STAYING ALIVE!
                           ISSUE ONE 1998

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Dear friends
Firstly, to those of you who have already paid for your first year's membership, thank you! Thank you, most importantly, for your patience in waiting for us to set up our office, sort out our database and put together this, the first of the promised newsletters.
On 1 June, we will be joined by Janet Gill, who will run our office on a full-time basis, answering your calls, responding to your queries and generally providing the helping hand we so desperately need. Janet will also help us with the indexing and other functions required to set up our resource centre - something that has been a personal dream of mine since very shortly after 1 was first diagnosed with cancer in the brain at the end of 1996.
Since January, we've had some exciting opportunities to promote psychoneuroimmunolgy and the empowerment it can bring to people as regards their wellbeing. This, after all, is what The Wellness Support Programme is all about.
For starters, there was the Carte Blanche insert on M-Net during February which really put us on the map. That was followed by our first public meeting for the year, attended, we're delighted to report, by some 600 people. And I had had reservations about our ability to fill the 450-seater auditorium at the Jo'burg Gen!
Then there was tremendous exposure in a variety of media - Radio 702, SAFM, CANI Radio, Cape Talk, 'The Star, The Citizen, Quality Life magazine, Medscheme Club News and others. Our thanks to them all. An especially important scoop was the filming of a TV-insert for Roving Report for the BBC. This has now been syndicated to some 40 other TV stations in Europe. And, of course, there was our first tentative move out of Gauteng - a public meeting held in Cape Town in March. Special thanks to Joan Pickford, our friend and ally, who is the official WSP representative in Cape Town. Call her on: (021) 45-3491
Another exciting event was our introduction to the Gawler Foundation in Melbourne, Australia, visited by Dr lan Weinberg earlier this year. It was interesting to learn that more than ten years after their launch, this successful support group founded for cancer patients is doing pretty much what we're aspiring to. However, whereas their focus is mainly on meditation, ours is firmly on PNI itself (with all the other "things" such as meditation, visualisation, diet, hypnotherapy, reiki etc being options people exercise in their application of PNI).
I was particularly comforted to learn that just like I did with my tiny band of kindred spirits/fellow patients, Ian Gawler started his Foundation virtually single-handedly, having unexpectedly survived the cancer that "should have" killed him. Folks, if they could do it, so can we!
Meanwhile, our various courses have been going extremely well and we can promise you a really good line-up of new and repeat courses in the months ahead. You'll find details -and some feedback - elsewhere in this issue.
Finally, a huge thank you to the Anglo American Chairman's Fund whose generous sponsorship has enabled us to set up our office with the computer equipment, fax, furniture and other goodies we so badly needed. We plan to do you proud!
With our best wishes to you all -CONNIE BERTSCH 

DOCTORS: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
Right after my own diagnosis - when I was at the "quick, get a second opinion maybe there's been a mistake' stage - my tough, show-no-emotion German husband took my scans along to Dr A.N. Other neurosurgeon for a second opinion. He came out of the man's rooms weeping. The good doctor had been so abrupt, so curt and so totally negative about my chances for survival that my husband could barely face me after the encounter. We almost all have stories like this - stories in which the "nocebo' effect of certain doctors is enough to send us to an early grave. The following are the results of surveys conducted among cancer support groups within the Gawler Foundation, as presented by Ian Gawler at the annual conference of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1991.
Ring any bells?

Patients'view: Where is the medical system being ineffective in cancer management? 1. Technical skills  * Delayed diagnosis/ineffective diagnosis * Poor clinical judgement * Dismissing reported symptoms * Through over-familiarity becoming too casual with symptom/patient * Having a lack of time * Poorly matched referrals (in the personal sense) * Unable to communicate at patient's level 2. Communication skills * Removing hope, pointing the bone! * Holier than thou attitude       - intellectual superiority       - non-disclosure of information       - resent questions about options       - professional or personal ego problems "Difficult patient" problem 3. Attitudes : ' Closed mind - barrier to the non-scientific ' Tunnel vision - the impact of specialisation *Treat the disease and overlook, or avoid, the person *Lack of knowledge and/or acceptance of self-help techniques  * Dismiss as "alternative nonsense,, the right to have a choice  -including natural and complementary therapies

WHAT PATIENTS ASK OF THEIR DOCTORS 1. We want ACCESS to: (a) The best available medical treatment (b) The best available self-help techniques 2. Be a good communicator (a) Provide information     - your truth underpinned with hope     - use statistics, keep open-ended advise on all options     - advise on lifestyle issues after first treatment (to avoid secondaries)     - use language I can understand     - answer questions (b) be positive (c) use active listening skills (d) give time - be available:     - for appointments (as long as arranged)     - after hours, in emergency     - reassurance takes time! 3. Treat me as a person, not just a disease. 4. Provide ongoing support, regardless of my choices 5. Be a partner - someone I can trust.

TAPE GIVES PRACTICAL HELP
"An introduction to healing through consciousness" is an audio aid compiled by NLP master practitioner Claudius van Wyk (who is also a custodian of The Wellness Support Programme) and covers the theory and application of PNI. It also gives a meditation exercise. Cost of the tape is R30 and you can order a copy from WSP by calling (011) 728-5678.

WSP launches fledgling group in Cape Town
March 98 saw the launch of the Wellness Support Programme in Cape Town by means of a public meeting held at the Arthur´s Seat Hotel in Sea Point. Prior to the meeting. Cape Talk radio´s Lisa Chiat gave the WSP excellent publicity in the form of an interview with Dr Ian Weinberg and Connie Bertsch, and on the night some 100 people came along to find out what psychoneuroimmunology is all about, and what the Wellness Support group has to offer in that regard.
Our Cape Town anchor is Joan Pickford, who can be reached at 021 45-3491 (phone and fax).

FOR THOSE WHO MISSED IT!
Wish your friend could have attended one of our public talks? We do have some audio tapes of past WSP meetings & radio interviews. Cost is R25 (+R5 for mailing). To order call (011) 728-5678.

WRITE TO US!

If you have any comment to make on anything in this newsletter, any questions regarding PNI, any suggestions you have regarding courses or other support elements, any info you would like to share with other readers - in fact anything at all you would like to say, pertinent to what the Wellness Support Programme is about - please send us  a fax on (011) 728-5678 or, better still, e-mail us on info@wellness.org.za

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