At The Center for Cancer Prevention and Treatment at St. Joseph Hospital, a dedicated social worker assists cancer patients and their families through their cancer journey. The social worker’s primary goal is to provide, strengthen and enrich patient and family coping strategies that can reduce a patient’s suffering, help them adhere to prescribed treatments and support their return to health.
Additionally, the social worker can help with:
- Support groups and programs
- Financial resources and transportation
- Legal resources and advance directives
- Community resources and information about how to obtain wigs and prosthesis as well as caregiver, nursing home, state disability and social security information.
- Empowerment for patients and their families
- General information and education resources on diagnosis and treatments
- Complementary or integrative medicine services
- One-to-one counseling for patients and/or family members at no cost
- Defining goals of care
- Patient education to enhance communication with the treatment team
- Counseling on cancer survivorship issues
- Contributions to the multidisciplinary plan of care
- Bereavement counseling for patients and their families