Patient Navigator

On June 22, NPR reporter Richard Knox aired this story during the “Morning Edition” broadcast.  It was an excellent piece profiling efforts by an individual and a volunteer organization to help patients and families get the care they need to navigate our health care and elder care systems.  Each time the media does a piece on the needs of patients and the role of advocates, it helps to make folks aware that many of us are out there to do just that.  It also helps advocates and navigators to find each other! 

 I encourage you to listen to the whole piece.  Mr. Knox  followed up in a blog post on June 25 in which Patient Navigator LLC was mentioned as a resource.  http://tinyurl.com/loaz9k  National Public Radio does an superb job reporting on health care and health care reform.  You can learn more by going to www.npr.org

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I attended a four-day training sponsored by the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C. from June 11-14.   It is called CancerGuides II and it was extraordinary.  During this training, we learned to create safe, effective individualized programs of comprehensive and integrative care for people with cancer and their families.   I met hundreds of practitioners and lay people from many fields who were there to learn and to help answer the question “What else can I do?” when a cancer patient comes to them for help.

One key take-away for me was that while every human carries cancer cells, which our exquisitely designed immune system can usually fight off, 1 out of 4 people will still get cancer in our lifetmes.  The lesson:  there are ways to improve your chances dramatically to avoid getting cancer.

It’s what you hear all the time:  keep a healthy weight, exercise, eat a well-balanced, nutritious diet.   The science in this regard is overwhelming.

Yet the public health trend in our country is accelerating in the opposite direction.  People are sicker, fatter and more sedentary than ever.  The obesity crisis is truly catastophic on many levels.   There is no doubt that a strong link exists between obesity and the likelihood of getting cancer.

I encourage anyone interested in learning more about the field of integrative care to explore the Center’s website at www.cmbm.org   And then think about what you can do to make yourself healthier and to cherish the body you’ve been given, one little step at a time.

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