OHSU Knight Cancer Institute Funds Our 2025 Project

 

Trish Broersma

 

January 18, 2025

 

Ashland, Ore. – Riding Beyond received $30,500 from the Knight Cancer Institute Community Partnership Program at Oregon Health & Science University to build a reliable information and referral model for breast cancer survivors and thrivers to address common issues following the conclusion of medical treatment. Project will work with area hospitals, doctors and health care providers in the Rogue Valley to expand effective referrals to Riding Beyond for the research-proven benefits of the horse/human relationship for those seeking trauma recovery. The project has been developed in consultation with professionals at OHSU, and Asante and Providence hospital personnel. 

 

The plan involves, first, personal experiences, for health care providers with Riding Beyond horses in spring-time for first-hand understanding of the power of this modality by a more wide-spread audience of medical professionals; second, a one-day professionally facilitated strategic planning process involving health-care change-makers; and third, action plan implementation in the fall of 2025.  Results will be evaluated for additional two years funding of the project by OHSU Knight Cancer Institute Community Partnership Program.  

 

While materials about Riding Beyond have for years been available to patients in discharge packets, by survivorship personnel, in the Asante Resource Room and area medical offices, presentations at support groups, and mentioning the services to some patients, Riding Beyond continues to find that about half of their participants find the program through friends, family and public media notices, wondering why they did not hear about it during treatment so they could look forward to it, and at least know of its benefits from their health care team in ways that clearly relate to possible emotional survivorship issues, all about which they feel uninformed. 

 

Breast cancer is at epidemic proportions in first-world countries and has been growing the past five years in younger 30-40 year age-groups, with research showing 85% of survivors emerging with PTSD diagnoses in their first year, reducing to 35% after the first year.  Survivors and thrivers post-treatment often experience challenges in re-establishing close relationships, returning to an intuitive sense of how to attend to their well-being, adapting to their new body image, a resistance to touching others and being touched, returning to work routines, adapting to the threat of cancer return within 5 years, and more. After-treatment resources have grown in recent years and making Riding Beyond effectively available to patients is the goal of this project. 

 

The project is funded through the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute Community Partnership Program. This program is designed to build sustainable collaborations with Oregon communities by providing grants and other resources to foster development of community-identified cancer prevention, early detection, treatment and survivorship projects. The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute has made a decade-long commitment to invest in this program to develop robust, sustainable programs that benefit the health of all Oregonians. Additional information about the program is available on the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute’s website. 

 

Riding Beyond has served breast cancer survivors and thrivers in the Rogue Valley since 2013 with their equine assisted services in human development. Located in Ashland, their mission is to open doors to the future with trauma recovery from breast cancer treatment, and since 2021, from other life challenges.  The founder and director of the program, Trish Broersma, is certified with the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH Intl) as a therapeutic riding instructor and as an equine specialist in mental health and learning. Licensed mental health counselors and certified equine specialists assist in designing and conducting programs, along with a large volunteer crew and five specially-trained and talented horses (plus one donkey), all of whom endeavor to explore and share the remarkable benefits of the horse/human relationship.  See ridingbeyond.org for details, including the award-winning video by Robin Miller, MD, on the home page.