Cancer care: support services also need help
Most of us know someone who has been impacted by cancer. People close to me have been through various cancer diagnoses — and I’m sure people close to you have been too. Some of those I know have survived, though the worry of relapse is always present. I’ve also lost dear friends and family, young and old to cancer — it’s a dreaded disease.
More than 13,300 people receive a cancer diagnosis in WA each year, and just over 145,000 people were diagnosed across Australia last year. However, the impact of the pandemic has meant that many people have received a later stage diagnosis, or haven’t been diagnosed at all — this was the case for about 7000 Australians last year.
Hearing the word “cancer” from your doctor can be overwhelming. It can conjure many mixed and uncertain thoughts and emotions. There is still a huge stigma that exists around cancer, and for patients this can be really hard, too.
Up to 25 per cent of people living with cancer experience depression and anxiety, and clinical research has shown that poor mental health can really affect a person’s treatment, recovery and quality of life. So, there is a huge need for cancer treatment to include emotional and psycho-social support, from a whole-of-being perspective.
Solaris Cancer Care has been a pioneer in the space of complementary therapies for cancer patients, carers and their families in Western Australia. The organisation was established in 2001 by clinical haematologist David Joske and was the first of its kind in Australia.
Dr Joske saw how important it was to support people along the cancer journey, and in a way that includes more than just mainstream treatment. But when the first cancer support centre opened at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, “there was much scepticism about the efficacy for complementary therapies”, says the organisation’s chief executive, Francis Lynch.
Solaris Cancer Care now operates six centres across WA, including its main centre in Cottesloe, one at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and St John of God in Subiaco, as well as three regional centres in Albany, Bunbury and a new one in the Pilbara. The organisation provides services such as counselling, meditation, yoga, reiki, hypnotherapy, and massage, as well as beauty, exercise and nutrition advice, and more. They also offer guidance with practical matters like preparing advanced health directives and estate planning.
Next week Solaris celebrates its 20th anniversary. There has been a steady increase in people seeking services, and the pandemic has led to support needs rising by up to 16 per cent. “There has been a growing consumer demand for integrated cancer care. During the past two decades, we have provided annually in excess of 28,000 cancer interventions,” Mr Lynch says.
Research by Solaris indicates that complementary therapies reduce treatment side effects such as pain, fatigue and nausea up to 14 per cent. And support services help to reduce the levels of stress, anxiety and depression a patient or carer may experience.
“Our hope is to broaden our reach to every West Australian touched by cancer to have access to free supportive cancer care services, regardless of where they live,” Mr Lynch says.
Solaris relies on the generosity and goodwill of the community, through volunteering, fundraising, philanthropy and grants to sustain its operations, and receives very little government funding.
There’s a very strong case, with plenty of evidence to back it up, for the role of complementary therapies in cancer care. Access to greater government funding would no doubt increase the capacity and impact of organisations such as Solaris, and improve health and wellbeing outcomes for people with cancer in WA.
Solaris Cancer Care: 08 9384 3544
Cancer Council WA: 13 11 20
This article was first published in The West Australian in Renée Gardiner’s weekly column in Agenda, 18 September 2021.