Charity program to provide training for cancer rehabilitation staff
Officials from Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai Trust and Shanghai Health Commission celebrate the launch of the charity program on Friday.
A charity program kicked off on Friday to offer training for grassroots staff and volunteers involved in cancer recovery.
Through knowledge and skills improvement in fields like cancer diagnosis and treatment, psychological support, as well as sports and nutrition, the program plans to build a scientific and practical service system, helping patients and their families improve their life quality.
The program, which is jointly launched by Shanghai Cancer Center and Shanghai Trust, wants to provide high-quality services to cancer patients and their families in the community through the introduction of cancer rehabilitation staff.
"The concept is developed based on the demand on whole-process management and human-oriented care for cancer patients, who need not only professional medics from leading hospitals but also support from various people like grassroots medics, community officials, medical volunteers and other professionals related to patients' quality of life and rehabilitation," said Dr Gu Wenying from Shanghai Cancer Center and initiator of the new concept.
"Cancer rehabilitation and recovery has a wide range. All people who are related are such staff and patients and their families are the most important part, so the program will explore more campaigns and projects with patients' involvement," Gu said.
Grassroots officials and volunteers offer support to cancer patients and their families.
According to the Shanghai Center of Disease Control and Prevention, there are about 88,700 new cancer patients among registered residents each year, which has an incidence of 607.6 per 100,000.
With the promotion and development of screening technology and medical capabilities, the survival rate of cancer patients has continually risen in the past 10 years in China.
For patients at the Shanghai Cancer Center, the five-year survival rate, which means clinical recovery, is 71.3 percent.
"These large number of patients need social and psychological support and social function recovery. Cancer rehabilitation involves not only medicine but also sociology, psychology, nutrition science and other fields. But the awareness and service are unbalanced in different regions and need the involvement of more professionals," Gu said.
This charity program will offer systematic training for grassroots staff and volunteers covering basic knowledge about cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation as well as social psychology support skills and basic knowledge about sports, nutrition and health care therapies and also research on patients' rehabilitation situations to establish community-based health management centers, officials said.
