Cancer is the leading cause of death from disease in children and adolescents in Canada. Approximately 10,000 children are living with cancer in this country and 1,500 more are diagnosed every year.
September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month – a time to reflect on how we can better understand and address the needs of children affected by cancer, as well as their families and caregivers.
While September typically heralds the excitement of back-to-school shopping, reuniting with friends, and gearing up for a new academic year, the reality is starkly different for families grappling with a childhood cancer diagnosis.
In BC alone, 155 children are diagnosed with cancer each year, with over 100 of them forced to swap classrooms for chemotherapy treatments. Though BC Children’s Hospital boasts the highest survival rate for childhood cancers in Canada, the devastating truth remains: 1 in 5 children tragically lose their battle.
In the fight against childhood cancer, early detection and treatment are vital for improving survival rates. Parents, caregivers, extended family members, and healthcare professionals all play a crucial part in recognizing the signs and symptoms early on.
World Alzheimer’s Month takes place every September and World Alzheimer’s Day is on 21 September each year.
Each September, people unite from all corners of the world to raise awareness and to challenge the stigma that persists around Alzheimer’s disease and all types of dementia.
There are over 10 million new cases of dementia each year worldwide, implying one new case every 3.2 seconds.
The global awareness raising campaign focusses on attitudes toward dementia and seeks to redress stigma and discrimination which still exists around the condition, while highlighting the positive steps being undertaken by organisations and governments globally to develop a more dementia friendly society.
Worldwide, 69 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury every year. Over 1.5 million Canadians are living with acquired brain injury, stemming from traumatic impact, stroke, suffocation and other conditions.
Every 5 minutes, someone in Canada has a stroke.
1 in 4 people accessing mental health and substance use services have a history of brain injury.
People with brain injury are 2.5x more likely to be incarcerated.
Up to 82% of people experiencing homelessness have a traumatic brain injury.
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) differs significantly from injuries such as broken bones or torn ligaments, which exhibit a finite healing process over time. Instead, TBI presents as a chronic neurological condition characterized by its potential for long-term persistence. The effects of brain injury are often unseen by others, yet they profoundly affect the lives of those who have suffered the injury, and their loved ones.
How we can help
Our psychologists help people navigate the complexities of concussion & brain injury, whether it’s acquired from a motor vehicle injury, a workplace injury, stroke or other conditions.
After a brain injury, life will be permanently altered. Adapting to the resulting challenges and changes becomes essential. This includes alterations to your independence, abilities, work, and relationships with family, friends, and caregivers.
Adjusting to what is often called the “new normal” will take time.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and commitment therapy ( ACT), are found to be effective interventions when treating TBI.
Therapy can help you adapt to the mental and physical problems caused by TBI.
Are you curious to hear more about how we can help you?
Whatever you want achieve through therapy our caring team is ready to help.
Call us ~ (1) 778 353 2553 or submit a contact form link ( below)
However, users may overestimate the therapeutic benefits and underestimate the limitations of using such technologies, further deteriorating their mental health. Such a phenomenon can be classified as a therapeutic misconception where users may infer the chatbot’s purpose is to provide them with real therapeutic care.
With AI chatbots, therapeutic misconceptions can occur in four ways, through two main streams: the company’s practices and the design of the AI technology itself.
Company practices: Meet your AI self-help expert
First, inaccurate marketing of mental health chatbots by companies that label them as “mental health support” tools that incorporate “cognitive behavioural therapy” can be very misleading as it implies that such chatbots can perform psychotherapy.
The second type of therapeutic misconception is when a user forms a digital therapeutic alliance with a chatbot. With a human therapist, it’s beneficial to form a strong therapeutic alliance where both the patient and therapist collaborate and agree on desired goals that can be achieved through tasks, and form a bond built on trust and empathy.
Since a chatbot cannot develop the same therapeutic relationship as users can with a human therapist, a digital therapeutic alliance can form, where a user perceives an alliance with the chatbot, even though the chatbot can’t actually form one.
Examples of how mental health apps are presented: (A) Screenshot taken from Woebot Health website. (B) Screenshot taken from Wysa website. (C) Advertisement of Anna by Happify Health. (D) Screenshot taken from Happify Health website.
(Zoha Khawaja)
A great deal of effort has been made to gain user trust and fortify digital therapeutic alliance with chatbots, including giving chatbots humanistic qualities to resemble and mimic conversations with actual therapists and advertising them as “anonymous” 24/7 companions that can replicate aspects of therapy.
Technological design: Is your chatbot trained to help you?
The third therapeutic misconception occurs when users have limited knowledge about possible biases in the AI’s algorithm. Often marginalized people are left out of the design and development stages of such technologies which may lead to them receiving biased and inappropriate responses.
Lastly, a therapeutic misconception can occur when mental health chatbots are unable to advocate for and foster relational autonomy, a concept that emphasizes that an individual’s autonomy is shaped by their relationships and social context. It is then the responsibility of the therapist to help recover a patient’s autonomy by supporting and motivating them to actively engage in therapy.
AI-chatbots provide a paradox in which they are available 24/7 and promise to improve self-sufficiency in managing one’s mental health. This can not only make help-seeking behaviours extremely isolating and individualized but also creates a therapeutic misconception where individuals believe they are autonomously taking a positive step towards amending their mental health.
Through honest marketing and regular reminders, users can be kept aware of the chatbot’s limited therapeutic capabilities and be encouraged to seek more traditional forms of therapy. In fact, a therapist should be made available for those who’d like to opt-out of using such chatbots. Users would also benefit from transparency on how their information is collected, stored and used.
Active involvement of patients during the design and development stages of such chatbots should also be considered, as well as engagement with multiple experts on ethical guidelines that can govern and regulate such technologies to ensure better safeguards for users.
