CANSA offers telephonic counselling

THE Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) recently launched its CANSA Tele Counselling service. According to the association the service is confidential cancer-related telephonic counselling to cancer patients, caregivers and their families and parents or guardians of children living with cancer.

Counselling is available in seven languages (English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa, isiZulu, siSwati, Sesotho and Setswana) and is free of charge.

While CANSA has been developing an in-house telephonic counselling service for some time, the service has been accelerated due to the limited specialised support available to cancer patients, their caregivers and families during the lockdown period, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read also: South Africans urged to continue observing health protocols under level 2

Gerda Strauss, CANSA’s Head of Service Delivery said the service would help patients during this difficult time.

“Patients are feeling frustrated and despondent as they struggle to access vital support services. A cancer patient’s low immunity and high infection risk for Covid-19, results in anxiety and social distancing and hygiene measures add to a feeling of isolation even as lockdown levels are eased. So, this is the perfect time to launch the telephonic counselling. The establishment of this service will not only serve patients during this difficult period, but will become a permanent care and support offering, enabling patients who live far from our Care Centres to also access support and in a language of choice. It’s available during normal business hours,” Strauss said.

The free counselling service can be accessed via the CANSA Help Desk on 0800 22 66 22 (toll-free) to make an appointment with a CANSA counsellor. Alternatively you can send an email to counselling@cansa.org.za.  

Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting

Dear reader, As your local news provider, we have the duty of keeping you factually informed on Covid-19 developments. As you may have noticed, mis- and disinformation (also known as “fake news”) is circulating online. Caxton Local Media is determined to filter through the masses of information doing the rounds and to separate truth from untruth in order to keep you adequately informed. Local newsrooms follow a strict pre-publication fact-checking protocol. A national task team has been established to assist in bringing you credible news reports on Covid-19. Readers with any comments or queries may contact National Group Editor Irma Green (irma@caxton.co.za) or Legal Adviser Helene Eloff (helene@caxton.co.za). At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations. You can also sign up for news alerts on Telegram. Send us a Telegram message (not an SMS) with your name and surname (ONLY) to 060 532 5532.   Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple.