The Holistic Living Challenge is one of many supportive care programs for patients and caregivers rocked by a cancer diagnosis. Read more on the Penn Medicine News Blog!
While medical treatments like chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy continue to evolve and reduce mortality, cancer patients and their caregivers still need additional supports to address the blows that their mental, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being can face after a cancer diagnosis. At the Abramson Cancer Center at Pennsylvania Hospital, these resources are not only available, but plentiful, with workshops, complementary therapies, and hands-on projects all geared towards learning to cope and maintaining hope during a stressful cancer journey.
A variety of support groups are in place for patients and caregivers, and the Supportive Care team is reviewing ways to make them more accessible to people who want to participate, but can’t make it due to health status, lack of transportation, scheduling conflicts, or other circumstances. Caring Connection – now celebrating its first birthday! – is an online option where supportive resources can be accessed at any time, and the platform continues to evolve as users provide feedback.
Join Us as We Walk for a Cause!
- Undy Run/Walk (Colorectal Cancer Alliance)
- Saturday, September 8
- Martin Luther King Drive
- Our team: Penn Medicine
- Light the Night (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society)
- Saturday, October 27
- Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Our team: Together We Can
- Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (American Cancer Society)
- Sunday, October 28
- Cooper River Park, Jack Curtis Stadium
- Our team: Pennsylvania Hospital Team Hope
- PurpleStride (Pancreatic Cancer Action Network)
- Saturday, November 3
- Memorial Hall, Fairmount Park
- Our team: Together We Can
Other features of the Joan Karnell Supportive Care Program include a quarterly healthy cooking program, aromatherapy and pet therapy, a “Loops of Love” knitting project, a “Look Good, Feel Better” program focused on beauty tips and self-esteem, and more. The Holistic Living Challenge is also a seven-week program held twice a year that focuses on building total-body wellness through holistic and traditional Chinese medicine perspectives; be sure to read more about it on the Penn Medicine News Blog!
This fall, the Supportive Care team is also introducing new and updated programming focused on a central theme: “Express Yourself.” For example, the team hopes patients will soon be able to contribute their own designs to the “Healing Windows” project, as well as play their own musical stylings on the new piano in the main lobby. The resource library has also been expanded with new,
age-appropriate book options for children and families; some are religious and others are not, but all have been evaluated by the staff. A book club is also in the works, and the guided writing program, “The Stories That Bind Us: What I Want You to Know,” allows for honest and open expression about a patient’s experience without judgment or expectations.
“Our goal is to meet patients and their caregivers where they are and support them during this complex journey,” said Marylou Osterman, cancer program coordinator at the Abramson Cancer Center at PAH. “What ‘express yourself’ means to them depends on what they’re looking for – what support they want and what they want to share. What makes them comfortable? What type of time commitment can they make? This pilot will help us figure out how to meet a wide range of needs and interests.”