Allison Applebaum: We have built a successful model of caregiver support at MSK and it’s time now for this model to be disseminated

Allison Applebaum, Associate Attending Psychologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, recently posted on LinkedIn:

“In 2011, I founded the Caregivers Clinic at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). The Clinic was the first of its kind housed in a cancer center to provide targeted, psychosocial care to family members (blood and chosen) and friends of patients receiving cancer care. The Caregivers Clinic at MSK serves caregivers of patients with all sites and stages of cancer, across the entire illness trajectory from diagnosis through bereavement.

A recent study led by J. Nicholas Odom highlighted that one of the major barriers to cancer centers building support programs for caregivers is the lack of payment structures and reimbursement mechanisms to support these programs. We addressed this concern early on in our Caregivers Clinic, as caregivers register to become patients of MSK, with their own medical records. This allows for ethical billing practices and preserves caregivers’ privacy and confidentiality, and confers many other benefits.

We have built a successful model of caregiver support at MSK and it’s time now for this model to be disseminated! I was thrilled to develop this Toolkit for cancer centers and staff to develop clinical services for caregivers with J. Nicholas Odom, and I am so grateful for the support of our ACS partners Rachel Cannady, Laura Makaroff, and Arif Kamal MD, MBA in championing this model of care, and caregiver support, more broadly! Our next steps include a webinar series later this year, and hopefully in the not-too-distant future, trainings for cancer centers nationally so that they have the tools and support needed to develop and sustain similar support programs. Stay tuned!”

Source: Allison Applebaum/LinkedIn