Brett Wilson of Scott Depot WV attended the seventh annual Community Oncology Conference, March 30-31 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This marked the second year that patient advocates attended the meting. The Community Oncology Alliance Patient Advocacy Network (CPAN)helped cancer survivors learn to reach out and share their stories with the public. Patients from across the country gathered to map out a strategy for public,legislative,and media outreach. Brett Wilson was amongst 40 patient advocates from across the nation who gathered to earn and share.
The conference was also attended by health care professionals form community settings across the U.S., where four out of five cancer patients are treated ranging from practice based oncologists and oncology nurses to practice administrators.
“This conference is the oncology’s most inclusive venue in which physicians, administrators, nurses and other care team members come together with patients to address the many issues challenging oncology.”said Dr. David Eagle President of the Community Oncology Alliance. “The Patient Advocacy Track is an important of our commitment to protecting accss to affordable community care. We must all be concerned with the future of cancer care because cancer touches everyone. We are grateful that Brett Wilson took time to attend the meeting and will be speaking out on behalf of cancer patients.”
“Four out of five cancer patients in this country are treated in the community setting, as I was,and half of all cancer patients are Medicare patients,” continued Brett Wilson. A dynamic and passionate 2 time childhood cancer survivor, Wilson had Leukemia when he was 2 years old and non Hodgkin’s lymphoma when he was 9 years old. He is now 27 years in remission. “As I examine my life, I am now 39, and I know God is not done with me yet. I have been a cancer survivor for 27 years and I have a unique patient and professional perspective very few people have Often asked why he feels this way Wilson simply states, “WHY?” I have walked through the minefield of cancer already and I don’t want you and your family to do it alone like mine did . Having had very little resource or help, Wilson and his family had their up and down feelings and emotions that one goes through mentally during his treatment.” My family and I just blindly trusted the system and went through the process, we had no choice. You should not have to do that now. You have a choice and we can help by walking with you helping you advocate for yourself and guiding you every step of the way through your cancer survivorship journey so your voice can be heard on a national level, your state leaders don’t know the cancer issues in your community that is why we all need to be more assertive and help them fix the issue by explaining those barriers to care and expecting them to be removed”. Oftentimes, our communities own cancer doctors struggle to treat their patients. We need to fix the system and protect community cancer care, so that it is available for current and future cancer patients.
For additional information consulting the CPAN website at www.communityoncology.org/coa-patient-advocacy-network or contact Rose Gerber, Director of Patient Advocacyat roseg@coacancer.org
ABOUT WMO WV- Walking Miracles.Org WV
We will serve all cancer patients in West Virginia both in rural areas and in cities where there are cancer centers. Just because a city has an affluent culture does not mean they are getting the services they need, or the ones we provide. Patient services is a buzz word now in the hospital systems, due to the fact that the American College of Surgeons has now stood up for cancer survivors. The reaserch gathered for many years shows that there are services cancer patients and their families have needed and wanted but have not been implemented in some hospitals and cancer centers. This is because these types of support services do not bring in revenue, partnerships are being made to bring them to you the cancer patient in order to get cedentialling for the cancer centers and hospitals. The problem is they are costly and some rural centers can’t offer them due to budget issues. We have creaed these services for cancer survivors (new patients are considered survivors) and thier families in our communites at no cost to you. We are based on a patient centered approach because our board and staff have had cancer impact our lives. We can relate to you because we have been through it ourselves. It could have impacted us as a friend, family member, cancer survivor, or we could have lost a loved one to the disease. The other advantage we have is we can be home based or you can visit our center. We can adapt to our clients needs and serve many areas across the state if need be and network you to the right facility . We will do this by using assessments in our communites to address the major barriers to care in West Virginia and finding out what they had for help and what was missing. We will use an exciting out of the box approach using the power of the internet and another unique way to communicate. We won’t ask you to go to our page and get your help we will do the work for you and communcate with you all the way through your cancer journey. Based on the common barriers gathered from our assessments to care that we see the money we raise will cover those needs specifically and any other our board and CEO see fit.
