The Forum provides informational and emotional support for people suffering from malignant cancer, and/or gives support to their friends and relatives.
The Oncological Forum was created to provide informational and emotional support for people suffering from malignant cancer, and/or give support to their friends and relatives. The forum:
- helps in understanding what cancer is and what the course of the disease might be;
- explains what the aims and procedures (palliative care/radical therapy) of the treatment are;
- provides extensive information about the methods of treatment (and discuss the possibility of taking part in clinical trials);
- familiarizes the patients with their rights;
- tries to edify the patients that they should cooperate with the doctors;
- promotes conventional medicine in treating the cancer.
The Forum has become a place to exchange experience on the daily care of the cancer-stricken and on various ways of dealing with cancer treatment side-effects. The Forum also enables people to exchange information on diagnostic and therapeutic services in given clinics. During 2.5 years The Oncological Forum has got 500.000 views (both those who are in need of help as well as those who want to help).
E-volunteers that cooperate with the Oncological Forum give support to the users who share their problems and ask for help. The e-volunteers, depending on their qualifications, give assistance to the forum users in many various ways: some support the ill and their relatives by giving information and explaining medical issues, others give emotional support, and offer to help personally in diagnosing and treating a given forum user. E-volunteers answer specific questions concerning the standards of oncological diagnosis and treatment. Trying to stress the advantages of hospice care, the volunteers provide information on oncological treatment programmes (reimbursement for targeted medication therapy), and explain the concept of clinical trials and the possible benefits of participating in such tests. The e-volunteers show an in-depth understanding of all the problems the forum users might have and are eager to share their knowledge and experience – not only are their comments highly informative but they also reassure the patients in that they are not alone, that there are people willing to help them overcome the disease. Arguing in favour of conventional oncological therapy and disproving the delusive and harmful myth that a “wonderful recovery” is allegedly possible thanks to unconventional medicine, the e-volunteers educate the cancer-stricken on the nature of the disease.
Name of organisation: Fundacja Onkologiczna Dum Spiro-Spero (The Dum Spiro-Spero Oncological Foundation)
Project website: http://www.fundacja-onkologiczna.pl
WINNER OF THE POLISH EDITION OF
