Model of workshops in the circles for people after mastectomy
The innovation model aims to empower and support women to better function in the labor market and stems from a multidisciplinary combination of sciences and knowledge and what is considered traditional with what is marked by modernity. The ancient Indian tradition of circles is thus intertwined with modern physiotherapy, career counseling, psychology and art therapy. Through the use of interdisciplinary support, participants will embark on training to strengthen body acceptance and self-esteem.
National
Poland
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It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
ESF : European Social Fund
Workshops in circles for people after mastectomy successfully applied to the Social Innovation Incubator TransferHub in the area of work. It's a grant project organized by the Foundation for Social and Economic Initiatives in partnership with the Responsible Business Forum Association under the Operational Program Knowledge Education Development, financed by the European Social Fund as part of the competition POWR.04.01.00-IZ.00-00-024/19.
TransferHub helps give shape to ideas we call social innovations. Special meetings and expert support serve this purpose. After the inventions are described in detail, they are evaluated. If they meet specific criteria, e.g., they will be genuinely unique, i.e., they will not duplicate solutions that have already been widely used somewhere in Poland, the innovators will receive funds to test them in practice.
The project received a grant for testing workshops conducted in circles, which address the problem group related to the construction of self-esteem and self-compassion as regulators of affective functioning. Which successfully took place in the period: from 21.06.2022 to 31.12.2022. Grant agreement no: 26/2022
No
Yes
2022-12-31
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Maria Last name: Garus Gender: Female Nationality: Poland Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Obroki 87/8 Street Town: Katowice Postal code: 40-833 Country: Poland Direct Tel:+48 579 715 287 E-mail:margar@interia.eu Website:https://solowomancyclist.com/
The purpose of the innovation model: "Workshops in circles for people after mastectomy" is to strengthen and support women to better function in the labor market and prepare them for employment in line with their qualifications and interests through a holistic approach using classical work methods with unconventional methods.
Through the use of interdisciplinary support, the participants will proceed to train in strengthening their body acceptance and self-esteem, which, as a result of a situation of severe stress related to the fight against cancer and significant surgical intervention, are extremely necessary for the preservation of mental stability and strength and comfort of a woman in the labor market. On the other hand, compassionate self-positioning, "letting go" of pressure, and strengthening kindness towards oneself will be crucial.
Short-term goals include:
-personal empowerment of the participant;
-enabling the participant to connect with the post-mastectomy community, establishing relationships that will positively affect her social functioning;
-increasing the participant's chances of keeping and getting a job by substantively and mentally preparing her for discussions with her supervisor about her needs and the recruitment process (or starting her own business);
-recognizing the participant's strengths and defining her dream job, determining the steps on how to reach her dream goal;
-improving the participant's psychological well-being;
-increasing the participant's motivation to apply for a job in line with her qualifications;
-discovering areas of professional interest, showing her what she can do and how to be successful at work
-improving the participant's social relations.
Long-term goals include:
-creation and implementation of friendly and holistic methods of working with people after mastectomy;
-increasing the visibility of post-mastectomy individuals and their needs;
-increasing awareness among employers of the needs and problem
mastectomy
women circles
labor market
empowerment
multidisciplinary
The project helps develop global problems identified in the Sustainable Development Goals by providing local solutions. The project is in line with following:
Goal 3: Ensure a healthy life for all people of all ages and promote well-being by overcoming emerging health threats and reducing premature deaths from non-communicable diseases
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower women and girls by ensuring equal access to health care and decent work for women and girls, and opposing discrimination
Goal 8: Promote stable, sustainable, and inclusive economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all people by shaping the conditions that enable people to engage in quality work that drives the economy without harming the environment.
Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements safe, stable, sustainable, and inclusive by ensuring equal opportunities for all people and access to basic inclusive services
The project is exemplary through superseding aspects:
-We do not create physical products
-The way we manage is based on regular dialogue and uses integrity and social innovation.
-We enable our recipents to return to nature to social connection and give them approach that teaches our users about how living in a healthy environment, with healthy beliefs and eating healthy food affects human health and life
-the activities carried out are based on a multidisciplinary approach, which provides opportunities to develop all talents among the staff and support work-life balance.
-Our logistics are minimal, related to the provision of meals and the workshop venue. We provide meals in a vegan manner. We organize workshops in venues rented especially from people who care about the environment or public institutions with standards.
-We are a strong partner and a good neighbor. We engage socially by involving associations and universities in society's work; we take care of the gender imbalance in the labor market.
Details in attached workshop model
The project's goal was to create a model for comprehensive workshop support for post-mastectomy individuals at risk of losing their jobs or needing help to return to or better adapt to the labor market. In its intention, we integrated it with the quadruple helix model supporting an interdisciplinary approach, including different dialogue actors in the interactions, and building community networking around the problem.
The project is exemplary to increase positive emotions and social benefits through:
-implementation of training to strengthen the acceptance of one's own body and self-esteem, which, because of the situation of severe stress associated with the fight against cancer and significant surgical intervention, are extremely necessary to preserve psychological stability and strength and comfort of a woman in the labor market
-the critical aspect was a compassionate attitude towards oneself, "letting go" of pressure, and strengthening kindness towards oneself.
-We can consider these components protective mechanisms against the negative impact of body image on people's self-esteem after mastectomy. It is because mastectomy mutilates physically and, most importantly, psychologically by permanently introducing anxiety into people's lives.
-Activities are implemented in the spaces: Spiritual: fear of death, Physical: fear of relapse and further metastasis, Social: of breaking up the family, loss of a relationship, Sexual: fear of failure of femininity.
A design thinking process was used to create the innovation model: from the stage of in-depth interviews conducted with post-mastectomy individuals and desk research to prototyping and testing. Our goal was to learn methods to help women return to the labor market. We mapped all areas of human functioning: the physical, mental, social, and creative areas to select the type of interventions that can achieve the best results when they are combined.
Women suffering from breast cancer experience fear for their health and lives and many other anxieties. Most often, they are accompanied by fear of losing their femininity and sexual attractiveness, and thus their self-esteem. Also, the pain and lymphedema after surgery can create fear and uncertainty.
The financial cost of participation was also a specific barrier. We organized free involvement in the project, and participants were reimbursed for travel expenses and provided refreshments during the classes.
The innovation meets the Accessibility Standards for Cohesion Policy 2014-2020:
1. architectural accessibility.
Workshop room that meets the standards of architectural accessibility - selected after a self-audit. Users' availability of comfortable manual use was identified as crucial, given the lymphedema that occurs in about 50% of women after mastectomy. After selecting a suitable location and conducting a self-audit, a description of architectural accessibility was provided on the event profile, along with photos of the workshop location. The accessibility chain for the venue was also described.
2 Digital accessibility.
A social media platform - Facebook - was chosen as the primary tool for communication with the audience, which is a tool that is also accessible to people with disabilities through compatibility with assistive technologies. To meet the requirements of digital accessibility, the following mechanisms were also used:
- extended subtitles for videos posted on FB
- posting alternative text to graphics and photos shared on FB
- simple language and a readability index (FOG index) of 8-12 (examined using logos.dev) will be used in text messages
- order of text structures
- high contrast of graphic materials (examined with Colour Contrast Analyzer).
3. accessibility for deaf people
Consultation in terms of accessibility for Deaf persons as part of expert advice provided by the TransferHUB
The project was implemented participatory. The team, prior to the implementation of the project, collected 52 surveys among women to better address the needs of this audience. The data collected showed that:
-88.46% of the surveyed women receiving information about the diagnosis were economically active
-as a result of the treatment, the number of economically active women dropped to 59.62% (a decrease of 28.84%), and the number outside the labor market increased threefold
-with 21.15% of women having been terminated or having to suspend their activities as a result of illness
-among the remaining working women, as many as 30.77% fear losing their jobs due to illness and treatment
-50% of women plan to return to the labor market, of which 17.31% explicitly declare that they need support.
The team was also in constant contact with organizations that work with women after mastectomy and supported the organization of the workshop with content.
The developed Innovation Model was addressed to a wide audience, primarily to
- Municipal, district and provincial authorities, as well as district labor offices;
- Private and public health institutions;
- Non-governmental organizations working in the areas of health and labor activation;
- Companies that have such a form of support in their CSR assumptions and that would like to improve the wellbeing of their female employees struggling with breast cancer
- Trainers, animators and facilitators who would like to deal with the topic of circles for people after mastectomy in their professional practice.
Thanks to broad community involvement, the stated goals were met:
-functional (learn something new, be independent and free, regain the "rudder of life"),
-emotional (change something, find new meaning, relax, take care of oneself, regain self-esteem, contentment, let go, experience normalcy, forget about illness),
-social (meet new people, spend time with people in an environment other than a hospital setting).
Given the susceptible subject of innovation and the dynamic socio-economic changes occurring in today's world, a key element in implementing this project is an interdisciplinary and holistic approach, supporting the participants' coping with this painful process. Accordingly, the project was implemented in cooperation, enabling the creation of new relationships between actors of social dialogue:
1. the region (public administration units) - the department of development, health, and promotion of the Mikolow District Office
2. society (NGOs) - support in recruiting participants, the topic of nutrition, "Eye to Eye with Cancer" foundation
3. science (universities, scientific specialists) - career counseling
4. economy (companies and industry specialists) - oncology physiotherapy, oncology yoga, TRE, sound therapy, massage, business coach
The project also received interdisciplinary support at the development and implementation stage from the Social Innovation Incubator:
- Animation meetings - implemented in the form of meetings in person or online regarding the information on the Incubator's rules of work, and knowledge on the labor market.
- learning about the rules of transfer of copyright and the possibility of using the developed solutions; learning about the guidelines for accounting; getting detailed information on the procedures and how to support Innovators.
- 6-day course, during which originators can refine the innovative solution and plan the testing process;
- Consulting support-make the assumptions adopted in the Innovation Specification more realistic and plan to test reliably.
- support in collecting personal data of users and recipients of the innovative solution, motivate the Innovators/s, help solve problems and overcome difficulties with implementing the creative project.
- Specialized counseling during the testing stage in psycho-oncology and oncology physiotherapy
- Networking meetings.
The content of the Handbook was created through the work of a multidisciplinary team:
- a physiotherapist of the Polish National Swimming Team, who also deals with the topic of oncological physiotherapy;
- a certified psychotherapist and supervisor dealing with the topic of oncological psychotherapy;
- psychologist, professional counselor, and career coach at the University of Silesia in Katowice
- trainer dealing with the topic of oncological yoga;
- TRE provider, psychologist, personal development trainer;
- sound therapist, yoga teacher;
- certified massage therapist and instructor of self-massage
- therapist of systemic settings and RTZ, PCC Coach, adept in Psycho-traumatology and Integral Psychotherapy, Business Coach;
- an employee of the "Eye to Eye with Cancer" Foundation, also dealing with nutrition.
-author of innovations: Anna Pawluk - who has extensive experience in leading more than 50 women's circles, relaxation, art therapy, and other activities of a supportive and therapeutic nature, including for groups requiring exceptional support, such as wards of psychiatric hospitals or addiction treatment centers. She has also worked with large corporations regarding integrating teams and groups.
-author of the innovation: Maria Garus -doctoral student at the Silesian University of Technology dealing with the topic of social innovation, TTO employee at the University of Silesia in Katowice dealing with the topic of international project implementation, entrepreneurship, and competence development, strengthening of scientific research, technological development and innovation.
Thanks to this collaboration and a wide range of different competencies, it was possible to help the audience better, empower them and allow them to look at the problem from many perspectives.
The model of Workshops in Circles for people after mastectomy was tested by women after experiencing mastectomy. It has given confidence that it is an incredibly beneficial method for the social inclusion of a group of people who, after cancer and body-mutilating surgery, have found themselves outside society and the labor market. Direct benefits for beneficiaries are:
- as a result of carrying out the support, the degree of very high self-esteem in terms of competing in the labor market increased by as much as 45%.
- by 36.4% increased the number of people declaring high or very high motivation to change (from 54.6% to 91.0%)
- the ratio of those declaring their physical condition as a medium, high or very high increased from 72.7% to 91.0%.
- As many as 54.5% highly rated their kindness to themselves.
- An examination of the participants' self-esteem using the Rosenberg method indicated that the percentage of participants positively assessing their level of self-worth increased from 36.3% to 81.8%. The percentage of women aware of having positive qualities increased (up 27.2%). The rate of those who think they are not succeeding in life dropped to 0%. There was an increase from 36.4% to 45.5% in the percentage of women saying they strongly agree with the statement that they can do things as well as most others. The percentage of women who believe they don't have many reasons to be proud of themselves fell from 18.2% to 0%. The percentage of women saying they like themselves increased from 18.2% to 45.5%. 36.4% strongly agree that they are satisfied with themselves compared to 9.1% before the support realization. The percentage of women feeling useless at times dropped. Strongly agreeing with the statement from 9.1% to 0% and agreeing from 54.5% to 45.5%. Strongly disagreeing with the idea that they sometimes suck from 9.1% to 27.3%
The innovation is an original idea for solving the showed problem - the project aims to create an innovative, holistic model for supporting people after mastectomy using the tradition of tribal women's circles as the central axis of intervention. Thus, the innovation presents new tools for solving the problem - using women's circles for this purpose is a research novelty in the EU area. We analyzed the largest international databases: Web of Science and Scopus (data as of 15.04.2022). The innovation focuses on a group of recipients so far excluded from social interventions - people after oncological treatment and mastectomy, at risk of losing their jobs or needing support to return to the labor market or better adapt to it. The topic is significant and insufficiently addressed in social interventions. Behind this problem, there are deeper ones - such as lack of support, loss of self-esteem and self-efficacy, fear of returning to the labor market, feelings of abandonment and loneliness, lack of self-acceptance, and lack of purpose. The study confirms it, younger post-mastectomy women (under 55) expect more emotional support than older women. Women who have undergone chemotherapy expect more social support: vibrant, affirmative, and supportive, compared to patients who have not been treated with chemotherapy.
While some organizations/projects support this audience in some way, they are conducted selectively, multi-tracked, and lack a model that integrates interdisciplinary activities from multiple areas. Most of the workshops available on the market focus only on the problem of lymphatic massage or elements of psychological support. No project has been found that holistically and interdisciplinarity, with the use of workshops conducted in circles, would address the problem group related to the construction of self-esteem and self-compassion as regulators of affective functioning.
In creating the support program, we relied on the concept of the holistic approach, otherwise known as a systemic, holistic approach. The idea is derived from the Greek word holos, which means whole. The holistic approach is often used in medicine. Here, the health perspective is presented in four planes - physical, mental, social, and spiritual. Holism is a balance between different planes, and this approach and the desire to find a balance became the starting point for the construction of this project.
The method presented here aims to influence the professional situation of people after mastectomy by rebuilding their self-esteem and using self-compassion to regulate their expectations of themselves. These elements are vital in creating a positive self-image and facing the need to return to the labor market and build social relationships.
The working method is based on four fundamental pillars:
-Holistic approach - healing is to achieve a sense of wholeness and coherent wholeness in all essential areas of life. None of them is more or less important;
-Enhancing empowerment - the innovation seeks to help post-mastectomy women regain a sense of empowerment and feel ready to make changes in their lives;
-Group support - the circle method is an element that builds on the strength of femininity, mutual female support. It refers to the tribal tradition of circles, which had healing power;
-Mentoring support in the professional area (reducing the fear of returning to work, gaining an idea of what kind of work is possible, or maybe it's time to open a business?).
This model of innovation is aimed primarily at women (but each time indicating women, we also mean non-binary, transgender, and other people in need of this support and able to participate in the project) after unilateral or bilateral mastectomy surgery, declaring a readiness to work on a plan for professional and personal development.
The methodology has been tested and can be transferred to work with all patients after cancer treatment. The method is inexpensive relative to the potential costs of not using it. The expenditures incurred have proven to be optimally designed in terms of:
-financially (the outlay closes at about EUR 6,000.00, which translates into a cost of approx. EUR 500.00 of support per person, assuming a group of 12 people).
- organizational. The innovation was designed flexibly. In the minimum version, it is possible to implement the support even by one person (if he has the necessary competence and skills to work on the body, emotional, creative, and work support areas, and at the same time can deal with recruitment, evaluation, and management. However, this is not the recommended option because an essential aspect of the activities is multidisciplinarity and the possibility for women to work with different specialists, and regular supervision of the circle leader is recommended. On the other hand, the circle leader organizes a support team in line with her vision for the circles and oversees their execution in terms of quality and content. Therefore, this part of the activity does not involve the organization. It only requires recruiting an experienced Circles Leader.
-time. The innovation is designed to immerse the participants as intensively as possible in the process of self-healing. Full-day sessions are recommended, one week apart for 1 to a maximum of 2 months. Extending this period may cause attendance problems.
The only change we could make to the project would be to increase the number of hours of individual career counseling support.
It is possible to introduce the solution for widespread use. Potential users of the innovation are:
- Municipal, district, and provincial authorities, district labor offices
- Private and public health facilities,
- Non-governmental organizations working in the areas of health and and labor activation,
-CSR
Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor and the leading cause of mortality among women in PL and worldwide. In Poland, breast cancer is diagnosed in 19 thousand women, which is about 23% of all cases, and this means that every day over 50 Polish women learn about the disease. It handles about 14% of deaths from malignant tumors in women - 15 women die daily. As shown by incidence statistics, today, there is a steady upward trend, especially in the group of women in the peri-menopausal period (about 45-50 years of age). Very often, women with the end of treatment do not return to working life.
Meanwhile, returning to work is an essential part of psychosocial rehabilitation. Even if they back work, they engage in more avoidance behavior in social situations, especially when they struggle with lymphedema, the characteristic symptom of which is a significant disproportion in the appearance of the upper extremities. About 20-25% of all women in Poland lose their jobs due to the disease. A large group, about 40-45%, had to change careers because the one they were doing was too hard and endangered their health. This also required retraining.
The project positively influences the employment situation of people after mastectomy by rebuilding their self-esteem and using self-compassion to regulate their level of expectations of themselves. These elements are crucial to creating a positive self-image and facing the necessity of returning to the labor market and building social relations.
Thus, the model is in line with the strategic documents of the region and the country, responding to the processes related to achieving sustainable economic growth, development of human and social capital, supporting entrepreneurship at the regional and local levels, resilience and competitiveness of the economy.
The solution does not require changes in the existing structure/program of activities of the institution/organization, nor does it require changes in the law.
