When someone is diagnosed with cancer, life changes completely. This means that the patient may have to depend on a support team of caregivers to help them manage this difficult and often complex journey. This supportive role may include tasks such as cooking a meal, simple housekeeping, providing transportation or picking up medications to acting as a patient advocate, providing emotional support, making phone calls, gathering necessary information about diagnosis and treatment, or helping with health insurance details.
Caregivers are an important team of family and friends. There are many ways to help and it’s critical to identify your abilities and your boundaries. As the patient’s journey progresses, their needs will change as will a caregiver’s role. Caregivers need emotional support as well and self-awareness to know when it’s time to rest and renew their own strength and inner resources.
If you are a caregiver for a friend or family member who is dealing with GIST, please reach out to the LRG staff, and our support group and GIST Chat. Articles related to caregiving are posted below and are updated as we continue to publish more content.
Managing Medical Bills
The Life Raft Group partnered with Triage Cancer to present Managing Medical Bills for GIST patients and caregivers providing valuable information on how to mitigate the financial impact of a cancer diagnosis across the continuum of care.
La importancia del cuidador
Fundación GIST México GIST presentó 'La importancia del cuidador desde una perspectiva multidisciplinaria' en el Día Mundial del Cáncer.
Top Ten Tips for Caregivers
Director of Communications Mary Garland shares these top ten tips for caregivers for this GIST journey.
