2023-09-16 20:30:00
The facts: 80% of people treated for cancer experience immediate but also sometimes medium- and long-term adverse effects. “Deterioration of self-image, depression, pain, reduction in physical activity… whether linked to the cancer itself or to the treatments implemented, the adverse effects are numerous”, introduced Professor Emmanuel Barranger, director of the Antoine Lacassagne Center (CAL).
Hence the importance of so-called supportive care (psychology, adapted physical activity, socio-aesthetics, etc.) which aims precisely to treat the consequences of the disease. “However, today, for various reasons, a quarter of cancer patients do not benefit from it. » Participating in restoring at least locally this “injustice”, offering patients – and their loved ones – this supportive care, but also listening, personalized, psychosocial, legal, professional support, advice etc., is one of the objectives of the Mozart Institute, supported jointly by the Department of Alpes-Maritimes and the CAL, which opened its doors yesterday. “All Maralpins concerned, regardless of the health establishment where they are (or have been) treated, will be able to benefit from these offers free of charge within this Institute”, announces the president of the Department, Charles Ange Ginésy.
Outside the hospital walls
For several years, supportive care has become an integral part of the care pathway and all establishments which treat cancer patients, public or private, must be able to offer it as soon as the diagnosis is announced. This is particularly the case for CAL. Why, then, did he join the project by transferring part of this care to the Mozart Institute? “When we see patients for consultation, many of them express their reluctance to return to the places where they were treated for their cancer, even if it involves benefiting from nutritional advice, socioesthetics or with a psychologist. We can understand it; the ordeal was difficult, and it is a source of stress to find yourself among patients undergoing chemo, or near an operating room where you have been operated on,” justifies Professor Barranger.
Meeting the people of the valleys
How many of the 40,000 Maralpins affected by the disease will knock on the Institute’s door? “We hope that many of them will benefit from the post-interventional support that will be offered”, replies Charles Ange Ginésy, without going any further. Necessary caution knowing that cancer is (too) often experienced in silence and solitude. “We all have the experience of a loved one affected by this illness. When the diagnosis comes, everything collapses and we need to be reassured; some can rely on a doctor, their family, friends, but this is not the case for everyone. From this point of view, the institute has an important role to play. » A role with patients who live on the coast, but also those far from the urban center. “The Institute’s teams will also meet the populations of the valleys. This is all the more essential since in the villages, cancer is still too often experienced in shame; the sick hide, are afraid of being judged…”
The president of the Department and the director of the CAL express with one voice the wish “to involve all the partners in the region who work in the field of cancer in their project”.
“This Institute is not in competition with other health establishments or associations like La Ligue contre le cancer [qui a quitté le projet, lire ci-dessous, Ndlr]. It is part of complementarity; the 40,000 patients in the Alpes-Maritimes need to have several possible entry points to access both preventive and supportive measures. »
The Department joined forces in 2021 with two historic partners, the Antoine-Lacassagne Center and the Alpes-Maritimes Cancer League, to launch the Axel-Kahn Departmental Cancer Institute in 2021, a first in France, in the framework of tripartite governance… Located in the former Mozart clinic on 950 m², in Nice, the aim is to facilitate the health and life paths of patients by offering a global support offer and personalized support.
Without the League
The work began last February. And they are finished. The Alpes-Maritimes departmental council inaugurated the structure on September 15.
But it is now called the Mozart Institute. “The Departmental Committee of the League once morest Cancer, chaired by Laurence Cressin-Bensa, historical partner of the project, who had planned to integrate part of its staff on the Institute site, will ultimately remain entirely located in its current premises with the wish not to split its service offering in two to the detriment of its historic site on rue Alfred Mortier”, indicate the departmental services.
It’s not that simple… Yes, Axel Kahn’s family no longer wished to associate his name with that of the institute since The League Against Cancer was no longer associated with the project. But the question is rather this: why did the departmental committee withdraw? “It was a project to be built and it was necessary to bring three entities into line [La Ligue, le Département et Lacassagne]it’s not always simple”indicates Gérard Van Den Bulcke, general director of the Alpes-Maritimes Committee of the League Against Cancer. “The National Federation has big projects coming up and our committee will be pilot for at least two of these projects, we cannot carry out everything, even if we are a big association. The workload would have been too heavy, especially since we are also going to open two new branches: in Mandelieu and Carros,” he continues. And then, Gérard Van Den Bulcke does not hide it “the communication went faster than the project. They communicated when the project was not yet finalized.” “Political” methods, not those which correspond to the League once morest Cancer: “We only communicate when the project is finished” concludes the general director, nevertheless present at the inauguration.
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