Pilar Mazo
Logroño, (EFE).- Psychologists “are not the magic wand, nor are we magicians when it comes to grieving” that overcoming cancer represents for patients and family members or losing a loved one afflicted by this disease, he told EFE Belinda Sampedro, one of the psychologists of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) in La Rioja.
Sampedro, on the occasion of World Cancer Day, which is celebrated this Wednesday, has taken advantage of this event to appeal to society about the importance of raising awareness in prevention, research and participating in the screenings carried out by public health in La Rioja .
Anxiety, fear of isolation and the side effects of cancer treatments, together with impotence, he explained, constitute the common denominator of most of the people who are referred to the Psychology team of the AECC in La Rioja.
“We work a lot on anxiety in patients and their families” who come to the Association in search of support to try to overcome the disease and grief, in many cases, which involves the loss of a minor with cancer, Sampedro stressed.
Group therapies, a good ally
Individual and group therapies, according to Sampedro, are a good ally for patients and families, whose results are being “very satisfactory.”
He has recognized that it is important that patients and their families “give themselves permission to express pain (express it) because psychological help is important, but we are not the magic wand, or magicians when it comes to making the duel pass.”
This also requires reflecting that “time does not heal everything, but the time that each person allows himself to overcome that pain,” he indicated.
His appeal on this World Cancer Day is to “join efforts in the same direction and believe that there is a way out of cancer”, a disease for which it is expected that in 2030 there will be 21.6 million diagnoses in the world, more 330,000 in Spain and 2,327 in La Rioja.
One in 3 women and 1 in 2 men will have cancer, but there is still time to correct this future and achieve 70% survival, something that can only be achieved if we act now and all of society: institutions, companies, population, political parties and scientific societies, he explained.
Sampedro has also highlighted that the number of people who come to the Association to require psychological support is increasing; “We are overwhelmed” and in the hiring phase of a new professional for the Psychology team to be able to cover the existing demand throughout La Rioja.
Proof of this reality is that last year 1,733 people were attended and 2,617 consultations were registered in the Association’s Psychology department, he reported. EFE
