Transcript Mission of Gilda`s Club

Gilda's Club
A Legacy for life
Hong Hui Huang
Department of Hematology
Ren Ji Hospital
• Gilda's Club is a special place where the
focus is on living with cancer. And where
men, women and children with any kind of
cancer and their family members and
friends can plan and build life-changing
emotional and social support.
Mission of Gilda's Club
• The mission of Gilda's Club is to provide
places where men, women, and children
with cancer and their families and friends
join with others to build social and
emotional support as a supplement to
medical care.
Mission of Gilda's Club
• free of charge and non-profit,
• offer support and networking groups,
lectures, workshops and social events in a
nonresidential, home-like setting,
• Funding is solicited from private
individuals, corporations, and foundations.
Gilda Radner
Gilda Radner
• Gilda's Club is named in memory of
comedian
• Gilda Radner died from ovarian cancer in
1989
• Gilda is best known for
– her work on NBC's Saturday Night Live
– her book, It's Always Something, describes her
life with cancer.
Joanna Bull
Joanna Bull
• the founder of Gilda's Club and sits on the
Board of Directors of Gilda's Club
Worldwide
• worked as a cancer psychotherapist during
the Gilda's illness
Joanna Bull
• worked to
communities
establish
free
cancer
support
– first at the pioneering Center for the Healing Arts in
Los Angeles,
– later at The Wellness Community in Santa Monica and
Redondo Beach, California.
– trained and supervised therapists extensively in the
concept,
– worked with hundreds of people with cancer and their
family members on psychosocial issues related to
cancer.
Joanna Bull
• the author of Gilda's Club: Philosophy and
Program,
• a frequent lecturer at cancer-related
institutes and psycho-oncology meetings
and conferences around the world,
• an advisor to the National Cancer
Legislation Advisory Committee.
Where to find Gilda’s Club
• The first Gilda's Club, including a worldwide
training center, opened its signature red door in
New York City in 1995.
• Since that time, additional clubhouses have
opened in larger cities (Chicago, Detroit, London,
Montreal, Toronto), smaller cities (Fort
Lauderdale, Quad Cities, Hackensack, Rochester)
and several points in between (Nashville, Grand
Rapids, White Plains).
Clubhouse
• Although every Gilda’s Clubhouse is
different in size and layout, each has
specific rooms designed for parts of the
Gilda’s Club program.
Program overview
• Support and Networking Groups
– Weekly Wellness Groups for those living with
cancer
– Family Groups for family members and friends,
– Monthly Networking Groups on a particular
kind of cancer or topic of common interest
(prostate cancer, young adults with cancer,
living solo with cancer, etc.)
Program overview
• Lectures and Workshops
– These activities provide opportunities for
acquiring new skills, tools, information and
techniques to learn how to live with cancer.
– Typical lecture topics
• stress reduction, nutrition, talking to your children about
cancer, and managing pain.
– Major workshop areas
• art and other forms of self-expression, meditation,
exercise and yoga, and cooking.
Program overview
• Social Activities
– These are among the most popular offerings at
Gilda's Clubs.
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potluck suppers with music
karaoke nights
joke fests
comedy nights
major celebrations around special holidays (Halloween
is a real favorite!)
– Having members and families come together for
fun creates bonds that enhance other individual
and group experiences.
Program overview
• Team Convene™
– Facilitated by a staff member, these two-hour sessions
are requested by a person with cancer or family
member to create an active support network at the time
of diagnosis and for any challenging situations that may
follow (e.g., a hospital stay or home recuperation).
– Sessions include all significant friends and family in a
member's life, who join together to provide support for
transportation, food preparation, childcare, etc.
Program overview
• Family Focus™
– The Family Focus meeting, including anyone a
member defines as family and facilitated by a
staff member, is designed to enlist the entire
family as a resource and help them learn together
how to live with cancer.
– It seeks to identify and discuss family beliefs
about cancer, critical family issues, and immediate
practical problems as well as solutions.
Program overview
• Noogieland
– This is both the Gilda's Club program and play area for
children, as well as a supplement to the core program
for parents who are members.
– In a special area of every clubhouse, activities are
conducted for children impacted by cancer, whether
directly or by having a family member or friend with
cancer.
– Most Gilda's Clubs also have several kinds of activity
for teens, who frequently volunteer in many parts of the
clubhouse.
Terminology
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psycotherapy
recurrence
anaplastic astrocytoma
ovarian cancer
advanced cervical cancer
non-hodgkin’s lymphoma
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
needle aspiration
Terminology
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radiation
chemotherapy
cranioplasty
PAP smear
Temodar(TM) (temozolomide)
Carboplatin
Taxol
anti-angiogenesis