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Guiding your journey through illness ....

In This Issue
Holiday Grief Survival Tips
OECD "Health at a Glance 2011" Report
Clinical Cancer Advances 2011

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Rainbow with green hills

Volume 2 Issue 6
December 2011  
Dear Readers,

Welcome to the December issue of "Patient Navigator Notes," a bi-monthly newsletter to inform our readers about important health topics.

We send to our readers our warm wishes for health, happiness and serenity this Christmas and Holiday Season and in the New Year.

We welcome feedback at Patient Navigator
or by email.

Elisabeth Schuler Russell
Founder and President
Patient Navigator, LLC  
  G
uiding your journey through illness ....
 Holiday Grief - Survival Tips

 

Many people experience depression during the holiday season. This is not surprising given that we are bombarded with loud Christmas music wherever we go, incessant advertising and a non-stop drumbeat to shop, buy, spend and create the perfect Hallmark holiday.   It is hard not to feel stressed out if you then add the pressure of entertaining, houseguests and a long list of expectations.

 

Now imagine trying to face all this when you are grieving the loss of a loved one.

 

It is very hard.  It is painful.  It is unbearably sad.

 

I lost my mother very suddenly and unexpectedly in May 1990, when she was 63 and I was 31.  I made the decision to skip Christmas entirely that year - no tree, no gifts, no decorations. I simply could not bear it.   

 

Fortunately, my boyfriend (now husband) understood and supported me, and there were no children to worry about back then. It was the best I could do.

 

The pressure to go along with the holidays is intense.  Here are my own tips on how to get through them if you are grieving.

 

1.  Don't let anyone pressure you or try to tell you what will make you feel better.  Only you know what helps.

 

2.  Remember your loved one in whatever way seems right - a walk in the woods, a prayer service, watching their favorite movie, setting a place at your table.  You don't need anyone's permission or concurrence.

 

3.  Don't be afraid to tell people that it really is not a Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday for you.  Let your colleagues at work know that the season is hard for you and ask them to understand if you are distant.

 

4.  Learn to say no.

 

5.  Give yourself permission to mourn.  It is normal and necessary.  And then tell yourself gently, over and over, that you will not always feel this way.  And, in time, you won't.

 

I've learned a great deal over the years about loss and grief.  I've learned to grow from each loss in my life, but it has taken a lot of work and faith.  If you are grieving this holiday season, you are not alone.  But please know and believe, with all your heart, that you will not always feel the way you do now.  Time does heal.  Things will get better.

 

For more information on grief and the holidays, I suggest:

 

Therese A. Rando, PhD.  Grieving: How to Go on Living When Someone You Love Dies. (Note:  This book saved me as I grieved the loss of my mother).

 

Elaine Tiller, M.Div.   When Grief Comes Home for the Holidays, How do you Manage?  

 

Wendt Center for Loss and Healing, Washington, D.C. Happy Holidays?

  

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Health at a Glance 2011 Report Issued by the OECD

Staying healthy in the United States is expensive. In fact, in 2009, the average annual cost of health care was $7,960 per person -- two and a half times what it was in Japan for the same year.  

 

That's just one of the numbers from the new report out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which compared health care costs across all 34 of its members. The report illustrates significant variation between costs in different countries.

 

The Health at a Glance 2011 report discusses all aspects of the state of health care among the OECD countries, backed up with important statistics, graphs and user-friendly text.  Anyone who has heard that the "The U.S. spends more on health care than any other country with worse outcomes" will see, with detailed data, precisely why that is the case.  I encourage you to take a look at this important work.  

 

In a November 25 interview, PBS Newshour asked Matthias Rumpf from the OECD  why health care costs in the United States so much higher than any other OECD country

 

He responded that high spending by the U.S. on health must either be because the price of healthcare is higher than in other countries, or else because it provides more health activities than other countries, or a combination of the two. Evidence suggests that both factors are important, but particularly prices.

   

For example, he said, the same set of hospital interventions (including the normal delivery of a baby, a Caesarean section, a hip or knee replacement, etc.) cost 60 percent more in the United States than in a selection of other countries. Similarly, 50 high-selling pharmaceuticals cost 60 percent more in the United States than in Europe. But the United States also uses a lot of expensive diagnostic tests, such as MRI and CT scans, and performs a lot of interventions where it is not always clear-cut whether the procedure is necessary or not -- tonsillectomies, knee replacements, and so on.

   

Matthias also noted that the primary care system -- the network of family doctors and clinics that people can go to when they first think they have a health problem, and that can advise people on how to stay healthy -- is underdeveloped in the United States.

 

This is bad for people's health, but also raises overall costs. For example, most people with diabetes, asthma or difficulties in breathing (COPD) should not need to be treated in a hospital. They require monitoring, but this does not need to happen in hospitals, it is something that the primary care system should manage. It is far cheaper for a family doctor to check that people are following their treatment properly and that it is appropriate, than for things to go wrong and someone to be admitted to hospital as an emergency. Greater attention to the primary care system is urgently needed.

And, Health at a Glance 2011 shows that obesity rates have doubled or even tripled in many countries since 1980. In more than half of OECD countries, 50 percent or more of the population is now overweight, if not obese. The obesity rate in the adult population is highest in the United States -- rising from 15 percent in 1980 to 34 percent in 2008 -- and lowest in Japan and South Korea, at 4 percent.

 

There is a lot to learn from this report that can help to inform a rational debate on health care.  One thing is sure:  we can't keep doing what we're doing without bankrupting the country.    

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Clinical Cancer Advances 2011

 

One of the best cancer websites is managed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).  It contains incredibly useful information on everything a cancer patient needs to know, from cancer education, management, financial help, treatments and survivorship.   

 

Each year, the American Society of Clinical Oncology conducts an independent review of advances in cancer research that have the greatest potential impact on patients' lives. This year, Clinical Cancer Advances 2011 features 54 significant studies, including 12 that the report's editors consider major advances.

 

This year's Clinical Cancer Advances report also recaps the year's most important cancer policy developments and ASCO policy initiatives that are likely to influence cancer care over the coming years. These include developments that could help to accelerate the pace of clinical cancer research progress and ensure access to quality cancer care for patients.

 

Anyone who is impacted by or interested in cancer research, treatments and care should look at this report.  

 

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