Maxwell and Eleanor Blum Patient and Family Resource Center,
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Boston, Massachusetts
In 1995, a physician led efforts to create a small ad hoc task force to create a learning center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Patients and families were part of this effort from the beginning. Susan DeCristofaro, then the director for Nursing Education at Dana-Farber, and now the Director of Patient and Family Education, who oversees Maxwell and Eleanor Blum Patient and Family Resource Center, participated in that initial planning group. At first, there was some resistance among staff and faculty to the concept of a patient and family resource center. A common perception was that health care professionals had all the information that patients and families needed, and a resource center was unnecessary. The group met weekly for more than a year to discuss plans for a center, including budget, funding, collection development, staffing, location, and design of the space.
The Center opened in August of 1996 in a space that had previously been a small phlebotomy room off the hospital’s lobby.
Advisory Committee. The Blum Center now has an interdisciplinary Advisory Committee that meets monthly. Committee membership includes a social worker, a physician, the director of volunteers for the hospital, the Center’s Patient and Family Education Specialist, representatives from the Information Services, Development, and Communications Departments, and patients and families.
Programs/Services. Today, the Maxwell and Eleanor Blum Patient and Family Resource Center is comprised of five satellite sites that provide information and support to adult and pediatric patient families. The main site of the Blum Resource Center is just off the hospital lobby, adjacent to the patient registration area. An informal seating area outside the entrance to the Center serves as an extension of the space and allows for display of materials and a touch screen computer, accessible during hours when the Center is open. Volunteers from the Center often escort patients and families to their initial clinic appointments and, on the way, briefly introduce them to the Resource Center.
Additionally, the Resource Center has satellite sites on another floor as part of the Women’s Cancer Program, in the outpatient Jimmy Fund Pediatric Clinic, and on an inpatient adult oncology floor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. There is also a resource center on the inpatient pediatric oncology floor at Children’s Hospital, Boston, as part of the collaborative approach to pediatric oncology services between Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital in Boston.
The collection includes approximately 2,000 books, videotapes and audiotapes, support group information, and hospitality information about the community. Originally a task force reviewed all the materials for the collection, but now the Director and nursing staff make the final decision about new materials. Many suggestions for both print and audiovisual materials come from patients and families. The Center has bookmarked 600 websites on their computers, and this list of sites is available to Center patrons. The Center also has CD-ROM informational software, pamphlets, a variety of teaching sheets in various languages, and information on both complementary therapies and creative arts. Library World, with some adaptations, is used as the cataloging system.
Unique Features. The Maxwell and Eleanor Blum Patient and Family Learning Center has expanded to include several specialty learning areas, which offer greater privacy. One is a small room devoted to Spanish-language health resources. [Link to graphic 21] Another is a room that houses materials related to death, dying, and bereavement as well as materials related to creative healing arts, such as poetry activities, and paints and brushes, that can be used by visitors to the center.
A special Creative Arts program, inspired by a former patient at Dana-Farber, is hosted by the Blum Center. As part of this program, volunteer artists, dancers, poets, and writers work with patients both one-on-one and in larger open art workshops. The Center also sponsors as many as 12 lectures a year for patients, families, staff, and faculty. These well-attended sessions are held in the late afternoon.
The Blum Patient and Family Resource Center has developed supportive information and materials for families affected by parental illness. There is a packet of information for parents and a backpack for children filled with information and fun gifts ÷ a small teddy bear, jump rope, bubbles, dark glasses, and a book. A fanny pack with age appropriate items for teens is also available. For more information about parental illness, see the special section of this website.
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The Blum Patient and Family Resource Center has developed supportive information and materials for families affected by parental illness. There is a packet of information for parents and a backpack for children filled with information and fun gifts & a small teddy bear, jump rope, bubbles, dark glasses, and a book. A fanny pack with age appropriate items for teens is also available. |
For additional information about the Blum Patient and Family Resource Center, please visit: www.dana-farber.org/pat/support/resource-rooms/home.asp.