[OTTAWA, ON, April 11 2018] – The Canadian Cancer Survivor Network hosted its second All-party Cancer Caucus meeting with members of the Ontario legislature at Queen’s Park, Toronto on March 21, 2018, with participants continuing discussions on the topic of rehabilitative services for the side effects of cancer and its treatments. There were many new faces at the table, and participants engaged in a robust exchange on strategizing how to address the lack of cancer rehabilitation services and trained experts who could provide it in the Ontario healthcare system.
Studies show that there is a serious need for cancer rehabilitation services and programs. In particular, a survey conducted across Canada found that there are only twenty formal cancer rehabilitation programs that exist, as Jaymee Maaghop, CCSN’s Pubic Policy Assistant, explained.” Yet in Ontario alone, there are about 500,000 cancer survivors, and approximately one million in the whole of Canada. Researchers have also found that there is no database available on these services, which makes it even more difficult to gain access to much needed rehabilitation and care for the side effects of cancer and its treatments.
There is clearly a need to address this shortage of cancer rehab programs in order to provide appropriate care to patients, survivors and caregivers,” Maaghop added.
Presentations were followed by a congenial but spirited discussion among MPPs, patients, caregivers and scientists about the ways and means of ensuring that more survivors have access to cancer rehabilitation and how this could be funded and implemented.
The third meeting of CCSN’s All-party Cancer Caucus will be held in fall 2018.
For a full event report, click here.