NEW DAY FOUNDATION FOR FAMILIES
Creating Pathways to Cancer Support in Healthcare
BY GINA KELL SPEHN, CO -FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, NEW DAY FOUNDATION FOR FAMILIES
Cancer is far too often a health crisis followed by a financial crisis. In fact, 70 percent of adult cancer patients and over 30 percent of families who have a child with cancer will experience debilitating financial hardship. This financial burden not only makes it nearly three times more likely that a patient will file for bankruptcy, but also directly lowers a patient’s chance of survival. From cutting back on medication, to skipping doctor’s appointments, the coping measures taken by patients can have dire consequences.
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New Day Foundation for Families are needed to step in and provide immediate financial assistance and coaching, as well as emotional support, to patients. Through careful financial assessments, often combined with emergency relief paid on behalf of families directly to companies such as DTE, Consumers Power, Ally Financial, Allstate, and banks and mortgage lenders, New Day is working to lift the overwhelming burden from the shoulders of patients who are riddled with anxiety over simply maintaining their basic household needs.
Additionally, for families and patients coping with a cancer diagnosis, the emotional impact of the fear, anxiety, uncertainly and time-sensitive decisions that occur in the immediate aftermath of the diagnosis can push a person past their emotional threshold. Carrying the weight of these financial and emotional burdens, families face additional stress that can negatively affect well-being, access to care and treatment outcomes.
New Day partners with more than 50 hospitals across Michigan to identify, support and bring hope to cancer patients. This is much more than financial support; it is an evolution in patient-centered healthcare, whereby healthcare organizations — from doctors to social workers — first understand the critical need for patients to receive emotional and financial support during cancer treatment, and second, can help to create a pathway for patients to access that support. This is about creating better treatment outcomes for families facing cancer and ultimately, changing lives.
Reaching families before they hit critical breaking points, whether financially, emotionally or both, is vital to improving cancer care. Organizations like
For Jenni Davis, a single mother of two facing cancer, simply trying to provide the food and shelter to her family during treatment became overwhelming.
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