Biller Resource Center blends science with caring
Photos by Fred Lee and P.CunninghamHer daughter was just as surprised. “You mean I can just come in here and sit down and rest?” she asked.
They looked at each other with a sense of amazement and gratitude.
Every day, it seems, the story repeats itself within the Biller Patient and Family Resource Center, a peaceful 2,845-squarefoot space in the medical center that provides patients and their family members and friends with tools to strengthen and empower themselves before, during and after treatment.
The center aims to ensure seamless supportive care at City of Hope.
Patients and their caregivers can now find health education materials and computers at the center. Staff members also can provide referrals to outside agencies and resources for transportation, housing and other support.
In addition to a comfortable, open reading area, the center houses rooms for educational workshops, presentations and support groups, as well as rooms for private meetings with patient navigators, social workers, psychiatrists and other Department of Supportive Care Medicine staff. The facility is located near the entrance of the Main Medical Building, behind the Guest Services Desk.
Although the center has provided services since 2006, the space was officially dedicated by City of Hope leaders and dignitaries on Oct. 5, 2008. At the event, Sheri and Les Biller, whose family foundation provided the initial $2 million naming gift for the center, surprised the audience by announcing a multimillion-dollar challenge grant to establish an endowment.
The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation will donate $1 for every $2 that donors give to the center’s endowment, up to a maximum of $3 million.
“For everyone who has fought a battle with life-threatening disease — and for their caregivers, their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and children — this is for you,” said Sheri Biller, a member of City of Hope’s board of directors, at the event. “It is my hope that someday every person who faces such trauma will be blessed with a resource center like ours.”
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a special guest speaker at the dedication, praised the center’s mission and the generosity of those who made it possible.
Photo by AmyCantrell.comLos Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, with Sheri and Les Biller
“Every hospital has an advocate, but this is much more comprehensive and broader than anything I’ve seen by providing an opportunity to treat the patient and the family and enabling them with the tools and resources to fight cancer,” Villaraigosa said.
Michael A. Friedman, M.D., City of Hope president and chief executive officer, said the center embodies City of Hope’s commitment to provide passionate and personal care to patients, family, friends and caregivers. “With the opening of the Biller Patient and Family Resource Center, we are reinvigorating that commitment, and I want to acknowledge and thank Sheri and Les Biller for their generosity, support and faith in this important mission.”
Noted Matt Loscalzo, M.S.W., administrative director of the center and executive director of the Department of Supportive Care Medicine: “The Biller Patient and Family Resource Center is about helping patients and families solve problems and draw on their strengths, so they can fully focus on fighting cancer and living a healthy life.”
Center staff evaluate all programs and aspire to set the standard worldwide for supportive care.
Special guests at the event included members of the City of Hope board of directors, center donors Pearle Rae and Mark Levey, Debbie and Rick Powell and members of the Spungin and Zeidman families, representatives from the Wells Fargo and Weingart foundations, and California public officials including Los Angeles city councilmember Jack Weiss, Duarte Mayor Phil Reyes, Duarte City Councilmembers John Fasana and Lois Gaston and Beverly Hills City Council member Nancy Krasne.