The Path to Helping Patients and Families

KNIGHT

As monumental as the therapeutic successes against cancer have been over the past 50 years, so have the social advances.

When our Cancer Center first opened its doors in 1977, cancer was taboo and shrouded in fear.

“In those days, if a family member had cancer, families didn’t talk about it to many people. The myth was that it was contagious,” recalls Louise Knight, director of the Duffey Family Patient and Family Services Program.  Knight’s predecessor, Matthew Loscalzo, was director from 1997-2002.

We worked hard to dispel those myths, to be an advocate for patients and families, and to help them through this journey, she says. Today, our patients and their families are very knowledgeable about their disease. They are active participants in their care.

Recognizing that patients are more than the disease they are battling, the Cancer Center’s Duffey Family Patient and Family Services Program addresses all patient and family needs, and these improvements are as significant as the advances in therapies.

“Our Cancer Center is a family place. If someone is struggling, we help them. It is a place of hope,” says Knight.

LOSCALZO

Patient and Family Services is an umbrella for a breadth of services aimed at supporting patients and families from diagnosis through survivorship: social work; the living with cancer education series; survivorship programs, including an annual day of celebration; financial and transportation assistance; religious and spiritual support; and the Hackerman-Patz Patient and Family Pavilion, which provides homelike suites for patients and families traveling to the Cancer Center for treatment. Two earlier residences, the Joanne Rockwell Memorial House and the Hackerman-Patz House, provided this home away from home until the Pavilion opened in 2008.

Patient and Family Services also hosts the annual Service of Remembrance to offer support and reflection to the families of those who died during the year.

As they work to help others, she can’t help but think of the people who make their work possible. “Mrs. Harry J. Duffey was the engine who started this program and her family continues to move us forward. Mrs. Duffey’s gifts allowed us to launch the Duffey Pain and Palliative Care Program in 2007,” says Knight.

In addition, Paul Reed Smith, whose One Night, One Show, One Cause music event, also helps sustain the important work of the Patient and Family Services Program.

“The kindness of so many others, that’s what helps support us in our missions. It’s really quite beautiful,” she says. “We continue to hold true to our mission of caring for patients and families and the full scope of their psychosocial needs. Sometimes that means helping patients with mortgage payments and utilities, providing no-cost counseling to the spouse, providing education about Advance Directives, or helping a family plan for care at home after treatment. I think Mrs. Duffey would be smiling knowing all we have accomplished.”

There is a painting that hangs by Knight’s desk. It captured her attention several years ago when she visited a consignment shop that supports hospice care. In many ways, it illustrates the mission of Patient and Family Services, she says.

“Everyone who looks at it sees something different,” she says of the painting, which shows a path lined by flowers and shrubbery on each side. Where the path leads, she says, is up to the interpretation, imagination and hope of each patient’s and family member’s journey through cancer diagnosis and treatment. It’s different for each one, Knight says, but she and her team are there to help guide patients and families along the path they choose.