Spanish speakers who are at risk for cancer or already have it now have a wellness site to call home with bilingual staff who can help them at The Cancer Support Center in Homewood and Mokena.
That wasn’t always the case and was vexing to Sue Armato, who heads the center, because she realized there were many Latinos who needed the center’s clinical and social programs.
“What we were seeing is that we were getting a few more Spanish speaking clients coming to the center and we weren’t able to help them as much as we wanted to,” said Armato. “We’ve been doing a lot more work in different communities, one east of Homewood and in the Joliet area and because of that targeted outreach effort, we’ve been identifying more Spanish-speaking women who really need our supportive care.”
Armato said staff were seeing in several communities east of Homewood a higher incidence of cancer at a later stage and a number of those hit were Latino.
Outreach through the center’s “Kick it Cancer” campaign includes spreading the word at surrounding village halls, libraries and health fairs. The center added a therapist and a yoga instructor who speak Spanish, as well as bilingual bingo. Staff are also planning to add translations to educational forums. In 2021, the center had 41 Spanish-speaking clients.
But staff know they need to do more after nobody enrolled in this month’s Spanish yoga class. So they plan to beef up advertising on their website, to hospitals they partner with and to send email blasts to Spanish-speaking members. Staff also said new programs sometimes take time to grow.
Marcela Puga, who has been teaching yoga there since August, had suggested more programs for Spanish speakers, including her Gentle Yoga class.
“We started offering yoga in Spanish and let’s see what happens,” said Puga, who also teaches Yoga for Healthy Movement. “Maybe it’s the beginning of something so maybe they can include more programs for Spanish speakers.”
Puga pointed out her yoga classes, which focus on breathing and alignment, could be a big help to people suffering from cancer because they help with stress, as well as aches and pains.
“Sometimes when stress activates the nervous system, it settles down with breathing,” Puga said. “Breathing helps to be present here and now.
“It’s very important to teach all these participants to know how to connect with their body to accept what they’re living right now,” she said.
Those are benefits Puga longs to share with other Spanish speakers, who mayand not be aware there is help out there. Puga is a native Spanish speaker and originally from Mexico. Both her parents died of cancer, so she learned the importance of easing the pain of people with this disease.
“Sometimes I think they feel they are not included,” said Puga. “Or maybe they are shy to be … in this community.
“If we let them know all these people who work here are going to take care of them in some way, it’s supportive,” Puga said.
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
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