Support groups less in demand

MARBLEHEAD – Breast Cancer survivors, social workers and volunteers agreed that everybody probably knows at least one person who has been affected by breast cancer.But social workers wonder if this awareness, coupled with advances in treatment and detection, have made one of the more traditional parts of treatment – the support group – less prevalent.”There hasn’t been as much demand as you would think,” said Patty Hanson, a social worker at Mass General/Northshore Cancer Center in Danvers. “It used to be that when you got breast cancer, you wanted a group and people would flock to it ? “Hanson said that the hospital had run a breast cancer support group until last year for as long as she could remember. But now there isn’t enough demand for a group specifically focused on breast cancer at the Danvers location, she said.Hanson said that she aims to have a minimum of four people in a group so that participants can discuss a variety of experiences with treatment options.She still sees many breast cancer patients individually, however, and then regularly refers them to support services if not official groups.”I think that people kind of want to live their lives as normally as possible and I think that people don’t want to come back here [to the hospital] when they aren’t being treated,” Hanson said.So many support services and groups are more informal.Arlene Agree Zell said she participated in what she called “a multi-pronged” support group in Salem. Participants spent the first hour of the weekly session talking about their experiences with breast cancer and chaplains were involved to provide spiritual guidance. The second hour was spent doing weight-training or other physical exercises.Zell continued similar therapies at Penny Wigglesworth’s home in Marblehead.Wigglesworth is the founder of Pennybears, a 16-year-old nonprofit organization that gives stuffed Penny Bears to patients undergoing treatment at area hospitals.She offers informal support groups, called “Circles of Hope” for those suffering from Parkinsons, for caregivers and for those in grief.Although the organization does not currently offer a specific group for those affected by breast cancer, Wigglesworth said that most of the members of the cancer support group are breast cancer patients and the organization has run breast cancer support groups in the past.The support groups regularly offer free massages and yoga classes for participants, Wigglesworth said.In addition, Reiki masters, or Japanese massage healers, come in to teach relaxation and stress reduction, and beauty consultants help cancer patients with makeup and wigs, and offer advice on how to wear hats and scarves, Wigglesworth said.”To be in a home – someone’s home – it’s really important,” Wigglesworth said. “It’s more of a comfort zone.”Swampscott participant Elise Scanlan agreed.”In kind of a spiritual way, it’s a very welcoming and warm place,” said Scanlan.She attended last year’s Breast Cancer Circle of Hope after being diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer, meaning that the disease had spread through her lymph nodes. She reported that she is now cancer-free.”I don’t think you can really duplicate that in an institutional environment. Sometimes we would just meet and sit around the kitchen table and talk,” she said.She remembered that she joined the group after her first chemotherapy treatment.”It was great because they had all been through what I was getting ready to go through,” she said. “I could do a reality check – is this normal? You have changes in your body, your skin, your taste – going through chemo, it’s wacky. I could get some validation – or not – about some of the things that were going on in my body and life and spirituality.”Both Hanson from Northshore Medical Center and Wigglesworth said they would start a new support group if needed.Groups have reunited for fundraising events. Scanlan volunteers as a bookkeeper for Pennybears, and Zell said she just had a dinner reunion with fello