Evolutionary Cancer Care
by author Susan Safyan

Two days in the Centre for Integrated Healing's Introductory Program gave me a hint of what it would be like to be a cancer patient in this holistic healing program. I came away wondering why there aren't places like the Centre for people without cancer, offering preventive complementary health care.

The general atmosphere is more like a spiritual retreat centre than a clinic for sick people. The staff-physicians, administrative support people, and complementary care practitioners-intentionally create a serene and healing atmosphere. They walk the talk by meditating together, as a group, each morning before the Centre opens.

"It is a privilege to work with people for whom what's unimportant has fallen away," says Dr. Hal Gunn, the Centre's CEO. For CIH staff, this isn't a depressing place to work; it's inspiring, and that makes it feel like a place of wellness, a place of healing, for patients, staff, and visitors alike.

The Introductory Program is part of the Centre's eight-step patient approach:

1. Fireside chats are free, drop-in information sessions (about an hour) offered once a week with a medical doctor in the Centre's living-room-like library. Potential patients and family members are free to ask questions.

2. The Introductory Program is held biweekly for a fee (bursaries are available). Over the course of two intense days, a group of cancer patients and their accompanying family members or friends learn through workshops and seminars about the Centre's philosophy and practices for integrated cancer care. This includes:

• being introduced to the theoretical and practical foundations of complementary healing
• participating in small discussion and support groups
• learning about and eating healthy, organic foods
• completing a decision-making seminar
• hearing about complementary healing modalities from practitioners

3. Each patient gets a one-and-a-half-hour appointment with a medical doctor (MD). Patient and physician begin to shape the patient's individualized cancer care plan of action and goals for achieving and maintaining a healthier lifestyle. All MD visits are covered by the province's Medical Services Plan (MSP).

4. Patients get an additional half-hour vitamin consultation with an MD to review supplements that may be helpful in complementary cancer care and to discuss potential interactions with conventional drugs or treatments.

5. Follow-up consultations with an MD are part of the MSP-covered package.

6. Complementary care practitioners, working in concert with the MDs to help develop the patients' cancer care plans, are available for consultation, for a fee. Practitioners include:

• a naturopath
• a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and registered acupuncturist
• a registered nutritional consulting practitioner
• a massage therapist
• a music therapist

7. Free classes are offered in nutrition, relaxation and visualization, meditation, and yoga, plus free support groups for cancer patients.

8. Patients are encouraged to actively participate in their own healing by using the Centre's library of resources to learn more about cancer, healing, and wellness.

Participation in the eight-step program, say the Centre staff, "engages people in their own care, improves quality of life, and reduces the likelihood of cancer recurrence."

Source: alive Web Exclusive, April 2007