Holy Name's Approach to Helping Those with Cancer

Steve Adubato goes One-on-One with Courtney Lozano, MSW, LSW, who serves as Holy Name Medical Center's Program Director of the Cancer Support Community, which offers a wide range of programs for individuals impacted by cancer.

11/29/18 #2175

Excerpt:

"We're pleased to be joined by Courtney Lozano, who is program director for Cancer Support Community at Holy Name Medical Center. Good to see you, Courtney. Good to see you, thank you for having me. It's our pleasure. In prepping for this, I thought to myself, "Wow cancer, it's a clinical side, you gotta take care of people... radiation, chemotherapy other treatments... there's more to it than that, right? There's a lot more to it. So, Cancer Support Community is actually a global organization. We offer free cancer support programs to anyone impacted by cancer. Anyone? Anyone impacted... family? ...by cancer. Families, caregivers, spouse. Anyone who's going through this alongside someone who's diagnosed with this disease. And with Cancer Support Community, Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey has a partnership with them since 2016. Hmm. And even though these programs are held and hosted at Holy Name, they are open to anyone receiving cancer treatment anywhere. Anywhere. What do you do for them? Because I was looking... you got yoga, you got support groups, you got meditation, why? Yes. So every cancer center and hospital offers cancer support groups, which are vital in helping someone get through their cancer journey, but we want to offer a variety of other ways that people can connect in a non-traditional group setting. So we have cooking classes, we have nutrition classes, we have yoga, scrapbooking, meditation... you got drum circle. We got drum circle... What's a drum circle class? It's so fun, we love it. It gets their energy out, and people just enjoy some different ways to meet people. And when someone is diagnosed with cancer, it doesn't only affect you medically, or physically, it affects your emotional well-being. Talk about that. And you have to think about, "How am I going to address that?" That has to be addressed. So, through the cancer support community, we realize that social and emotional support is just as important as medical care. They should go hand-in-hand. So even if your doctor didn't suggest it or recommend it or talk about how important support is, we want to invite you to join us. And if you're looking to see... if you're seeking support, we are here at any point in your journey. How did you get into this? I'm a social worker... as my background. So I used to do counseling and group work myself. But now, I'm kind of developing and implementing this program in... behind the scenes. And I'm seeing that the expansion of this program is just so rewarding. It's really beautiful. You know, different people have said that the kinds of things you're talking about actually have a clinical medical benefit..."