The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium is recruiting cancer survivors for its second annual Southeast Men’s Prostate and Testicular Cancer Survivor Retreat on June 1-3 in Wrangell.
The retreat has 15 slots open to Alaska Native survivors of prostate or testicular cancer who live in Southeast Alaska. If there are unfilled openings after the application deadline of March 30, they will become available for non-Native men. The retreat allows the men a chance to share experiences about their cancer and talk with health care experts.
Evening discussions will be led by Alaska Native Medical Center lead oncologist Dr. Greg Marino, recently retired ANMC urologist Dr. Michael Singsaas and SEARHC Community Health Care Services Medical Director Dr. Russ Bowman. SEARHC Behavioral Health/Suicide Prevention Program Manager Wilbur Brown will facilitate and SEARHC Community Health Care Services Health Systems Specialist Richelle Whitson will provide logistical support.
In addition to sharing their cancer experiences, the men will receive round-trip transportation to Hardings Old Sourdough Lodge in Wrangell, meals and snacks, lodging, and a guided fishing trip or a jet boat excursion on the Stikine River. All expenses and equipment will be covered, and no sport fishing experience is necessary.
“We had a lot of positive response after last year’s first retreat on Prince of Wales Island. Many of the men and their spouses contacted us and asked if we were going to have another retreat,” Whitson said. “Men came with lots of questions about their cancers that we were able to answer for them. We found that many of the men are keeping in touch, and they’ve become friends and support networks for each other.”
The retreat is funded through grants from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration and the Alaska Prostate Cancer Coalition, with other funders possible. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium provided the services of Marino and Singsaas for the retreat.
To learn more about the retreat and receive an application, contact Richelle Whitson at 907-966-8948 or Dr. Russ Bowman at 966-8779 (both are located in Sitka).
Comments (7)
Add commentWhy waste your money on
Why waste your money on Prostate Cancer survivors? They are survivors! Wasting Government money. How about spending the money on people that have Prostate Cancer or Renal Cell Cancer?
SEARCH quit acting like a Non-profit organization and waste our tax dollar fundings.
SEARHC is a non-profit
SEARHC is a non-profit organization.
Healing from cancer
Aankadaxtseen, with many cancers the real healing occurs after a person is declared free from cancer. Many times the cancer battle means a person loses limbs or bodily functions, so they have to learn a new way of life. Sometimes there is an emotional scarring that occurs during cancer treatment. Many cancer survivors live life worrying that something from their cancer battle will come back to cause problems after they've supposedly healed. Other times cancer survivors need a chance to learn what they can expect during the rest of their life (will the cancer come back, will they have to make adjustments because of a lost limb or bodily function, will they ever be able to qualify for health insurance again, etc.).
Research has shown that people heal faster from cancer when they attend cancer retreats such as this or support groups, and the rest of their recovery goes faster. While there is some initial cash spent on the retreat, the speedier recovery means you save money in the long run and the patient ends up being healthier.
our tax dollars at work...for fishing vacations
All expense paid vacations for people who are fully recovered. Funny, the rest of the world calls that a vacation. Only SEARHC would have so little shame they would dare publicize it. Guess fully recovered breast and colon cancer patients get different all expense paidvacations courtesy of your tax dollars.
Luckily there are lots of paid SEARHC staff enjoying (oops! I mean coordinating) the grotesque squandering of tax dollars.
This criminal waste of tax money makes me physically ill.
A jet boat trip up the
A jet boat trip up the Stikine is enough to make me want to get my sore left nut checked out.
BTW - Can anyone say "Dr. Singsass" without at least a chuckle?
You know what this looks like? Bama-care
FOR CRYING OUT LOUD,
At two grand a head, this is enough money to go a long way towards saving a cancer patients life. Or, How about this, There is a new treatment for Hepatitis C, It actually works very well and has a successful cure rate in the eighty percent range but since it costs about $50,000 per patient SEARHC is routinely denying access to it for their beneficiaries. This money would get someone at least halfway there.