Post-treatment options.
Tara Bhalla Prostate Cancer Follow Up Program
Through a Follow Up program for prostate cancer patients, The Prostate Centre is working towards filling a gap in services in follow-up care by focusing on patient navigation and personal advocacy. This program depicts the Centre’s position as a community resource in partnership with the health system.
The Tara Bhalla Prostate Cancer Follow Up Program will be structured to coach men to commit to maintaining their health goals and adhere to post treatment disease monitoring. Specific services to be offered by the Centre’s registered nurse include:
- Monitoring adherence to post active treatment plan (through scheduled visits, phone calls and email)
- Supporting men with cancer survivorship, developing individual goal plans
- Monitoring for disease progression or other illnesses in a coordinated manner to ensure engagement of the appropriate resources – family physicians, specialists and multidisciplinary professionals.
- Development of online resources to allow client to monitor their own care and access educational/support tools.
Our goals are simply to support men in their cancer journey, provide ongoing adherence to surveillance in this population and monitor risks of disease recurrence, therefore reducing the cost to the health care system of duplicate visits to clinic and family doctor.
The Tara Bhalla Prostate Cancer Follow-up Program will support the 775 men diagnosed with prostate cancer on a yearly basis on Vancouver Island. Those clients who do not have a family physician, who get “lost in the system” over time, have an opportunity to participate in a program developed to assist them to manage their disease, their health and their wellness. This program has the potential to save lives along with health care dollars used to provide active treatment for advanced disease that may have been prevented.
Accessing the program – may be through physician referral or self referral. You may also contact The Prostate Centre directly at 250-388-0214 to refer or discuss a client and the program.
We are very grateful to the Bhalla family for their generous donation in support of this NURSE LED program.
