For patients undergoing or just finishing cancer treatment, the topic of what to expect when returning to work rarely gets discussed at the doctor’s office or hospital.
That means the patient is often not well prepared when that day comes and the employer even less so.
“Patients undergoing chemotherapy are often fatigued and can’t work a full day. Employers are not always accommodating,” said Jennifer Klemp, managing director of the Breast Cancer Survivorship Center at the University of Kansas Cancer Center. “In light of that, we (health care providers) don’t do a good job preparing people for that during their treatment. Unless the patient brings it up, it does not get brought up.”
But that could change.
A program that trains state agency administrators to better relate to employees with serious and chronic diseases is gaining recognition and preparing to expand.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Comprehensive Cancer Program last year developed training for human resource managers so they could better understand the needs of employees with cancer and other chronic diseases. About 125 managers from KDHE and the Kansas Department of Administration in Topeka have taken part.
Information about the program was made available at a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cancer conference earlier this month, said Patrice O’Hara, manager of the cancer program.
Now cancer officials from other states are asking for the program’s materials. New training sessions have been scheduled in the Kansas City area. And the Mid-America Coalition on Health Care has expressed interest in making available the training to its members.
“People are interested,” said Barbara VanCortlandt, a health educator for KDHE. “We’re on the cutting-edge. Kansas is leading the way.”
The state’s Comprehensive Cancer Plan published in 2005 included the implementation of such a program to help cancer survivors stay in the workplace. The plan’s authors agreed to find a ready-made employer training plan and put it in place throughout the state.
But they couldn’t find one. So, they designed their own, which is now called the Employee Illness and Survivorship in the Workplace program.
Employers who are members of the Mid-America Health Care Coalition have recently been concerned about cardiovascular risks and diseases, said Vice-President Sara Palermo, and less about cancer.
“That has been more our emphasis,” she said. “The work that has been done around cancer and returning to work still carries over into heart disease and stroke. The lessons learned are very much the same.”
The coalition is considering how it can incorporate the state’s program into training for its members along with other programs that help employees better manage their chronic diseases, Palermo said.
Training that helps administrators improve communication and understanding with their employees would benefit cancer patients, Klemp said. But patients also need to understand that there is often a limit to the amount of information they should share with their workplace.
“The piece for the individual runs a fine line,” she said. “There are natural things employers will assume when they hear the word ‘cancer’ – the employee will need more time off, or there may be more health care costs involved. I think we need to educate patients on how to better talk to their employers so they can see how much information is too much. That’s a real issue.”
The KU cancer center, along with the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, is developing its own program to help cancer survivors address workplace frustrations, Klemp said. That program will use a combination of structured phone calls, problem solving tools and exercise to better prepare patients for returning to and staying in the workplace.
-Sarah Green is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. She can be reached at sgreen@khi.org or at 785-233-5443, ext. 118.