April 2, 2015 – Cancer Caregiving

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Anchor lead:  Caregiving for someone with cancer can put a lot of stress on your job, Elizabeth Tracey reports

If you’re in the workplace and you’re trying to care for a loved one with cancer, you know the meaning of stress.  Now a comprehensive resource developed at Johns Hopkins called ‘Cancer at Work’ may help.  Terry Langbaum, chief administrator in the Kimmel Cancer Center, says many of the resources are designed to help caregivers manage the burden.

Langbaum: I think that caregivers are really an ignored group of people.  They’re heroic. Absolutely heroic.  Once we launched this program we actually learned what our own employees are going through as caregivers. We’ve really learned what a stressor it is.  Many of our caregivers will say to us that being a caregiver is harder than being the cancer patient, because the patient knows what it’s like to get a bone marrow test, the caregiver only sits in the waiting room imagining what it’s like, and it’s always easier to actually do it than it is to think about it.   :31

Patients and employers can also benefit from using the Cancer at Work site, which is poised to roll out nationally.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.