To ensure that the caring skills of our counselors are updated regularly, it is important that they learn from the experts in their field. We hold such trainings on a regular basis. In continuation of our training efforts, this time we requested Prof. Santosh Chaturvedi from NIMHANS Bangalore to brush the skills of our group of 35+ counselors. The training session was for full two days on 8th and 9th March, 2019 at CanSupport Head Office.

Prof. Santosh K. Chaturvedi is Dean of Behavioral Sciences at National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences, Bangalore. He has more than one hundred publications on Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care to his credit. He has edited and published four books on the subject, including one on Communication skills in Palliative Care, published by VHAI.

The workshop started with the introductory round followed by a small teamwork exercise. The objective of the exercise was to bring out issues, topics that are faced by the counselors on a day to day basis. Following topic that came out of the discussion was breaking bad news, how to handle difficult communication, dealing with adolescent and children, dealing with relationships, communicating with patients who neither speak nor write, how to communicate about sexuality, self-care, question like why I got cancer? How to handle queries about non-conventional cancer treatments? How to handle parents of children suffering from cancer? How to handle siblings of children suffering from cancer?

For each topic Prof. Chaturvedi used real life cases that made the session more real and relevant. The counselors were divided into small groups to discuss cases and for role play. This exercise enabled the groups to work as a team and come up with solutions which were shared with the entire group.

At the end of the two days, the session proved to be very helpful and informative. The different role play exercises and case studies made the participants confident in their approach and practices.