New projects for the LJMC
The appointment of the first Nurse Consultant for the Cancer Survivorship programme at the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, together with a significant grant to the LJMC from a local charitable trust, have led to a number of exciting new initiatives and projects.
Staff at the LJMC were delighted to learn that the new Nurse Consultant post was to be filled by Dr Cathy Wilson, a former colleague from the LJMC Research team.
Cathy’s new role will be to lead and develop the survivorship programme, picking up on national initiatives and turning them into workable, useful programmes for patients and staff.
As the LJMC bears much of the responsibility for providing support and information at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, Cathy will be working very closely with many of the teams here and she is delighted to be back amongst her LJMC friends.
Initially, the focus of Cathy’s attention will be developing survivorship initiatives for patients living with active or advanced disease.
The clinical aspects of Cathy’s work will include setting up assessment clinics for patients living with a diagnosis of cancer. With an increasing emphasis on self-management in cancer care, Cathy will also be working on projects to develop efficient, ongoing support and care for patients finishing treatment.
Ensuring they have the information they need will be crucial and the LJMC’s Information team is well placed to play a key role in this project. The team’s experience in anticipating patients’ needs and creating accurate, informative publications will be an essential ingredient. This dovetails neatly with the extensive work that the Information team has undertaken to implement the new national Patient Information Prescription service.
Cathy will be developing a website with information and links to relevant resources on topics such as healthy eating and stopping smoking.
The website will be aimed both at patients and also healthcare professionals providing information on all aspects of life after treatment.
The website project is being funded by the Milly Apthorp Charitable Trust, a local organisation that expressed keen interest in funding work at the LJMC. We are immensely grateful to the Trustees for their generous support.
Fulfilling the educational aspect of her role, Cathy will spend time contributing to study days for healthcare professionals as well as talking to support groups.
She is already working closely with Cherry Mackie, the LJMC Support Group Co-ordinator, to set up a new group for carers. This is an exciting project that has been on our drawing board for some time and we’re delighted finally to be getting it off the ground.
The third strand to Cathy’s role is research. Drawing on the LJMC’s existing ear acupuncture service for ladies experiencing hot flushes as a side-effect of hormone treatment for breast cancer, Cathy will be looking to establish a similar service for prostate cancer patients.
With so many possibilities for developing the LJMC’s services, there are few areas of the LJMC that won’t be involved in some way or other with Cathy’s projects and the naturally innovative LJMC team members are poised to roll up their sleeves and start work.
Last updated: 23 July, 2010
