A cancer diagnosis takes a toll on one’s mental health and the person needs some help from the near and dear ones. The question is how to help cancer patients. Asking the patient how you can help does not sound good; instead you should figure out how you can do something that will be of some help for the person. The best hospitals for cancer care have a few suggestions for untrained caregivers:
- Do grocery shopping. These days, it’s easy to shop grocery items from online stores. Prepare a list of what is needed and place an order accordingly.
- Offer your help for house management. Cleaning, cooking, mowing the lawns, gardening, washing laundry, paying the electricity bills and the list just goes on. There is a lot to do; do as much as possible for you. Try to do the work that the cancer patient used to do before the diagnosis. Help in every way possible to keep life smoothly going on for the entire family during the troublesome phase.
- Prepare meals for the patient. Many cancer patients show low appetite due to cancer and/or cancer treatment. Therefore, prepare what the patient likes and what will supply the body with the vital energy to receive treatment. It’s best to work with some friends and prepare meals for several weeks or as long as the patient undergoes recovery process.
- Pay a visit to the patient during tea time in the evening and enjoy some heart-to-heart talks. However, fatigue is common to cancer patients. So, don’t make them talk too much.
- Many families appoint a professional caregiver for the cancer patient. You can help the caregiver in performing his/her duties. Help him or her with organizing medications, sending messages to the patient’s relatives or friends or other works that the person is supposed to do. This way, it will relieve the caregiver’s stress and energize the person to do his/her work more efficiently.
- The patient must be undergoing treatment under strict supervision of the best oncologist in Kolkata. Drive the patient to the doctor’s clinic for appointments. After the patient is done with treatment, drive him/her for regular screenings and tests.
- Take notes of what the doctor or nurse says. The cancer patients usually develop foggy memories during and even after treatment. Expect to receive an overwhelming load of information from the oncologists. Therefore, it’s good to jot these down as this is the best way to ensure that nothing will get lost and the patient can get everything from the notebook.
- Does the patient have school-going children? If yes, take care of the kids. Drive them to school, help them with their homework and play with them. Parent’s illnesses make the kids depressed. So, try to keep them cheerful; it will also ease the patient’s stress.
- Many patients believe that prayer is answered. Pray in front of them; it will give them an inner strength to fight with the disease.
- Share funny thoughts and chats with them. Watch comedy shows or movies together. Laughing out loud will divert their mind from the thoughts of cancer.
Cancer patients suffer a lot, both physically and mentally during and after the treatment. So, make every effort to keep them happy and cheerful while helping them with physical activities and household works.