survivor: Wounded Healers Reshape Clinical Practices and Priorities (30031)
Ms. Jacqueline Owens - Ashland University (USA)
This workshop will illustrate how the personal challenges of health care providers with illness, have influenced their behaviour in clinical practice when they return to help patients to frame their illness experiences. The concept is often referred to as the wounded healer.
It considers how both positive and negative experiences of assuming the patient role can provide an impetus for intentional professional growth. Discussion will focus on practical, intentional ways to reflect on the challenges of one's illness as a springboard for reshaping clinical practice and priorities. While the examples are from the perspective of a professional provider, anyone caring for another human being is shaped by previous experiences with illness. The presenter will encourage participant involvement in this concurrent session by sharing her experiences with humour and sincerity, while encouraging audience members to share their experiences related to the topic.