camclub Articles October 2012
CNHC public awareness campaign goes live
CNHC has launched its national campaign to raise public awareness of CNHC’s UK register of complementary therapists and to increase the numbers of practitioners who sign up. Fifty CNHC registered practitioners around the country are acting as CNHC Local Champions to spread the message that people wanting complementary therapy should check the CNHC register.
CNHC Local Champions are getting information about CNHC out to their local communities in libraries, local gyms, cafes, health centres and GP surgeries. A number of them have also started to gain local press coverage and are receiving new client enquiries as a result. This activity will continue until the end of October and if successful will be rolled out more widely across CNHC registered practitioners.
Mary Atkinson, CNHC registered winner of camexpo’s 2010 Outstanding Achievement Award said: “When I heard about the CNHC I wanted to do all that I could to support its aims. There is such a wide choice of therapies and therapists that the public can get confused about where to go for the best treatment. With CNHC registered practitioners the public can be confident they are in safe hands.”
The Local Champions activity is part of a national initiative by CNHC to protect the public from practitioners who are not properly trained, qualified or insured. The wider activity to encourage the public to use the CNHC register will continue beyond the end of October.
It is possible that CNHC registered practitioners may receive contact from local media during this time and if you do please contact the CNHC office by emailing [email protected] or calling 020 3178 2199 so we can provide you with support information.
CNHC at camexpo
CNHC will be at camexpo this year where visitors will have a unique opportunity to hear the latest news about regulation and CNHC’s awareness-raising campaign.
This will be CNHC’s third year at the event and it is a great opportunity for practitioners to come to meet the CNHC team, ask questions and find out more about what CNHC registration means in practice.
Come to Stand 2536 or to CNHC’s Seminar on Saturday 20th October from 1.45 – 2.30pm where CNHC’s Chair (Maggy Wallace) will be providing an update on these key topics, giving plenty of time for questions.
For further information about CNHC and how to register go to: www.cnhc.org.uk . You can contact CNHC by emailing [email protected] or call 020 3178 2199
Understanding the Integrative Oncology approach.
Cancer is a group of diseases that affects a huge number of people in the UK and worldwide1. It’s a diagnosis that people are afraid of. The worst case scenario is that by the time the diagnosis is made, the disease may have progressed to the point that conventional treatment has little to offer. A better scenario is that there are several routes of conventional treatment on offer, although unfortunately they come with unpleasant side effects. On a more positive note, however, there has been a steady improvement in conventional treatment approaches (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy for instance). This improvement in conventional treatment now means that more people than ever are becoming long-term cancer survivors, although it is known that there are several. Approximately 320, 000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year in the UK and that this rate is gradually increasing which means that there are also a large number of cancer survivors. Whilst this is good news, it is also known that many conventional treatments cause many unpleasant side effects which reduce quality of life in these patients. Furthermore, there are several quality of life issues that can linger long after conventional treatment has finished and which therefore affect the ‘survivor’ population 2,3.
As a complementary therapist you may have first-hand experience of working with people with cancer. In fact we know that around one in three people with cancer also access complementary therapy support whilst on the cancer journey4. There are several routes to accessing complementary therapies which include hospices, private practice or through hospital services. Of the services offered in the NHS, counselling, reflexology, aromatherapy, reiki and massage have been shown to be the most common, although service availability is still severely limited5.
From the perspective of a person who has cancer (or their supporter), knowing what complementary therapy support is possible and safe to use and at what stage of conventional treatment are common questions. There is currently no single resource that provides all of this information so many people it can become a time consuming effort to gain safe and credible information. Moreover, there is a varying level of opinion in the conventional medical field as role of and effectiveness of complementary therapy support. As a result, more often than not patients are therefore advised against using complementary therapies.
From the practitioners’ perspective you may have treated many people with cancer and seen improvements to their quality of life, but feel disempowered to get this message across to other conventional healthcare practitioners. If this is the case, then you are not alone – this is a situation that resonates with complementary therapy practitioners in this country and many other countries. It is just such an issue which promoted some very forward thinking oncologists (consultant physicians who specialise in treating people with cancer) to set up the Society for Integrative Oncology (http://www.integrativeonc.org) in the US in 2003 and one that has seen the beginnings of the British Society for Integrative Oncology (BSIO) in the UK this year (http://bsio.org.uk).
So what is the rationale behind the integrative oncology approach?
One definition of integrative oncology by Stephen Sagar (a past president of the SIO) is thus:
Both a science and a philosophy that focuses on the complexity of the health of cancer patients and proposes a multitude of approaches to accompany the conventional therapies of surgery, chemotherapy, molecular therapeutics, and radiotherapy to facilitate health.
By integrating two different paradigms on health one can get the best of both worlds for the patient. By having an open forum for discussing and researching complementary therapies, it is easier to ensure that therapies are identified which are safe and effective to support people through their cancer journey. This includes being able to have complementary therapy support whilst having conventional cancer treatment (referred to as ‘adjunctive’) where the evidence supports this. As the aim is for different healthcare practitioners – conventional and complementary – to all be working together for the good of the patients, an integrated approach aids the exchange of knowledge and understanding of different health disciplines.
A person who has been diagnosed with cancer, or is at any point on the cancer journey may be very vulnerable and hence another aspect of integrated care is to provide safe and accurate information based on research evidence. This does mean that in reality not every complementary therapy that you practice will currently have the level of research evidence behind it to support its use in integrated oncology. This doesn’t mean to say that it is without benefit, rather that this benefit hasn’t been documented in a rigorous and scientific manner that is accepted by all clinicians and researchers. Interestingly though, the amount of research evidence being published regarding supporting and improving quality of life in people with cancer continues to increase and at quite a rapid rate. One might say that the future for this approach is looking bright.
If you are thinking that this is all very well, but in reality a multidisciplinary approach is a long way off, then you’d have a valid point although the potential for an integrative approach to be adopted sooner rather than later is down to us all to. In the UK currently, we have a diversity of opinions on how best to treat and support a person with cancer. As the role of the expert patient grows within the NHS, then patient demand for these services may have a crucial role in taking this agenda forward. When all is said and done, and whether we agree with each other or not it is the person with cancer who should be at the centre of the treatment and support decisions that are being made.
If you are interested the integrated approach and want more information, then you can do several things.
Firstly there will be a talk on this at CAMEXPO 20th Oct 11.35am. This lecture will explore the integrated approach to oncology and present research finding of recent trials which demonstrate what is possible in this arena.
Secondly although the unique needs of cancer patients are well recognised they are not always discussed in detail during your practitioner training and it can be difficult to keep up to date with new research findings. There is now a series of 5 CPD days have been created with this specifically in mind to help you navigate your way through the issues associated with working with cancer patients who are currently receiving, or have received in the past, conventional medical treatment – there is a discount available for FHT members – for more details check the FHT website or details can be found at http://www.westminster.ac.uk/courses/professional-and-short/complementary-medicines/supporting-people-with-cancer-integrative-oncology-cpd.
Finally if you want to become part of the integrative oncology community, register your details on the BSIO website (http://bsio.org.uk) which is currently being developed for the new organisation.
About the authors
Dr Marie Polley, senior lecturer, has a PhD in molecular carcinogenesis and is a reiki master and practitioner. Her research has focused on patient’s perception of the benefits of complementary therapies in cancer support. It is recommended that FHT members working in the field of cancer care undertake additional training. A range of CPD courses specifically tailored to complementary therapists are available from the University of Westminster. www.westminster.ac.uk/courses/professional-and-short/complmentary-medicines
References
1. Cancer Research UK (2012) Cancer Incidence (2008) and Mortality (2009) Summary. http://publications.cancerresearchuk.org/downloads/Product/CS_DT_INCMORTRATES.pdf
2. Brearley SG,. (2011) The physical and practical problems experienced by cancer survivors: a rapid review and synthesis of the literature. Eur J Oncol Nurs. Jul;15(3):204-12. Epub 2011 Apr 13. Review.
3. Valdivieso M, Kujawa AM, Jones T, Baker LH. 2012 Cancer survivors in the United States: a review of the literature and a call to action. Int J Med Sci.;9(2):163-73. Epub 2012 Jan 17. Review.
4. Horneber M., et al (2011). How Many Cancer Patients Use Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Systematic Review and Metaanalysis. Integrative Cancer Therapies. 2011 Oct 21 doi: 10.1177/1534735411423920.
5. Egan B, et al (2012) Availability of complementary and alternative medicine for people with cancer in the British National Health Service: results of a national survey. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2012 May;18(2):75-80. Epub 2012 Jan 4.
