From the Desk of a Social Worker

Social Worker taking notes

From the Desk of…

a Cancer Care Services’ Social Worker

A day in the life of a social worker at Cancer Care Services is filled with many different roles and responsibilities. No two days are exactly alike, but each day we are focused on providing care and support to the people we are here to serve. While our team of clinic-based social workers operates within the parameters of a specific, off-site clinic setting, the social workers in our building on S Henderson Street serve a broad spectrum of individuals from our community who have been affected by cancer.

Our community social workers typically spend the first few moments in the building preparing for the day. Everyone has their own process, but in addition to tending to basic administrative chores, this time is meant to put the social worker in a healthy state of mind to connect with clients. Sometimes social workers even jam out to action movie soundtracks, but those are a rare breed.

Prep time serves another practical purpose: we don’t begin reaching out to clients until after 9:00 AM, in order to give patients sufficient time to wake and prepare for whatever their day may hold. These calls continue conversations about previously identified needs or concerns; we want clients to feel they are kept current, and not like they are having to wait on responses to questions. After every call is completed on behalf of the patient, the social worker documents the exchange with a note to the client’s file. Detailed documentation is an essential element of professional social work.

Typically, the social worker will then move on to Intake phone calls. This is the first step in bringing a client on board to receive services from our agency. Many routine questions are asked in order to assess the client’s physical, mental, and even financial condition and begin to formulate a care plan for them. Not surprisingly, many notes are added to the file. Altogether, this process takes roughly an hour for each new client.

Once Intake is completed, then the social worker schedules a time to meet the new client in person, preferably, to discuss in more detail the needs of the client as well as those of his or her entire household. At Cancer Care Services, the cancer patient is not the only type of client. The husband, wife, child, parent, and any caregiver – can all be clients.

The social worker will spend time throughout their day researching and attempting to connect these people with the resources they need – whether it’s financial help, counseling, food assistance, proper treatment, prescription medications, housing, car repairs, social connections, medical supplies, nutrition supplements, burial assistance, and sometimes even mattresses. Basically, anything that is a concern or need of the cancer patient’s household becomes a priority of the social worker.

The social worker will also spend time throughout the day receiving phone calls from dietitians, nurses, and other medical staff. These medical professionals are close with their cancer patients and are a key link in the chain of caring for and providing assistance to our clients. Each one of these professionals works within the guidelines of the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), which keeps patient information confidential.

Social workers are constantly sending and receiving order forms to provide medical assistance for the patient in these cases. For instance, if a patient needs colostomy supplies, then a nurse will send over an order form, and the social worker then searches online for the specific supplies and presents their selections to a supervisor for approval.

Cancer Care Services accepts any cancer patient no matter what phase of treatment – or survivorship – they are in. We know any help that can be provided goes a long way for our patients, and we are proud to play a vital part in that process.

If you need help, fill out our online form to get in contact with a Cancer Care team member.

Karen’s Story

Karen's Story

Stories of Hope: Karen’s Story

Cancer Care Services was a tremendous resource when my mom was diagnosed with cancer. She was 40 years old and had stage 2 breast cancer. Prior to her diagnosis, there was no history of cancer in our family.

When you hear the word cancer, you immediately have a ton of questions. How much time is left? Is it treatable? What are my options? What will it cost? We needed some guidance on how to navigate treatment. My knowledge was so limited about cancer and treatments and even how to comfort her through this scary time.

I was able to research online and found a Spanish support group at Cancer Care that could help answer some questions. At first, my mom refused to attend the support group because she thought it would be sad and depressing. It was actually the opposite.

My mom had a double mastectomy shortly prior to attending the first support group meeting at Cancer Care. The women and men in the meeting provided the comfort and encouragement she needed. She was able to hear testimonies from survivors and share her concerns with people who completely understood. Cancer Care offered my mom the kind of emotional support that no one else could. That’s not all Cancer Care Services did for her!

The financial burden that cancer adds to a family that is already struggling financially is stressful and almost unbearable. Cancer Care was able to help with my mom’s medical treatment expenses, such as the Cobra premiums and co-pays for doctor’s visits. Cancer Care also paid for my mom’s lymphedema sleeve after the insurance company called this a cosmetic sleeve and refused to cover the cost.

Cancer Care helped cover our medical needs and even helped my mom get a wig at a Look Good, Feel Good events that helped her esteem and confidence while going through cancer. Cancer Care was there to provide emotional support, financial support, and improve the overall well-being of our family. Cancer Care Services cared for our family during the most difficult times, which is why I love being able to give back in every way that I can.

Makeup and Memories

Chroma Services client

From the Desk of…

Michael Sturns and Meredith Villachica

 Chroma Services
www.chromaservicestexas.com

Being in the salon business allows us to talk with and get to know so many great people. Each person has a different story, different successes, and different challenges. Over time, many clients come to feel like old friends, people we’ve known to weather life’s ups and downs.

Oftentimes, we get the privilege of helping them look their best as they celebrate milestones, like holidays, graduations, or marriages, for instance. But sometimes, it’s the greater gift that we get to help them when they’re feeling down, as they come to the salon not always feeling like their best. So great is it that something as simple as a haircut or new makeup can make someone feel so special on the inside as well as the outside.

But you know it and we know it: fighting cancer can lead to days when you feel more than just down.

We don’t claim to be able to make everything better, but our amazing team of Hair Stylists and Makeup Artists do what we can to transform feelings of depression, lethargy, anxiety, and self-doubt into moments of beauty, confidence, and encouragement.

How do we do this? When a client walks through our doors, we see the person, not the patient, and we proceed to pamper them through a beautiful makeover inside our one-of-a-kind Mobile Salon. With love in our hearts, our service to each client is totally personalized and nothing is left out! We call this the “Chroma Experience”!

Every three months, we have the opportunity to provide MAKEUP & MEMORIES for Cancer Care Services’ clients. Just recently, as part of their very special Valentine’s Dinner (2/09/19). It was the fourth time we’ve come out to a Cancer Care event and each time we are touched by and grateful for the opportunity to interact with each person there. We leave always wanting to come back and do more – and we plan to.

We are 100% committed to our partnership with Cancer Care Services and we certainly share the mission of the agency, doing as much as we can to reduce the impact of cancer in our community, by coming together and changing lives, one moment at a time.

Our motivation to do this began almost a decade ago. It is the story of a particular client that our co-owner, Meredith Villachica-Hood, has serviced for many years, during which time, Meredith had witnessed her difficult battle with cancer. Although her strength and beauty continued to be remarkable, year after year, she continued to grow back and then lose her hair all over again, during multiple years of chemotherapy.

This inspired Meredith – and in turn, all of us at Chroma Services – to do whatever we could to turn the unfortunate circumstance of losing hair, due to cancer, into an agenda that any person battling or overcoming cancer may come through our doors and walk out with their head held high…we want to make sure each person sees themselves to be just as beautiful as we see them!

We work with hospitals, nurses, doctors, and caregivers. Our shared goal is to make the traumatic experience of hair loss due to cancer and treatment not one of despair, but something liberating – so that each courageous soul can walk down the street with their head held high!

A percentage of every service done at Chroma Services is donated quarterly to a Cancer Charity or Non-Profit Organization. Together, we will eliminate Cancer!

From the Desk of Jane Oderberg

Jane Oderberg

From the Desk of…

Jane Oderberg

Cancer Care Services’ Retired Program Director, Board Member, Volunteer, & Donor

As a long-time professional geriatric social worker in 2005, I attended a women’s networking meeting. While catching up with a friend, she shared the fact that an employee at Cancer Care Services was going to be out on medical leave, and she needed to hire a part-time social worker for the interim. I told her that I would be interested in applying, so long as I could do the work and still care for my granddaughters. Well…as they say (whoever “they” are!), the rest is history!!

I started as a 20-hour/week home visit social worker, which I enjoyed very much. I maintained a presence in the healthcare field and continued to attend many networking meetings. I was repeatedly surprised when asked what I was doing currently, and I answered “working part-time at Cancer Care”, how few people knew what Cancer Care Services was or that it even existed! I must admit that until I started working there, I didn’t know Cancer Care did either! But once I knew, boy, was I proud to spread the word.

When the social worker who was out on medical leave returned, we job-shared for several months. Then the CEO came to me and asked that I come to his office; my co-workers teased that I was being called to the “principal’s office” for some behavior issue (like speaking my mind!). Instead, he informed me that the program director had resigned and asked if I was interested in taking on the position full-time, with responsibility for all client programming, supervising the social work staff and interns, supporting the Board of Directors, and “other duties as assigned”!

It didn’t take long, really just a year, for my relationship with one of the finest and oldest non-profits in Fort Worth to take root and begin to grow. I loved my job of helping clients and families navigate the maze that is cancer and all the ramifications that go along with it. I could leave work knowing I made a difference in people’s lives on a daily basis.

The staff was wonderful…more like family, really. We supported each other in good times as well as bad. It was a pleasure going to work every day. I also learned from our clients how cancer impacted their lives and how much they appreciated all that Cancer Care did for them. I have never felt as fulfilled by my work as I did while at Cancer Care Services.

Then and ever since, I have made it my mission to educate as many people as possible about the work Cancer Care does, making sure people know how to refer clients to the programs.

In July 2016, I retired from my position – after more than eleven years. Who would have believed that my part-time gig would last so long? But my connection with Cancer Care Services wasn’t over; it simply changed. I became a speaker’s bureau volunteer, and I pledged financial support through the Legacy of Hope Giving Society.

From these new vantage points, I have enjoyed watching the growth of the organization as it works to meet the needs of more and more people in our community. It felt good to be contributing still to something so positive. Then I looked at it from another angle.

A few months ago I was asked if I would consider serving as a member of the Cancer Care Services’ Board of Directors. Thinking it would be interesting to now see the agency’s operations from the perspective of governance and strategy – informed by a deep understanding of our client’s perspective, I said yes. So in a few weeks’ time, I’ll begin my term of service, continuing to support my favorite organization as a volunteer… an advocate… a donor… and once upon a time a good while ago, as a part-time employee.

Each experience has shown me in different ways the same thing: the quality of care and commitment to service offered daily by this organization to its clients. I hope to continue to contribute to its impact for many more years to come.

Bailey’s Story

Bailey's Story - Bailey is with her husband.

Stories of Hope: Bailey’s Story

My name is Bailey McLeod, and I am a breast cancer survivor. I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer called Triple Negative during my senior year of college at 21-years-old. Although I have no family history of breast cancer, when I felt it, I knew. It was a very tiny lump, only 7mm in diameter, but I knew in my gut that it didn’t belong in my body.

I didn’t have an OBGYN at the time, so I spent the next day desperately trying to find a physician who would see me and investigate it further. I was turned down by 5 offices before someone agreed to see me for my symptom. A doctor’s visit turned into an ultrasound, which turned into a mammogram, and finally turned into a biopsy. On February 12, 2016, one week after finding my lump, I was diagnosed. Naturally, my entire family was in shock. I asked to be referred to UT Southwestern in Dallas, and from there we got the ball rolling.

First things first, we wanted to get genetic testing done to find out if I had a genetic mutation that made me more likely to develop breast cancer, such as with the BRCA gene. As it turns out, I was negative for any mutations, which was a bittersweet discovery because although I really wanted an answer as to why I got breast cancer so young, if I had been positive that meant I could pass it on to my children. It would also make me more likely to develop ovarian cancer, which would ultimately lead to a full hysterectomy.

A couple of weeks later, it was time for surgery. I decided to undergo a prophylactic double mastectomy with reconstruction. Two weeks after that, I started the egg preservation process. Although I found my cancer in its early stages, it was very aggressive, and therefore I was advised to do eight rounds of bi-weekly chemotherapy. Chemo is known to damage your reproductive system, and my being in child-bearing years, it was pertinent that I have a backup plan for my desire to one day be a mother. The entire process took about two weeks and we retrieved 36 eggs, 21 of which were mature enough to freeze and store. A few days later, I started chemotherapy.

I want to mention, throughout all this, I was still attending my classes as much as I could. I was grateful to have professors and a wonderful advisor who worked with me to ensure I was able to graduate that May, which I’m proud to say I did. On July 21, 2016, I completed my eighth round of chemo AND got engaged to my boyfriend at the time. We had been dating for two years when I was diagnosed, and he was my rock throughout the whole thing. A few weeks later, I had my final reconstruction surgery. I was done! Or so I thought…

After finishing treatment, I thought I would be able to close that chapter and move on. Unfortunately, that’s not the case when you go through something as traumatic as cancer. Throughout my entire experience, I felt very isolated. Although I had an amazing support team, I didn’t personally know anyone my age who had been through what I had been through. I felt like I had so many emotions bottled up inside me that I desperately wanted to share with someone who truly understood.

Through Cancer Care Services, I learned of two organizations that changed my life: The Young Survival Coalition and The Fort Worth Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Coalition. YSC has been an amazing outlet for me to connect with other young women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 40. FWAYA has allowed me to meet different groups of young people diagnosed with ANY type of cancer.

If it weren’t for Cancer Care Services I would have never been introduced to these two amazing establishments. Meeting so many people to who I can relate has truly helped me to digress from my negative feelings towards cancer and has helped me to move on and live a happier life.

Marisol’s Story

Marisol's Story - Marisol Nunez and John Mosman are smilling at the camera.

Stories of Hope: Marisol’s Story

I was diagnosed with neuroblastoma as a toddler. I was tested with chemo, radiation, immunotherapy, and photon radiation. From the treatments, I got secondary leukemia, heart damage, ITP, anemia, kidney damage, bone and joint damage, a lazy eye, hearing damage, and many other complications. In my early 20’s I relapsed with leukemia. I never wanted to participate in any events and chose not to disclose my previous medical history.

After 5 years of marriage, my husband and I decided to seek a fertility specialist without success. A year later I became pregnant and went against medical advice and kept the pregnancy. It was extremely difficult and the delivery was worst. My child and I almost lost our lives. I was also told that I had a concerning MRI and continuous bleeding post-delivery. I returned to medical treatment where I was informed I had low-grade cancer in my center nervous system. It was a hard diagnosis, but being more actively involved in Cancer Care Services and a part of social groups has made the diagnosis easier.

I participated in the Camp Gold Retreat. It was my first time participating in an AYA (Adolescent and Young Adult) event. I was beyond excited and amazed at the close-knit group of young adults that had overcome so much. I also participated in the Chroma Services Ladies Night Out makeover. I loved the pampering! In June of 2018, my family and I attended the National Cancer Survivors Day event. It was an emotional celebration. I thank Cancer Care Services for the services and events I and my family have been able to participate in!

Theophilus’ Story

Theophilus' Story - Theophilus is surrounded by his family.

Stories of Hope: Theophilus’ Story

In February 2017, I was diagnosed with Stage IVB Right Maxillary Sinonasal Adenocarcinoma. My name is Theophilus Sackey and my date of birth is October 17, 1968. The news was very devastating to the say the least because cancer is like a warrant and very unpredictable with prognosis. The very difficult aspect of the situation was the fact that I did not have health insurance.

God being so good JPS Health Network agreed to perform the on humanitarian grounds to save my life.

After enduring a seventeen hours surgery my body was like a car that has been rebuilt. I was on feeding tube, had to learn how walk again, eat through the mouth and how to talk. In fact when I woke up at ICU and family members around me were all in shock of how I looked like some friends even had little hope of me making it back home.

A social worker at JPS Health Network introduced me to Cancer Care Services for my nutrition since I was on feeding tube but I received more than just nutrition. James Earl took care of me when I came over to the office. James took time to take me through some questionnaire and explain all the possibilities and the difficulties that can be associated with life after cancer survival and prayed for me.

I was received nutrition free of charge for six months before I started eating through my mouth. In December 2017, I needed a pet scan taken at cost of $780.00 and again Cancer Care Services took care of the cost for me.

I was not the only person that was taken care of. My children got their school supplies, we got groceries for our Thanksgiving meal, our Christmas tree was filled with gifts for my three children, my wife and myself and again had groceries for our Christmas meal because Cancer Care Services raised money to care of us.

I have had peace of mind to live and enjoy life after I was declared cancer free on August 2017. In January of 2018, I was invited for a retreat and it was a life changing experience to see people have survived and those who are still going treatment to share their stories and all the activities that went on that was great.

I want to end by extending my appreciation to the whole staff of the organization for your dedication to help alleviate the difficulties that come with cancer diagnosis, treatment and survival. I pray that one day I would be strong enough to work and be a donor to the organization to help other people enjoy the services I had.

Pete’s Story

Pete's Story - Pete and his family.

Stories of Hope: Pete’s Story

What programs/activities did you use from Cancer Care Services?
I participated in the REEL fishing and the Christmas/ New Years’ dinner. I enjoyed the aromatherapy and use it to sleep. I have an interest in food prep, massage, stretching, and meditation.

How did you initially hear about Cancer Care Services?
They sent me an invite to the fishing event at the Boy Scouts camp.

Where would you be today without Cancer Care Services?
Well, probably the relationship with wife and daughter would be more difficult. I think it gave a bigger perspective on my family what I was going through and made us closer.

What was the best thing Cancer Care Services did/is doing for you?
Giving me a sense of gratitude and appreciation of other people caring about this disease and giving me hope.

When I was diagnosed it was a surreal experience. I thought at first “why me” since I was just getting recovered from a serious motorcycle accident on 2/8/15. I was in the hospital in ICU for 3 weeks and in the hospital for a month. I was off work for 3 months. Thank God I worked for a good company that paid me through this time and also donated money to offset my medical expense and I survived.

As I said “why me” and then I thought “why not me.” I think of all the young children that have had to endure this at the beginning of their lives that should be enjoying it but don’t have that opportunity and in many cases die from it. I had support from my wife and daughter and my co-workers. Also from friends and family.

I was diagnosed with Colon Cancer and the doctors and staff gave me a lot of support from Texas Oncology. I had a 12” section of my Colon removed and had to be hooked to an ileostomy bag for a year. I went through two terms of Chemotherapy 7 months total and radiation.

Not to mention the totally dead feeling I felt every day, The ill-feeling, the numbness on my hands and feet, my skin peeling, not being able to eat. I would get sores in my mouth so bad I could barely swallow. As soon as I came home from work I would go to bed. Yes, I worked through this whole time missing only 1 day. I thought it was the best thing I could do rather than lay in bed and feel depressed. There were days I could barely walk and the miserable times of draining and changing the ileostomy bag.

Everything involved with cancer I would not wish on anyone, and I have a new sense of compassion toward anyone who goes through it that are survivors and God’s grace for those who did not make it through but kept on fighting till the end. I lost my mother to this disease in December of last year and also four friends.

But for anyone that goes through this, I tell them don’t give up don’t ever give up. I have just gotten a clean bill of health two months ago and am currently cancer-free. So I will always have hope and strength to take on this disease and never stop fighting. So now I say “why me”, but “why not me.” So don’t stop believing.