A united team supports patients and their families through the cancer journey
photo: Thomas BrownThe new Division of Supportive Care Medicine brings together professionals from throughout City of Hope.
The new Division of Supportive Care Medicine embodies a growing national movement to treat and support all aspects of patients’ cancer experiences, from physical and mental health to emotional and spiritual issues. It encompasses a wide variety of professionals including pain physicians, clinical social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists and chaplains.
“The Division of Supportive Care Medicine reflects City of Hope’s longstanding commitment to compassionate care for the whole patient,” said Alexandra Levine, M.D., chief medical officer. “With the establishment of this division, City of Hope becomes a national leader in the movement to integrate our outstanding clinical care with a full spectrum of psychosocial and supportive care services.”
The division grew out of an evolving team at the Sheri & Les Biller Patient and Family Resource Center, the hub of supportive care for City of Hope patients and their loved ones.The center brings together and coordinates much-needed services and aims to ensure that all patients and their families get the tools they need to fight cancer and get healthy — right from the beginning.
“We are truly breaking new ground here,” said Matthew J. Loscalzo, M.S.W., co-chair of the Division of Supportive Care Medicine and administrative director of the Biller Patient and Family Resource Center. “We are bringing the best of all our specialties together to help people who truly need support: people with cancer and those who love them. This will be a national model for how to provide care.”
The new division includes specialists in pain management, palliation, psychiatry, psychology, clinical social work, spiritual care, patient navigation and health education.
Creation of the new division dovetails with national calls for more comprehensive care for cancer patients. In the most public call for such services, the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academies issued a report in late 2007 pushing medical centers to better address patients’ social, emotional and spiritual needs and overall sense of well-being.
Noted Loscalzo: “We’re looking forward to setting the pace for this movement. The patients and their families will stand to benefit from what we learn.”