Transcription:
Mercy UC Davis Cancer Center Support Group

Amanda Wilde: When you're dealing with cancer, there's a lot to sort through. A support group can be a huge help coping with practical and emotional issues. Stephanie Gonzalez is here to talk about the crucial role of the Mercy UC Davis Cancer Center support group. Stephanie is an oncology social worker with Dignity Health. This is Hello Healthy at Dignity Health Podcast. I'm Amanda Wilde. Welcome, Stephanie. So glad to have you here.

Stephanie Gonzalez: Hi. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Amanda Wilde: Well for those with a cancer diagnosis, we're looking at how to navigate the process of medical treatment, family needs, so much more. There's lot to sort through. What can a support group do for us?

Stephanie Gonzalez: So a support group offers a safe place where you can get information that's practical, constructive, and helpful. A support group is a gathering of people facing coming issues. To share, what's troubling them. So through the sharing of experiences, they're able to offer support encouragement and comfort to other group members and receive the same in return. So, talking to someone who is, experiencing the same, something pretty similar, like a cancer diagnosis, can be extremely helpful and in many ways therapeutic.

Amanda Wilde: Is this something that's done in person or online or both or something else?

Stephanie Gonzalez: Well, a support group in general can have many formats. There's some that are in person, some that are online. So I know with COVID many support groups have transitioned to online formats like Zoom. So both.

Amanda Wilde: And is it a time commitment in terms of you get so overwhelmed with all the things you have to deal with in this situation? In order to get benefits from a support group, do you need to attend for a certain number of sessions?

Stephanie Gonzalez: That's a really good question. So every support group can be a little different. There may be some that are closed, which means you start the support group at the same time and, you carry on for, sessions, whether that's a weeks or months. But with the same participants, right? That's a closed group. No, no new participants are allowed to kind of enter the support group. But then there's open support groups that really you're able to go and attend, whenever they're available. Doesn't matter if there's not a requirement as to you have to come every week, every month. So again, that varies. By support group, right? Just depends.

Amanda Wilde: So tell me more about the cancer support group at Mercy UC Davis Cancer Center. What happens in a typical meeting?

Stephanie Gonzalez: Yeah. So, the Mercy UC Davis Cancer Support Group here relaunched in May of this year. And we meet once a month. It's the last Thursday of every month from four to five here at the cancer center. And, the support group is facilitated by a licensed clinical social worker, in this case that would be me. And the support group is open to the entire community. So cancer patients, cancer survivors, friends, family care partners, really all are welcome. And some of the activities we engage in, foster communication, healing, and trust.

And these can be dialogue driven, like sharing stories or more physically engaging, like team focused activities, art, therapy, cooking. Each session will have a focus, discussion or demonstration on topics such as diet, nutrition, physical therapy, psychosocial, and spiritual care. So just to give an example of one of our sessions and what they look like. One of our recent sessions, was focused on self care and so we discussed the importance of self care, learned about the different types of self care, and identified ways to increase and promote it in our daily lives.

So we ended our session by making bath bombs together that our group members were then able to take home and continue to practice just one of the many self care techniques that we discussed that day.

Amanda Wilde: Oh, that's so interesting because I was gonna ask, what do you see in your patients and the other people that attend the group that tells you that the support group is working beneficially?

Stephanie Gonzalez: Well, some of the things I've noticed, they, are able to come to this safe place and just openly discuss, some of the things that they're experiencing. and really just be able to make connections and, find that empathy from the group members and from the social worker. But it really is just a safe place and a place to build that community. And one pretty amazing thing that I witnessed at our last session, the group members, they wanted to continue their discussions and possibly meeting outside of the actual meeting space.

So, they were talking about exchanging numbers and kind of just continuing the community and the discussions outside. So I thought that was pretty cool. And that's what it's about, right? Building those relationships and finding again that community and not feeling so isolated and alone. That was pretty cool. Yeah.

Amanda Wilde: Because you're really not alone. You have to make that effort to attend the support group to find others that will help you through the process. And support groups are really only one part of all the comprehensive support that's offered by Mercy UC Davis Cancer Center. What other supportive services are offered there?

Stephanie Gonzalez: There's a few things, a few programs. One thing I briefly mentioned, the role of the oncology social worker. So this person is a licensed trained professional who help our patients deal with the many challenges of cancer. The social worker provides insights practical assistance, emotional support with things like anxiety, calming our fears, communicating with your healthcare team, managing the different roles of your life.

As a parent, employee, spouse, on top of being, a patient that's undergoing cancer treatment and just, provides the counseling, the emotional support, and also the case management resource, community referrals. And of course, like I mentioned before, facilitates the support group. There's also a nurse navigator who is a trained oncology nurse and she offers individualized assistance to our patients, families and caregivers to help overcome healthcare system barriers.

So what does that mean? So, our nurse navigator really spends a lot of one-on-one time with our patients and their families. Discussing their plan of care will facilitate Questions between the patient, the physician. She provides financial assistance direction and really works hand in hand with the social worker to address any barriers to care. That can be transportation, insurance, the list goes on. A few of our other programs include paint night. We have a paint night once a quarter.

And this is kind of an extension of our support group. But we offer a paint night. Again, open to the community. It does not mean you have to necessarily be a patient receiving, treatment at our cancer center. But the class is led by a local professional artist who is actually a cancer survivor herself, which is pretty amazing, to have someone that the participants the group members can relate to. And the paint night really is intended to provide a creative outlet for our patients, our family members, and their caregivers, and together learn just one of the many stress management Techniques and tools.

Amanda Wilde: That is truly amazing. And painting is only one of the creative ways you support cancer patients, families, and the community at large.

Stephanie Gonzalez: Right, right. And we have two other programs that I briefly wanted to mention. We have a wig bank. So this program allows our patients, to obtain a synthetic wig or head covering at no cost. And we also have a Kindness Box program, which is a program that provides touchless food delivery to our patients and their families. So this program addresses more of the food insecurity needs that some of our patients sometimes experience.

Amanda Wilde: That is truly, comprehensive and thank you, Stephanie, for the great information and for your role in providing such useful and compassionate care for cancer patients in the community at large.

Stephanie Gonzalez: Yes, absolutely. We really do try to address, the many challenges that come up for our patients during a cancer diagnosis and during their cancer treatment. So, my role is just really providing that emotional support and addressing those barriers to care that sometimes, exist.

Amanda Wilde: Yeah, with all this support, it just makes the process so much more manageable.

Stephanie Gonzalez: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Amanda Wilde: Thank you again for your time and your good work. For more information on the Mercy UC Davis Cancer Center and the support services offered there, visit Dignityhealth.org/merced/cancercare. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it. And thanks for listening to this episode of Hello Healthy, a Dignity Health Podcast. I'm Amanda Wilde. Be well.