There is a new Cancer Information Service available to all Canadians toll-free, says Joan Loveridge, chair of the Canadian Cancer Society’s national patient service committee.
By calling 1-888-939-3333 within Canada, people living with cancer, their caregivers, the public and health professionals can get the latest information on cancer prevention, detection, treatment and community resources.
The information service operates in English and French between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. When a call is received, people on the line answer the question by accessing a comprehensive database, the Canadian Cancer Encyclopedia. They can provide information about all types of cancer, cancer treatment, drugs and clinical trials, plus note side effects, complementary therapies, cancer statistics, emotional and financial services and community services.
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Loveridge said for newly diagnosed cancer patients, the confusion of medical terms can be overwhelming. They often become unable to ask the pertinent questions, or even hear the answers from a busy doctor.
“Our commitment is to provide accurate and up-to-date information in a timely manner that meets the needs of the caller and respects the doctor-patient relationship,” Loveridge said.
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Handling homework
By Peter Griffiths
farmliving
At most parent-teacher interviews, the issue of homework is often raised by teachers. This is where parents usually feel inadequate. Younger children tend to enjoy parents being involved with them in their homework.
But children eventually want more autonomy and privacy in their lives. What happens then? The more a parent pushes homework, the more a youth avoids it. The more a child slacks off, the more a parent panics or feels helpless.
Parents have the right to talk to teachers and find out what is happening at school. Teachers appreciate this and don’t mind brief phone calls, even after hours. Find out what is a realistic level of achievement for your child in a subject.
Set up some family guidelines for dealing with school assignments. You can’t force a child to do homework, but parents can control access to certain amenities of life that many youth consider important. Access to the telephone, television, CD player, Walkman, Nintendo, a computer, movies or money are usually seen as pretty valuable by most youth.
Once youths realize by avoiding homework they are depriving themselves of something they would like to have, they often wake up and get the homework done.
Many children will say “I don’t have any homework.” Perhaps they don’t. But perhaps they do. Most parents can sense if a child is trying to pull a fast one. If a parent feels they are being conned, they can check this out quickly with a short phone call to the teacher. Even a comment from the parent about calling the teacher may bring a quick turnabout by the youth.
I don’t believe parents should demand to see a child’s homework. Instead, they could offer to review it, complimenting work, but definitely not correcting the homework. That is the teacher’s job. Parents do have the right to ask the teacher about the quality of their child’s work, and need to tell the youth they may do this.
By choosing the right approach, which must be unique for each child, parents can change homework hassles into homework helping.
