October Awareness

Happy October!

October Awareness

October is awareness for breast cancer, liver cancer, health literacy and more. See our October cancer awareness page for more information about October Awareness and our Cancer Awareness Calendar and Resources. See also American Cancer Society, Cancer.net,  and Patient Resource.

Health Literacy

• Educational Materials for Your Patients -  a list of organizations with patient friendly materials that can be viewed, downloaded and/or ordered
• 25 Great Cancer Education Resources for Patients
• Multi-language sites include American Cancer Society, Cancer Support Community, Chemocare, Macmillan Cancer Support, MedLine Plus and NCCN Guidelines for Patients Translations,. CancerCare, Cancer.net, CDC, NCI and OncoLink have Spanish Language materials. See Cancer Resources in multi-lang DFW . 

• Cancer Care Tougher to Access in U.S. If English Second Language

See the Health Literacy section on our October Awareness page for more resources

Insurance Enrollment Time

It's almost time to enroll in insurance for the next year. Here are resources for your patients:

• Cancer and Insurance (Triage Cancer)
• Cancer Insurance Checklist
• Checklist: Using Health Insurance | Triage Cancer
• Benefits.gov
• Health Insurance Options (ACS)
• Insurance (CancerCare)
• Marketplace Coverage
• Medicare
• Patient Advocate Foundation understanding what your health insurance covers and your options if you don't have insurance.
• Patricia Callahan, LMSW, Cancer Resource Specialist  at Cancer Support Community North Texas, 214-345-8428 PCallahan@CancerSupportTexas.org can help give resources for insurance to English and Spanish speaking patients
• Social Security Administration disability benefits: Compassionate Allowances Initiative speeds approval for stage IV cancer
• Triage cancer has webinars for patients and navigators addressing insurance issues.

Emotional and Spiritual Health

• CancerCare has support groups (see the attached flyer),  workshops, publications on cancer and cancer topics including those related to emotional and spiritual care
• Emotional Support Resources on our website here   and our Cancer and Mental Health post here
• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Mental Illness Awareness Week

Resources

• Jewish Family Service (Dallas) provides services for adults and children. They have support groups for breast and ovarian cancer, grief, chronic pain,  caring for the caregivers, cancer survivors and children of parents with a chronic or terminal Illness. They help people of all religions, races and ethnicities. You don't have to be Jewish to get help. See their flyer-  JFS_Overview2022.
• Say Yes to Hope is an organization that provides education and support to people with advanced cancers. It used to focus on cancers that spread to the liver but has expanded to people with any advanced cancer. Helpline: 877-937-7478.
• Triage Cancer has several guides for insurance, disability, FMLA and more; they also have a legal and financial navigation program. Order free educational materials at https://triagecancer.org/materialrequest.

Education and Events

• Getting Ready for Open Enrollment (Triage Cancer webinar), October 19, 2023, 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET, 90 minutes
• Elevating Navigation - Leveraging Technology, Live Webinar, October 20, 2023, see details here.
• See other education events on our Oncology Nurse and Navigator Educational Events page and our recently updated Patient and Community Education and Events page (updated with Susan G Komen walks and Texas Oncology support groups).

“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a bloody army to battle cancer.” — Niyati Tamaskar, breast cancer