Help desk in Tata Memorial Hospital
CopewithCancer / Madat Trust has a support Help desk in Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.
Tata Memorial Hospital is one which specializes in cancer treatment and research. It is the national comprehensive cancer centre and is recognized as one of the leading cancer centres in this part of the world. Every day, over 1,000 patients visit the OPD, and every year, nearly 30,000 new patients visit the clinics from all over India and neighboring countries.
This gives us an idea of the number of people coming in for treatment on a day to day basis. Problems of inadequate hospital staff, language barriers, and the sheer volume of people, causes confusion among many patients desperately searching for help. The environment in the hospital gets chaotic multiple times, which leaves people helpless.
To address and relieve at least a few problems of the patients, Madat Trust has set up a help desk in the hospital general ward OPD, and the Golden Jubilee building of the hospital.
Volunteers of the Trust assist the patients in filling up medical forms, help them navigate around the building and provide explanation of any advice given by the doctors. Counseling sessions at the physiotherapy department for post-operative patients of the breast unit, and the Thoracic ward are held for patients and their caregivers.
Madat Trust’s help desk in Tata Memorial Hospital is completely devoted to putting patient’s “in the know”, and to be a source of comfort and understanding. Medical attention is not the only thing a patient and their family needs. They need someone to listen to their sorrows and understand what they are going through, and try and put them a little bit at ease.
The volunteers assist the patients to
-
- Fill up the registration and other forms
-
- Guide them to the right department within Tata – assistance & navigation
-
- Assist them to the consultation with their medical team to explain the same to them
-
- Connect them with our counseling helplines if needed
-
- Disburse free wigs
-
- Counseling sessions at TMH physiotherapy department for post-operative patients of breast unit
-
- Assist the patients & caregivers in thoracic OPD
Madat contributes at the main Helpline at Tata Memorial on ground floor
-
- The volunteers guide, navigate and assist the patients, caregivers and other organizations
- Help in serving food at lunchtime
- Guide the donors & Distribute donations
Madat contributes at ACTREC Tata, Kharghar
-
- volunteers counsel the patients and the caregivers
- disburse wigs & prosthetic bras
Would you like to be a part of our activities? If you can spare only 3 hours per week & you would like to donate your time, you can register yourself as a volunteer. Choose any slot of 10.30-1.30 or 1.30-4.30 for any day from Monday to Friday. The only qualification needed are empathy and regularity.
Please email us your details and contact number at urvija@copewithcancer.org and we shall get in touch with you.
Given below are articles sent to us by volunteers about their experiences at the Help Desk in Tata Memorial Hospital :
Volunteers urged the mother to get the baby’s eyes checked
– Vandana Mahajan
``An emotionally healthy parent helps heal their children better``
– Vandana Mahajan
Our endeavour is to take that extra step
– Vandana Mahajan
We at Madat call them ``miracle humans``
- Vandana Mahajan
And that is how tears are turned into smiles
– Vandana Mahajan