Community Outreach
Services to Patients, Families and Communities
Dana-Farber offers a variety of services to patients, families, and the wider community ranging from support groups, workshops, seminars, and educational and referral resources. These services are facilitated and provided by social workers, nurses, and other Dana-Farber staff and are designed to help people cope with the challenges that accompany a cancer diagnosis.
Examples include:
Pediatrics
- Bereavement Day
- Brain Tumor Support Group
- Inpatient Parent Support Group
- Yoga for Kids
- Sibling Day
- Making Music
- Back-to-School Program
- Specialized Support Groups for Childhood Cancer Survivors
Adults
- Prostate Cancer Support Group and Workshops
- Bereavement Support Group
- Post Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Patient and Family Education Support Group (for newly discharged patients)
- Breast Cancer Support Group
- Look Good/Feel Better (presented by American Cancer Society)
- One to One: The Cancer Connection (Peer Support)
- Stepping Stones (BMT) {for patients who have undergone bone marrow transplant at least six months previously and their families}
- Spirituality in Health and Illness
Eleanor and Maxwell Blum Patient and Family Resource Center and Satellites
The Blum Patient and Family Resource Center, which was established in 1996, is located in the Dana lobby and houses brochures, computers, videotapes, compact discs, and over 550 books in its loan library. The Blum Resource Center provides patients, families, and anyone from around the country and the world seeking services with the most current and useful educational materials available, as well as support, resources, and referrals. The Blum Resource Center and its 4 satellite rooms boast more than 10,000 visits annually.
The four satellite resource rooms include:
- The Houghton Mifflin Patient and Family Resource Room, based in the Gillette Center for Women's Cancers since 1997, offers resources that are specific to women and families coping with cancer.
- The DF/BWCC Inpatient Resource Room, which opened in 1998 on the sixth floor of the Tower building of BWH, serves inpatients of Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center and their families.
- The Betty Ann Blum and Marjorie Blum Pediatric Resource Room, which opened in 1999, serves parents and families of children receiving care at the Jimmy Fund clinic.
- The Pediatric Inpatient Satellite Room, located at Children's Hospital Boston since 2001, serves pediatric oncology and hematology inpatients.
A Clinical Nurse Specialist in Patient Family Education and a team of volunteers are available to assist patients, families, and visitors access cancer information, identify supportive care services, and provide referrals to housing, hospice, and complementary therapies.
Interpreter Services
The Dana-Farber Interpreter Program provides interpreting services to patients and families with limited or no English proficiency and healthcare providers to ensure proper communication and understanding across languages and cultures. In FY'05, nearly 4,641 interpreting encounters were made, representing 3,149 interpreting hours. In FY'05, the most requested languages were Spanish, Russian, Cantonese, Arabic, American Sign Language, and Portuguese, representing 83 percent of interpreting encounters and 75 percent of interpreting hours.
The Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies
The Zakim Center is a multidisciplinary program that provides integrative therapies to adult and pediatric patients and families; education to patients, families, and staff; and research studies to test the efficacy of integrative therapies in cancer patients.
In 2005, the Center offered over 2,600 individual treatments, including acupuncture, massage therapy, reiki and integrative medicine and nutritional consults to adult ambulatory patients. Group programs in meditation and qigong were developed and offered to patients, family members and staff. The Center expanded its scope of service to include new locations and populations, the Jimmy Fund Clinic and the DF/BWH Cancer Center. In addition to the successful weekly music program, individual massage therapy, acupuncture and integrative medicine consults were added to the menu of services for pediatric patients. Massage therapy is now available once a week to patients admitted to the adult in-patient service.
Over the past five years, the Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies has emerged as one of the Institute's hallmark programs. Response from patients, families and staff has been overwhelmingly positive.
Survivorship conferences
Dana-Farber continues to play a major role in sponsoring and/or participating in the planning of cancer survivorship conferences. Dana-Farber provided financial support and staff consultation for the Second Annual "Young Adults Affected by Cancer Symposium" scheduled for April 2005. Workshops throughout the day provide time for participants to share with one another and to establish networks for on-going support.
Schwartz Rounds
Dana-Farber began Schwartz Rounds in 2001. The Schwartz Center Rounds are a multidisciplinary forum where caregivers discuss important emotional and social issues that arise in caring for seriously ill patients. Participants engage in an interactive discussion about the issue presented and share their experiences, thoughts and feelings.
