I didn’t have a chance to mention in my last blog, but last Friday I attended the 2013 Clinical and Community Linkages Conference Psychosocial Distress Screening and Oncology Supportive Care Services with the CSC-CO Clinical Program Director, the President/CEO, the Director of Development and Communication, and the new Clinical Program Assistant Ming. Ming’s first day was on Tuesday, but she was invited to attend the conference. The conference was held at the Quest Business and Conference Center, which is a very nice building located near the Polaris mall.

In the pre-conference meeting, a group of us took part in drumming, meditation, and Tai Chi. Evidence shows that drumming can improve one’s health. I walked in the room after the drumming had begun and was a little taken aback at first. I wasn’t expecting to walk into a room where people were drumming in a circle and where a woman was dancing at 8:30 in the morning, but I have to say that, once I sat down, I found myself unconsciously moving with the beat of the drum. We switched around the drummers, and I became a drummer in the inner circle, and I really had fun with it despite not having any rhythm whatsoever! I just threw myself into the whole experience. After the drumming session, we partook in mindfulness meditation with a Yoga Therapist, which is actually a group offered by CSC-CO I plan to attend in the near future. In this group, we learned different breathing techniques that can help anyone, and breathing properly and mindfully has been proven to improve health as well. After this session, I was very relaxed, but we were not done yet because we had Tai Chi left. I have never done Tai Chi or really seen anyone doing it. It was fascinating watching the instructor do about fifteen poses out of over a hundred. However, within a few minutes of watching him, I knew I would never be able to do it, since I’m not very coordinated. I gave it my best effort, even though I probably looked pretty silly. At my fellowship, I am trying to get out of my comfort level and shed my worries of looking silly. It was an experience, and now I know Tai Chi probably isn’t going to be my thing, but that’s okay. I’d probably say I’m more of a yoga person than Tia Chi. All these fun activities really energized me, and I kind of wanted to do similar fun activities for the rest of the day.

The rest of the conference consisted of keynote addresses from Dr. Ross from OSU Wexner Medical Center and Dr. Wymyslo from the Ohio Department of Health, lunch n’ learn panelist discussions of available services, Distress Screening Tool Overview & Demonstration, and breakout sessions. I attended The Psychosocial Continuum: Program Integration/Integrative Cancer Care. During this session, we learned about the importance of wellness to help with cancer treatment and to prevent cancer, services provided by Riverside Methodist Hospital, and services offered by The Gathering Place. The Gathering Place is very similar to CSC-CO but is located in Cleveland.

At this fellowship, I am learning even more of the importance for social workers to take care of themselves in order to take care of others. My program is always preaching about it as well, but they don’t really expose us to such things as meditation, so I’m glad I’ve had an opportunity to participate in it, as I’ve been interested in meditation for the last few years. I plan to incorporate meditation into my daily life. I want to be a healthy, balanced social worker so that I can be the best social worker I can be. In fact, since I attended the yoga group, I have been thinking that I should take a spiritual quest in the next few years. This fellowship is making me look at life in a very different light.

 This week, we have had some exciting and great events, but since my blog is already pretty long, I will leave it to next time. On an exciting note, CSC-CO grant proposals are finished and will be turned in this week. There was an extension till next Monday, but Peg would rather turn them in ASAP. It has been a stressful and very time consuming process. I’ve helped with only a teeny, tiny bit, but just that tiny bit has been time consuming for me, so I know they have put a lot of energy, heart, and soul into these grant proposals, so fingers crossed they receive the money! I have questioned whether I even really want to write grant proposals after witnessing the process first-hand, but I know it’s a much needed skill that I should acquire to be more marketable. At some point, I will have to bite the bullet and become trained in it.

~Melissa