Creating Pathways to Cancer Support

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.

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.

Reaching families before they hit critical breaking points, whether financially, emotionally or both, is vital to improving cancer care. Organizations like 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.

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.

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.

“Sometimes it makes me cry with anger when people tell me I just need to ‘relax’ and ‘look after myself’ because I know that my first priority is actually looking after my children — and ensuring they are fed and sheltered,”

“Only other single moms understand the driving fear of something going wrong and making it impossible to do whatever it is that our children need. That fear motivates me to get up and go to work when the chemo is telling me I should be recovering. Support from New Day Foundation provided me with a safety net that meant I could breathe a bit easier.”

Statistics show that if a cancer patient is worried about finances, their risk of dying is roughly double. Additionally, 88.4 percent of New Day families surveyed said that working with New Day helped them maintain medical compliance during treatment, rather than cutting corners, skipping medication and missing appointments due to high costs. Developing a financial plan to educate, prepare, and support families who face this often-overlooked side-effect of cancer will help New Day initiate policy changes and engage corporate leaders to find long-term solutions to this problem.

To this end, New Day is a partner of the national organization Family Reach, which refers to this as a Financial Treatment Program. New Day is also a member of the Michigan Cancer Coalition of Non-Profits, made up of local organizations with programs that complement New Day’s mission and work in the cancer space. Additionally, New Day regularly uses resources provided through the nonprofit sector including the Nonprofit Network, Michigan Cancer Consortium, Michigan Nonprofit Association, Association of Fundraising Professionals, Network for Good, and Detroit Philanthropy.

New Day Foundation for Families, a 2021 TopRated NonProfit by GreatNonprofits and Gold Level Guidestar organization, is a Rochester Hills, Michigan nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the effects of financial toxicity and emotional stress caused by cancer. Programs are intended to have a positive impact on treatment outcomes and survivorship.

New Day offers financial grants in the form of short-term bill payment services, as well as emotional support programs for families who have children under the age of 18 in the home as they face the burdens that accompany the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

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