October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time to support people who have been diagnosed, educate about risk factors, and encourage regular cancer screenings. MPTF’s Palliative Care team has recently been helping one industry worker, a 38-year-old SAG-AFTRA member, who was referred by a union friend due to stage I breast cancer. Not being able to work during treatment scared her, as did changes in her appearance; she also had a history of body and emotional trauma that made it difficult to trust her providers. The Palliative Care team provided support through medical education, processing feelings about the surgery, and following radiation and chemotherapy. They provided cognitive behavioral strategies to help ground her, and our nurse provided regular check-ins to make sure her symptoms and comfort were well managed. When she developed neuropathy and lymphedema that made it difficult to function, our MD provided symptom management to help. The team also provided financial assistance to help pay for caregiving and problem- solved ways to get additional support in the community to help with shopping and laundry, while our chaplain worked with her on processing feelings about her faith and feelings of self-blame. With her physical symptoms now managed and her emotional and spiritual needs addressed, she graduated from the program and feels confident that the team would be here for her if her health care situation changed.
The MPTF Palliative Care team is grateful to the industry insurances including DGA-Producers, MPI, SAG-AFTRA, and PWGA for recognizing that serious illness treatment isn’t just about treating the physical aspects of disease. People also struggle with emotional concerns, have existential and spiritual questioning, and practical needs as they are newly diagnosed, going through treatment or have advanced illness. Sometimes the family caregiver needs support too. The Palliative Care team includes not only the physician and nurse practitioner director, but other team members who are typically not paid for by traditional insurances, such as the social worker, nurse, chaplain, and coordinator. The partnership between industry medical insurances and MPTF Palliative Care demonstrates the power of the entertainment community and our shared mission: to provide a safety net for our industry family. We all play a part in the care and welfare of the community we serve.
