Published: June 17, 2014 Updated: 8:42 p.m.
BLAINE OHIGASHI, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
REIMAGINING LIFE AFTER COMBAT
Reimagine is not only for cancer patients. For the past year, it has also been tailoring its online Pillars4Life course for Navy Seals who have experienced the stress of battle.
The company says that, in some ways, the impact of a cancer diagnosis is not unlike the trauma of war.
"These giant stressors, like cancer or deployment in a war, are really a catalyst for people to say, 'Wow, this is overwhelming. This is not working for me. I am going to take some time for something new,'" Kristin MacDermott, co-founder of Reimagine, said.
The U.S. Department of Defense and other groups are paying for Navy Seals to take the course. The curriculum is basically the same as for cancer patients, but adjusted to acknowledge the specific experiences of Navy Seals.
They found the cancer in Colleen Duffey’s liver 18 months ago, shortly after the birth of her second daughter. What they discovered next was even more chilling: It wasn’t liver cancer at all; it was breast cancer that had already spread.
And just like that, a 32-year- old mother of two small children suddenly became a late-stage cancer patient.
When the disease metastasized to Duffey’s brain last November, her oncologist at Duke University in North Carolina referred her to a Los Angeles-based company called Reimagine. It’s a kind of online Cancer U that offers a nine-part virtual course to teach cancer victims and their loved ones skills for coping with the social, emotional and spiritual challenges that the illness poses.
The doctor told her that the course, known as Pillars4Life, was a clinically proven method that had helped many of her other patients. So Duffey signed up, and she just completed the course last month.
“Cancer is such a mind thing. You can’t ignore the worry and anxiety and stress, and that class helped me deal with that side of it,” says Duffey, who lives with her family in Alexandria, Va., and works as a systems engineer – part-time now – at Lockheed Martin.
“They teach you how to refocus and redirect your thoughts. They teach you how to reframe things so they are more positive. If you are having a bad day and you’re having bad thoughts, it helps you get out of the funk.”
Reimagine is the brainchild of Kristin MacDermott, a licensed marriage and family counselor, and Tina Staley, a clinical social worker who has worked extensively with end-of-life patients.
The two met 12 years ago in Aspen, Colo., and later worked together with cancer patients at Aspen Valley Hospital. The idea behind Reimagine grew out of their partnership there.
“We believe we complement medical care and really help people restore their person, their sense of wholeness,” MacDermott said. “We are all about making people feel better in the midst of all this chaos and disruption that cancer causes.”
In addition to the Pillars course, Reimagine connects its clients to each other in an online chat room similar to Facebook, allowing them to stay in touch long after the class is over. It also makes experts available to them on subjects such as nutrition and fitness, and publishes a magazine about living with cancer.
The company, headquartered in the mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles, sells the whole package for a one-time fee of $399, which confers lifetime access to all of those materials.
For an extra $100, the patient’s caregiver of choice – a spouse, sibling, child or friend – can also become a lifetime Reimagine member. The company is planning to offer a series of advanced courses for an additional fee.
Since Reimagine started offering its course in mid-2011, about 2,000 people have taken it. In addition to individuals, the company’s customers include a number of hospitals and nonprofit organizations, including the National Institutes of Health.
Twenty hospitals across the country offer the Reimagine course to their patients free of charge,thanks to a grant from the Austin, Texas-based Livestrong Foundation, which has a stated mission is to help people with the everyday challenges of living with cancer.
There are numerous support groups, counseling centers and other resources for cancer patients out there – many of them free, or integrated into comprehensive cancer-treatment plans that are covered by health insurance. The Reimagine program is not covered by health insurance plans so far, but most of the people who have signed up for it have received grants from Livestrong and other organizations.
Counselors, social workers and oncologists who work with cancer victims say that no amount of support can ever be enough for patients and their families – and Reimagine is no exception.
No comments:
Post a Comment