Either
the person with cancer or a family member may request a Family
Focus meeting, which can include anyone the member defines
as family. There is no limit to the number of people who may
attend. These two-hour sessions, which are facilitated by
staff, take place at the clubhouse. Family Focus can take
place at any time; it ideally meets every three months or
when the member is in crisis. Regular meetings provide optimal
benefits and keep the family "in focus."
Goals
of Family Focus
Family Focus is designed to enlist the entire family as a
resource and help the family learn together how to live with
cancer. The session will aid cooperation among family members
by identifying family beliefs about cancer, critical family
issues, and immediate practical problems as well as possible
solutions. Family Focus also provides an opportunity for the
family expression of hopes and fears. During the session,
family rules and patterns, alliances and exclusions are brought
out into the open. This often provides the opportunity to
encourage democratic partnerships, identify and reinforce
family strengths, and help the family see themselves as "experts"
in their own family life. Individuals are invited to take
on a supportive task or goal, and intimacy among family members
may be created or restored.
Team
Convene
Team
Convene sessions, called for by the person with cancer or
family member, meet at Gilda's Club for two hours or longer
and are facilitated by a staff member. Sessions may re-convene
regularly. A Team Convene session creates an active support
network in a member's life by facilitating communication,
defining and anticipating areas where assistance is needed,
and solving practical problems. The sessions avoid overload
on one family member or the nuclear family and assign caring
friends and family meaningful tasks. They also put a network
in place at the time of diagnosis, and prepare the network
for action at a time of crisis that may follow, e.g., a hospital
stay or home recuperation.
Who
comes to Team Convene
Sessions include all significant friends and family in a member's
life; however, there is no limit to the number and range of
people who may attend. Invited people may include close friends,
family, neighbors, colleagues, clergy and congregation members,
children, housekeepers and/or home health aides, an attorney
or accountant out-of-town family and friends, or anyone else
identified in the Customized Membership Plan as willing to
give support: people who would help if asked to, or if they
knew what to do. This meeting of "extended family" is especially
helpful to potential supporters and friends who have limited
time but want to lend a hand.
