2010 was a busy year, but a great one for Maximum Capacity, especially with our cancer groups.  Here is a bit of a review of what we accomplished in 2010 and where we’re heading.

Not only did we continue to run our high-demand cancer related brain fog programs at Wellspring Centres across Ontario and in Calgary, but we also began training leaders at out-of-province not-for-profit locations, where it was originally cost prohibitive to send our local staff.   All leader training is conducted by Dr. Palmer, and our newly trained leaders can attest to the fact that it is an intense educational program! 

We have now trained leaders in Manitoba (CancerCare Manitoba), Alberta (Wellspring Calgary) and Quebec (Cedars CanSupport), and are currently working on partnerships in Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, and Ontario (Ottawa, Kingston, Oshawa).  We hope to see our seminar programs available to cancer survivors nationwide in the not too distant future!

Back in 2009, we initiated a research study in collaboration with Wellspring to better understand the changes in thinking that cancer patients often experience, and to evaluate the positive impact our program has on cancer related brain fog.  We were very busy testing our wonderful volunteer research participants at all the Toronto and Calgary Wellspring locations, and are happy to report that testing is almost complete.  2011 will be spent completing testing, analyzing data, and reporting on the results.

We are also currently exploring ways to offer our programs to rural regions through videoconference technology. 

As you can see we have our work cut out for us this year.  If you have any comments or questions, or would like to get a cancer brain fog group started at a location near you, contact us today to find out more.

Maximum Capacity has appeared as the featured organization on SharingStrength | FortesEnsemble, a Canadian bilingual online resource and community for women with breast cancer. Heather Palmer was also interviewed as part of the Editor's Feature. To read the interview, or join in on any blog discussions, click here (pour la version française, cliquez ici).

Heather Palmer has also written an article for Wellspring's educational newsletter, CancerSmart (April 2009 edition). To read the article, click here. Wellspring is a network of centres that offer support, coping skills and educational programs to cancer patients and their loved ones at no charge and without referral.

Posted by Heather, Jan. 24 2011