Integrated Social Support Model for Cancer Patients Fills Hidden Gaps with Stephanie Broussard Thyme Care

Stephanie Broussard, Director of Social Work at Thyme Care, describes a model of interdisciplinary social support for cancer patients to increase access to medical services and address social, emotional, and financial challenges. Integrated services target family dynamics, social determinants of health, and building trust to drive better patient outcomes. As cancer increasingly becomes a chronic condition, there is a growing need to support the management of long-term physical and emotional effects and use technology to increase efficiency and support the Thyme Care human-focused approach. Stephanie explains, "Thyme Care is really designed to try to integrate and increase access for those navigating cancers. So we believe that in order to serve people really well, you don't take things away, you actually add things. If we can increase access and increase the ability for patients to navigate the health system, then we're able to better navigate their utilization. So we try to increase access through access to an interdisciplinary team. We have nurse practitioners, nurses, even oncologists and primary care physicians on our team, social workers, and lay people who help us make sure that patients can get what they need at the right time. And so it's really about giving patients access to the right services at the right time to improve their outcomes."   "We think about how their cancer impacts every facet of their life. And so, we often talk a lot about the financial toxicity of cancer, but social issues that were affecting folks don't just stop because cancer happened. Oftentimes, it even exacerbates those things. So think about family dynamics, think about social determinants of health, like the cost of medications and access, but also all the other things that can be impacted by cancer." #ThymeCare #ValueBasedCare #SocialWorkMonth #OncologySocialWork #MentalHealthMatters #CaregiverSupport #PatientExperience #HealthEquity #OncologyCare #ValueBasedCare #CareCoordination #SocialDeterminantsOfHealth #SDoH #CancerSurvivorship #Caregivers #NurseNavigation #PalliativeCare thymecare.com Download the transcript here