Complementary Therapies

[Guest guest]

I have been working with complementary therapies, not the approach that

is sometimes described as Carnival Side Show healing but those therapies

that really do something to heal.

Most arguments put forward by the medicial profession tend to downgrade

the use of Complementary Therapies enpathizing that there exists no

credible evidence.

The following published report needs reading.

Psychosocial Support: Providing Complementary Therapies for Cancer

Patients in a WA Teaching Hospital, Results from SolarisCare's

Eight Years of Experience.

D. J.L. Joske 1 , A. S. Petterson 2 , M. 3

1 Sir Gairdner Hospital, Haematology, Perth, WA, Australia

2, SolarisCare Foundation, Cancer Support Centre, Perth, WA, Australia

3,Western Australian Institute for Medical Research, Biostatistician

Perth, WA, Australia

Introduction: SolarisCare is located in a major teaching hospital and

provides access to cancer information, raises awareness of the value of

psychosocial support and provides supervised complementary therapies for

Western Australians with cancer and their carers.

SolarisCare is serviced by volunteers, some who `meet and greet',

others provide complementary therapies. SolarisCare has over 120

visitors weekly, about two-thirds access free complementary therapies.

Methods: Using validated Quality-of-Life and Symptom Assessment scales,

we assessed the impact of providing complementary therapies for cancer

patients in a teaching hospital.

Assessments were completed prior to a patients first session and then

after their third and sixth sessions. We report here our results for a

period of eight years. (1.800 patients)

Sessions were provided from four therapy groupings:

[1] Touch-based 51%. e.g. Bowen therapy, massage, reflexology;

[2] Energy-based 39%. e.g. reiki, pranic healing, kinesiology;

[3] Mind/body-based 7%. e.g. meditation, art therapy, qi gong and

[4] Counselling 3%.. The sample comprised of patients with a variety of

cancers. Breast cancer was predominant

Outcomes: Over a course of 6 complementary therapy sessions, individual

symptom distress scores improved; with fatigue showing the most

improvement. The Quality-of-Life QoL. Scale comprised 7 items,

empowerment, depression, anxiety, frustration, confusion, coping,

relaxed and mean QoL showed a similar, but more pronounced improvement

..0001..

Because there was a marked attrition over time an analysis was made for

so-called missingness using a multi-variate random-effects model. The

results were confirmed. No medical misadventure was recorded.

Conclusion & recommendations: Our data demonstrates a positive impact on

participants' quality-of-life together with reduced symptomatology and

symptom distress for patients who used the innovative cancer support,

accessed through SolarisCare that includes free complementary therapies.

This study provides a body of evidence that reveals the journey for

Australians with cancer and their carers is improved with this approach.