The Empowerment Network offers emotional support for men dealing with the emotional wounds of a prostate cancer diagnosis. Find out more.
Prostate issues and prostate cancer have been the subject of national news reports recently involving high-profile men from various professions diagnosed, and unfortunately, dying from the insidious disease.
For the past 15 years, The Empowerment Network, Inc., a St. Louis-based prostate advocacy, awareness, and educational organization, has been at the forefront of urging men age 40+ to get a PSA test. Prostate cancer is treatable if detected early.
A key part of the organization’s mission is to provide life-changing and vital emotional support for men throughout their prostate cancer journey.
For the most part, medical science does an outstanding job addressing the causes, symptoms, and treatments for prostate cancer. We need just as much emphasis on the need for emotional support or a support group after the disease has been eradicated.
Sixteen-year prostate cancer survivor, Mellve Shahid, Sr., founder of The Empowerment Network, says prostate cancer and related issues bring with it a heavy baggage of despair, hopelessness, and shame that hurts just as much as the physical side of the disease. Emotional and mental support has to be available to these men during their road to recovery.
“Medical science through its various studies and research places high, and much-welcomed value on treating the body of the person diagnosed with the disease,” Shahid said. “Just as important is the wounded or broken human spirit within the person who has carried the disease. These men need support through faith, hope, and love and the greatest of them is the love needed to heal and become whole again.”
The Empowerment Network is here to provide that needed help navigating the journey by offering patient-focused, personal interaction, which includes:
∙ A network of more than 300 prostate cancer survivors who share their journeys
∙ The Prayer Team, made up of survivors, is with prostate cancer patients during the early morning hours at the hospital on the day of their prostatectomy providing encourage
∙ The “After Surgery Kit” personal hygiene package is given to the patients
∙ Follow-up visits and phone calls are made with the new survivors to ensure them they are not alone in their life beyond prostate cancer
Additionally, the Prostate Cancer Support Group meets on the second Saturday of every month where survivors gather in a spirit of camaraderie, sharing and listening to speakers often life coaches, psychologists as well as medical professionals with the latest prostate cancer information.
“The real treasure we see at The Empowerment Network is in the faces of family members when their fathers, grandfathers, and uncles survive this disease and go back to living a life of normalcy and having social interaction with their family members and friends,” Shahid says.
For more information about The Empowerment Network, call 314-385-0998 or visit www.TenStl.org.
