Image Credit: Adam Donnelly / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

CANCER SUPPORTS

Wrap-around cancer supports in Kamloops boosted with addition of InspireHealth services

Jun 21, 2022 | 3:38 PM

KAMLOOPS — This week, Kamloops residents got a better idea of what cancer supports are available to them, with the introduction of InspireHealth. The non-profit offers services from supportive care physicians, counsellors, dieticians and exercise therapists.

Leslie Brochu is the chair of the Kamloops Cancer Supportive Care Society and spent years advocating for improvements for people with cancer in the local area.

“Supportive care helps people, provides them the support they need to maintain as much of a healthy lifestyle as they can to improve their quality of life.”

The expansion to Kamloops is a partnership between InspireHealth, BC Cancer, the Kamloops Cancer Supportive Care Society and the RIH Foundation.

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Brochu says, while working with the RIH Foundation to find ways to improve care in Kamloops, they reached out to InspireHealth to see how feasible it would be to have service offered locally. InspireHealth has centres in Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria, and Tuesday (June 21) it was announced that Kamloops has been added.

“There are doctors, dieticians, nutritionists,” explains Brochu, “and you do not need a referral. You call, you register and they will find out who can help you the best.”

The idea is to supplement the medical treatments people with cancer are currently undergoing, or are recovering from with emotional, nutritional, physical and day-to-day guidance. These services can be accessed through group classes or one-on-one sessions.

InspireHealth Supportive Cancer Care’s Director of Clinical Services, Dr. Hannah Nette, says the benefits of wrap-around services cannot be understated.

“What we know is that when somebody has that full support, they do better. They can navigate their treatments better, they can get through their chemotherapy treatments and complete those treatments, they can recover from surgery faster.”

It will be virtual service to start, but part of why InspireHealth was appealing to the local organizations was because their services are free of charge. RIH Foundation CEO Heidi Coleman is glad to see the support come to Kamloops.

“As you saw from the demonstrations, there’s a lot of one on one. It’s not a video — you’re talking to someone live. You’re getting one-on-one help.”

Support is just one facet of the kind of cancer care needed in Kamloops. Many patients travel to Kelowna or Vancouver for their cancer treatments. And there is an ongoing push to bring a higher level of service and equipment to the Kamloops area.

“There is talk about bringing satellite radiation to Kamloops within two years. And it’s not being announced but it is rumblings that I hear,” explains Coleman. “We’re getting ready for that because one of the things the (RIH) Foundation would like to be involved with that I’m talking to Interior Health about is a potential lodge or somewhere for patients from Blue River and Ashcroft and Williams Lake to sleep when they come to Kamloops for radiation.”

InspireHealth supports are now up and running for the Kamloops area, and the hope is that the non-profit will eventually be able to establish a brick-and-mortar centre in the coming years.