Supportive offers: What is it and why can it be helpful in oncological diseases?

Supportive offers for patients and relatives

Gyneco­lo­gi­cal can­cer and its tre­at­ment rai­ses many ques­ti­ons and usual­ly pres­ents tho­se affec­ted and their fami­lies with very chal­len­ging situa­tions that have to be mas­te­red. In such a chal­len­ging situa­ti­on, a sup­port­i­ve offe­ring in addi­ti­on to medi­cal tre­at­ment can help.

A hos­pi­tal should offer pati­ents and their rela­ti­ves a wide ran­ge of sup­port­i­ve ser­vices in addi­ti­on to medi­cal tre­at­ment. Becau­se this should help in chal­len­ging situa­tions to sup­port the cour­se of the­ra­py and impro­ve qua­li­ty of life and well-being.

The following supportive offers can be helpful:

Psycho-oncological counseling

Medi­cal dia­gno­stics go hand in hand with the offer of accom­pany­ing, psycho-onco­lo­gi­cal advice and sup­port. The dia­gno­sis of can­cer is a hea­vy blow to anyo­ne. The first hor­ror is usual­ly fol­lo­wed by emo­tio­nal turm­oil: Should I have lived healt­hi­er?
Why was­n’t the dise­a­se reco­gni­zed ear­lier? Do I still have a chan­ce at all? All of the­se ques­ti­ons are con­stant­ly in the mind of most of tho­se affec­ted and trig­ger nega­ti­ve fee­lings: anger at them­sel­ves or at fate, fears about the next dia­gno­stic exami­na­ti­on, about side effects of the tre­at­ment or about the pro­gres­si­on of the dise­a­se, shame about the chan­ged body. As the ill­ness pro­gres­ses, making dif­fi­cult decis­i­ons, retur­ning to work or other situa­tions can be dif­fi­cult and stressful.

Nutritional advice

Nut­ri­tio­nal the­ra­py (also cal­led diet the­ra­py) com­pri­ses all nut­ri­tio­nal mea­su­res to res­to­re health and regain the patient’s abili­ty to act. Various forms of inter­ven­ti­on are assi­gned to nut­ri­tio­nal the­ra­py to ensu­re the indi­vi­du­al ener­gy and nut­ri­ent requi­re­ments of pati­ents. Nut­ri­tio­nal the­ra­py also pur­sues the goal of acti­vat­ing the indi­vi­du­al and social resour­ces of tho­se affec­ted and their rela­ti­ves in order to enable them to act inde­pendent­ly and appro­pria­te­ly on nutrition.

Nut­ri­ti­on is the basis of life — both in the pre­ven­ti­on and in the medi­cal the­ra­py of the respec­ti­ve disease.

Weight loss is often the first sign of a mali­gnant dise­a­se. In the fur­ther cour­se of medi­cal tre­at­ment, the nut­ri­tio­nal sta­tus its­elf has a signi­fi­cant influence on the tole­r­a­bi­li­ty of the the­ra­py as well as on the cour­se of the dise­a­se and the pro­gno­sis. Due to the ever-impro­ving can­cer the­ra­pies that enable lon­ger sur­vi­val, nut­ri­tio­nal the­ra­py is beco­ming incre­asing­ly important.

Palliative care

Can­cer pati­ents and their rela­ti­ves are often con­fron­ted with a varie­ty of phy­si­cal, psy­cho­lo­gi­cal, social and spi­ri­tu­al bur­dens, which can be asso­cia­ted with a redu­ced qua­li­ty of life and redu­ced the­ra­peu­tic effects.

Com­pre­hen­si­ve onco­lo­gi­cal care the­r­e­fo­re includes, in addi­ti­on to purely medi­cal care, assis­tance with the­se often com­plex pro­blems. Ide­al­ly, this is done by a tre­at­ment team con­sis­ting of various pro­fes­sio­nal groups and disci­pli­nes. Espe­ci­al­ly when tumor dise­a­ses can­not be cured and the remai­ning life span will pre­su­ma­b­ly be limi­t­ed, addi­tio­nal know­ledge can be very hel­pful. A spe­ci­al­ly trai­ned per­cep­ti­on, wil­ling­ness to lis­ten and exten­si­ve know­ledge of the tre­at­ment opti­ons for com­plex com­plaints are just some of the neces­sa­ry requi­re­ments for com­pre­hen­si­ve pal­lia­ti­ve care. The­se aspects of pal­lia­ti­ve care need to be inte­gra­ted into onco­lo­gi­cal care in good time.

Pastoral care

Hos­pi­tal pas­to­ral care is offe­red by the Pro­tes­tant and Catho­lic Churches. Full-time and vol­un­t­a­ry employees will be hap­py to visit and accom­pa­ny you. Regard­less of reli­gious affi­lia­ti­on, pas­tors will lis­ten to you and give you sup­port. Ill­ness and a stay in a cli­nic trig­ger a wide varie­ty of fee­lings and ques­ti­ons. Pas­to­ral care is seen as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to address things that are curr­ent­ly important to you or your loved ones.

Relatives’ consultation hour

In moments of ill­ness, hos­pi­tal stays and medi­cal tre­at­ment, it is important for cli­nics to be able to give you com­pre­hen­si­ve advice, not only pro­fes­sio­nal­ly but also per­so­nal­ly. For this pur­po­se, nur­sing staff and doc­tors are on hand with advice and action on the wards, in the out­pa­ti­ent depart­ments and in the ope­ra­ting thea­ter. You are the pri­ma­ry point of cont­act for your con­cerns and questions.

Social service

In addi­ti­on to the phy­si­cal and psy­cho­lo­gi­cal effects, serious ill­nesses can signi­fi­cant­ly chan­ge the per­so­nal, social and pro­fes­sio­nal situa­ti­on, which is accom­pa­nied by a varie­ty of ques­ti­ons and chal­lenges. That is why the social ser­vice offers you pro­fes­sio­nal, indi­vi­du­al and neu­tral advice. The con­cern of the social ser­vice is to pro­vi­de pati­ents and their rela­ti­ves in all pha­ses of the ill­ness with infor­ma­ti­on and sup­port opti­ons that can be hel­pful in coping with their ill­ness and its effects on ever­y­day life and the per­so­nal environment.

Complementary medicine

Many can­cer pati­ents and their rela­ti­ves often ask them­sel­ves whe­ther and what they can do in addi­ti­on to ongo­ing or alre­a­dy com­ple­ted onco­lo­gi­cal the­ra­py in order to opti­mal­ly sup­port body and soul in tre­at­ment and to main­tain health. Com­ple­men­ta­ry medi­ci­ne repres­ents accom­pany­ing pos­si­bi­li­ties that con­tri­bu­te to holi­stic care. The­se include nut­ri­tio­nal advice, her­bal medi­ci­nes, natu­ral heal­ing methods, but also rela­xa­ti­on methods, phy­si­cal acti­vi­ty and much more. At this point it is important to us: Com­ple­men­ta­ry medi­ci­ne is a sup­ple­ment, but not a sub­sti­tu­te for con­ven­tio­nal medi­ci­ne — it is not an alter­na­ti­ve medicine!

The­re are num­e­rous offers at the women’s cli­nic at Cha­ri­té Ber­lin. Sup­port­i­ve offers are available to pati­ents, regard­less of whe­ther they are recei­ving inpa­ti­ent or out­pa­ti­ent tre­at­ment. Pati­ents can take part after regis­tering. More infor­ma­ti­on can be found here.