SPEAK SOONER FORUM: Jan Martin Bopp of Bennington submitted these photos from the Speak Sooner Forum, a Center for Communication in Medicine initiative held at The Riley Center, Burr and Burton Academy, in Manchester last Thursday, Oct. 23. One photo shows the Forum host, Dr. Bernard Bandman, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist who has provided care for patients and families at Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center since 1988. He is a founder and executive director of the CCM, a non-profit humanistic foundation. To the right is a select Forum panel of five special persons. On the left is Michael Cobb, a resident of Peru, VT, who developed brain cancer last year. He is a recently retired vice-president of sales and marketing at Stratton Corp. To his right is the Forum Keynote Speaker, Dr. Lidia Schapira, a Massachusetts General Hospital medical oncologist, Harvard Medical School associate professor, and CCM/Speak Sooner Board of Trustees member. Sitting in the middle is former Vt. State Senator and special education teacher Mary Ann Carlson, once-owner of the West Mountain Inn, Arlington, presently a psychotherapist. Second from the right is the Rev. Dr. James H. Gray, pastor at Dorset-West Pawlet Congregational Church, he provides pastoral counseling and spiritual healing for patients facing serious illness and their families. On the far right is Celia Engel Bandman, medical humanist, writer, co-founder of CCM/Speak Sooner, and creative author of the Difficult Conversations Workbook: Finding a Path Through Illness, an interactive toolkit for patients, medical providers, and caregivers. In the other photo, showing my better side, is John Yost, facing you, who is a former MGRHS student of mine. I had not seen him since high school days, but nothing has been lost. I also taught his four delightful sisters, all from a wonderful family in Lanesborough, MA. John’s admirable father, Alan, died four years ago from cancer. John is now a professional engineer living with his own family in Bennington and helps with the Speak Sooner initiative. I will be interacting with him as a CCM/Speak Sooner colleague. As a cancer patient, educator and patient advocate, I whole-heartedly encourage anyone living with a chronic illness to inform your physician that you would like to use the Difficult Conversations Toolkit collaboratively with her or him, so as to facilitate communication, help make better decisions about your care, and secure the supports (especially psychosocial) you need as partners in patient care.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 22:22:22 +0000
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