NEWS

Touch, Caring and Cancer in the News...

And from WCSH in Portland, Maine, two couples with breast cancer in the study...

3/31/11 -- City of Hope Conducts NCI-Sponsored Program on Family Caregiving, Gives The Touch, Caring and Cancer Program. The City of Hope in Duarte, California, has received a grant from the National Cancer Institute entitled "Improving Quality of Life and Quality of Care for Oncology Family Caregivers." The purpose of the grant is to implement a national education project about cancer family caregiving, by conducting a series of four 3-day trainings for cancer center personnel from around the nation. At the first meeting in Anaheim in March 2011 the project introduced the Touch, Caring and Cancer program and gave out copies to 93 participants from over 70 cancer centers. Click here for details.

2/7/11 -- "The Underserved Outreach Project", a collaboration between the Lloyd Symington Foundation and Collinge and Associates, will donate 300 copies of the Touch, Caring and Cancer program to cancer centers and other organizations serving low income and minority families. Click here for details.

9/20/10 -- Fascinating NPR Story on the Power of Touch. Click here to listen.

5/1/10 -- Providence Cancer Center adopts the Touch, Caring and Cancer program as a free family support offering. Providence Cancer Center in Portland, Oregon, part of the Providence Health Care System in the northwestern states, is the first large cancer center to offer the Touch, Caring and Cancer program as a free gift to families of cancer patients receiving treatment there. Copies of the program will be provided as a way for family members to partcipate in their loved one's care at home. Providence Cancer Center has a strong program of Integrative Medicine Services at their facility, including massage, acupuncture, and other complementary therapies.

4/1/10 -- MD Anderson Cancer Center and Herald Cancer Association, Houston, conduct retreat using the Touch, Caring and Cancer program. A one-day retreat for Chinese-speaking families with a cancer patient was conducted in Houston in March, co-sponsored by MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Herald Cancer Association. Oncology massage experts from MD Anderson co-led the retreat, and families were given copies of the Chinese language version of the program to take home. The Touch, Caring and Cancer program is multi-lingual (English, Spanish, Cantonese and Mandarin), making it a valuable resource for overcoming disparities in palliative care for underserved and minority populations.

12/1/09 -- All versions of Touch, Caring and Cancer program now available. The English, Spanish and Chinese language versions of the award-winning program Touch, Caring and Cancer are now available (see trailers on this site). All versions use the same DVD with user-selectable language tracks. The DVD is accompanied by the illustrated manual in the language of the user's choice. The Music for Partners in Healing CD is also available now, with samples available on this site (contains the theme music from the DVD).

11/13/09 -- Study Shows Family Caregivers, Simple Touch Techniques Reduce Symptoms in Cancer Patients (news release of Society for Integrative Oncology presentation). Click here.

7/26/09 -- Susan G. Komen Foundation's Maine affiliate funds tote bag program that includes the Touch, Caring and Cancer DVD for breast cancer patients and caregivers. Southern Maine Medical Center VNA now includes the DVD Touch, Caring and Cancer in its tote bag program, funded by the Susan G. Komen Foundation's Maine affiliate, for breast cancer patients and their caregivers in southern Maine. Tote bags are distributed free by all surgeons' offices at the time of a breast cancer diagnosis. The program has also been adopted by the Mercy Hospital Breast Care Center in Portland.