Cancer Assistance and Resource Education Center - Penn State Cancer Institute - Penn State Cancer Institute

Cancer Assistance and Resource Education Center - Penn State Cancer Institute - Penn State Cancer Institute
Cancer Assistance and Resource Education Center - Penn State Cancer Institute
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Overview
Cancers and Treatments
CAR T-Cell Therapy
Find a Provider
Find a Location
Patient Education and Support
Art Therapy
Cancer Assistance and Resource Education Center
Cancer Care and Prevention
Center Stage Arts in Health
Clinical Trials
Couples Retreat
Genetic Counseling
Genetic Testing
Glossary
Infusion Therapy
Insurance Information
Medical Oncology
Nutrition and Exercise
Palliative Care
Pastoral Services
Pediatric Services
Pet Therapy
Pharmacy Services
Radiation Oncology
Social Work Services
Support Groups
Surgical Oncology
Survivorship
Patients, Families and Visitors
Directions and Parking
Financial Assistance
Health Insurance Accepted
In-house Dining
Inpatient Stay
Lodging
Patient Services
Pay a Bill
Request Medical Records
Request a Price Estimate
Visiting Hours and Policies
Your Health Care Team
Your Rights as a Patient
Patient Portal
Health Care Professionals
Careers
Chemo Orders and Consents
Hematology/Oncology Grand Rounds
Referring Physicians
Tumor Board
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Clinical Trials Search
Cancer Assistance and Resource Education Center
Care Center Lobby Image
Nested Applications
Comprehensive cancer care centered personalized for you
Comprehensive cancer care, personalized for you
The Kristen Olewine Milke CARE Center (Cancer Assistance and Resource Education) at Penn State Cancer Institute provides the support and education you need to navigate through treatment and beyond. It combines evidence-based medical treatments with supportive care to help you live your best life.
The CARE Model
The CARE Center’s welcoming, private environment provides the perfect setting for you and your support person to meet with your care team and discuss any challenges you might be experiencing. Coordinated across multiple areas of expertise, these whole-person care services help reduce stress, manage side effects and enhance recovery.
Practical
- finances, insurance, employment, education, housing and transportation
Family
- individual, couple, family, parenting, caregiving and eldercare resources
Emotional
- anxiety- and mood-related issues, stress and coping, grief and loss, patient and family support groups, and individual and group psychotherapy.
View our Couples Retreat Video
Spiritual
- chaplain and spiritual support
Physical
- information and resources for disease and treatment-related side effects, nutrition and exercise programs, palliative medicine referrals and a self-service genetic screening kiosk
Complementary
- whole-person care for the body, mind and spirit, including SurviveWELL and the
Center Stage Arts in Health program
Educational
- health- and treatment-related information, including web-based conferencing and patient-friendly kiosks
The Referral and Appointment Process
You can easily access CARE Center resources through self-referral or with a direct referral from your provider or another care team member. Located on the second floor of the Cancer Institute, the center can accommodate patients on a walk-in basis or by in-person and virtual appointments.
Cancer Risk Assessment
Curious if you’re at increased risk of developing certain types of cancer in your lifetime? Our Cancer Genetics Program will help you determine if genetic testing is right for you.
Are you a candidate for Genetic Testing?
Contact Information
Contact Us
1-888-531-6585, option 4
400 University Drive
Hershey, PA 17033
Hours of Operation
Hours of Operation
Monday through Friday
8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Tabs
Embark with CARE
Write from the Heart with CARE
Nested Applications
Embark with Care
Yoga offers support for mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health and has helped people for thousands of years’ experience a greater sense of well-being.  Yoga includes more than positioning the body in certain ways.  Beyond gentle movement, practices may include relaxed breathing, picturing relaxing images, letting go of tension in muscles, and ways to quiet the mind. It also includes practicing ways to self-regulate, following values and principles like kindness, honesty, steadiness, and contentment in daily life, as well as spiritual awareness. Yoga Therapy tailors these tools to each person, including those diagnosed with cancer, according to their unique needs, symptoms, and personal goals.
Several studies
have shown potential benefits of yoga therapy to manage symptoms in patients with cancer, including: decreasing tiredness, pain, anxiety, depression, stress, and sleeplessness.  Improvements may include increased flexibility, balance, mood, and overall quality of life.
Risks associated
with Yoga or Yoga Therapy movement practices may be different for each person, and related to cancer and/or another condition. Importantly, follow your healthcare provider’s advice and your inner wisdom to avoid strain or going beyond the body’s current limits.
Yoga Therapy is an integrative, complementary approach to health and wellness that supports traditional medical care. Note, it is not a replacement for physical therapy, medical, and/or psychological care.
From the
International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT)
: “YOGA THERAPY IS the professional application of the principles and practices of yoga to promote health and well-being within a therapeutic relationship that includes personalized assessment, goal setting, lifestyle management, and yoga practices for individuals or small groups.”
For more information or to register for an Introductory Session with the Invitation to Experience,
email Beth Voss
, CARE Center medical office associate or call 717-531-0003, x285186
​​​​​​​
Dawn Shawley, E-RYT500, C-IAYT
, is a registered and certified yoga instructor with over 15 years of experience in adaptive yoga to a wide range of individuals.  As a certified Yoga Therapist, Shawley works with each person to increase self-awareness and create a foundation from which to navigate change and stress with greater ease.
Shawley’s professional training includes: 2007: 200-Hour Certification, Integral Yoga (RYT200); 2019: Pelvic Floor Yoga™ certification, Leslie Howard; and 2021: 800-Hour Comprehensive Yoga Therapy certification, YogaLife Institute (E-RYT500, C-IAYT).
The following studies suggest benefits of yoga for those going through cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery:
White Paper: Yoga Interventions for Cancer Patients and Survivors
Review of yoga therapy during cancer treatment
– Danhauer SC, Addington EL, Sohl SJ, Chaoul A, Cohen L. Review of yoga therapy during cancer treatment. Support Care Cancer. 2017 Apr;25(4):1357-1372. doi: 10.1007/s00520-016-3556-9. Epub 2017 Jan 7. PMID: 28064385; PMCID: PMC5777241.
Yoga for symptom management in oncology: A review of the evidence base and future directions for research
– Danhauer SC, Addington EL, Cohen L, Sohl SJ, Van Puymbroeck M, Albinati NK, Culos-Reed SN. Yoga for symptom management in oncology: A review of the evidence base and future directions for research. Cancer. 2019 Jun 15;125(12):1979-1989. doi: 10.1002/cncr.31979. Epub 2019 Apr 1. PMID: 30933317; PMCID: PMC6541520.
Nested Applications
Creative Writing Workshop
Write from the Heart with CARE is a creative writing workshop for adults with a history of cancer diagnosis, whether in active treatment or beyond. Participants are asked to simply be themselves and explore what writing may offer. Sponsored by the Kristen Olewine Milke CARE Center, the online workshop will be offered via Zoom in eight weekly sessions. Check back for future dates.
​​​​​The workshop begins gently, as participants gather to meet each other. Melissa Greene, the workshop leader, then offers a writing prompt to engage the imagination. Participants explore the ways in which writing, when approached in a light and easy manner, can offer opportunities for reflection, meaning and connection. Sharing is optional. No judgment. No grades. No writing rules. Meetings include the sharing of poems by contemporary poets whose work is meant to delight and inspire.
Workshop leaders
​​​​
Melissa Greene is a writer, teacher and director of Write from the Heart creative writing workshops. Based in Lancaster, Pa., since 2001, Greene has inspired people of all ages to experience writing in new ways. She served as the writing workshop instructor in a Cancer Institute patient study entitled, "The Effect of Creative Writing on the Mood of Patients with Cancer." It was published in the British Medical Journal in 2021.
​​​​​​​Greene is accompanied by Dr. Michael Hayes, the CARE Center’s founding program director and a licensed psychologist. Hayes strives to advance comprehensive, whole-person care for adults diagnosed with cancer. He was a co-investigator for the Cancer Institute study, which explored writing and cancer recovery. It provided preliminary evidence for the benefits creative writing may offer to those with a history of cancer diagnosis and treatment.
What our participants are saying
"Let your mind play!" - Carol
"By writing, we become a little lighter." - Jay
“It’s amazing how a simple word or phrase can shake loose so many beautiful memories of life.” - Sharon
"You are welcome here
To find some words
And to share some thoughts
And to explore some feelings
About all of it
Or some of it
Or none of it" - Linda
"I found comfort, inspiration, and awe in my heart." - Lizz
Find out more
For more information or to register for an upcoming session, email
Beth Voss
, CARE Center medical office associate, or call 717-531-0003, x285186.
Contact Us
1-888-531-6585, option 4
400 University Drive
Hershey, PA 17033
Hours of Operation
Monday through Friday
Program and Service Offerings
Programs offered at no charge:
A Night at the Kristen Olewine Milke CARE Center: The Arts with CARE
- an in-person artists series featuring the varied forms of art, artists and performers who offer unique windows into health, healing, and hope, which is held in the evening on a quarterly basis.
​​​​​​​
Loved Ones Support Group
(adult caregivers, family, and friends of anyone being treated for cancer) - held virtually on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction | Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery (MBSR | MBCR
) - a nine-week evidence-based course in mindfulness as a resource and support for coping with cancer diagnosis and treatment. Course offerings occur at various times throughout the year.
The Annual CARE Center Couples Retreat for Individuals with Advanced Cancer and their Partners
- held in-person each fall, on-site at The Nature Inn at Bald Eagle State Park located in Howard, Pennsylvania. Participants are invited to attend by referral from their care team.
Cancer Community Mindfulness Practice
- open to anyone who wishes to join, no prior experience or personal mindfulness practice is required. Each Friday afternoon from 1-1:30 p.m. via Zoom.
Cancer IQ: An On-line Family Cancer History Survey
- a voluntary, on-line survey offered during the initial consultation in the CARE Center or via survey link that can be emailed to you and completed independently to help identify individuals who may be a candidate for genetic counseling and testing.
Embark with CARE
- weekly 30 minute chair yoga sessions [no prior experience or personal practice is required] via Zoom.
Grief Services Support Group
- held virtually twice each month.
Moving Through Cancer with CARE
- held in person by appointment only in the Penn State Cancer Institute Exercise Medicine for individual sessions and held virtually via Zoom for group sessions every other Tuesday from 7-8 p.m.
SurviveWELL
- held every Tuesday from 3-4 p.m. (January to June session and/or July to December session) via Zoom.
Write from the Heart with CARE
- an 8-week series of 2-hour sessions held virtually via Zoom each January-February, April-May, July-August, and October-November.
Programs billable to insurance:
Cancer Genetic Counseling
- appointments scheduled either in-person at the CARE Center or virtually via Telehealth with a medical geneticist and/or licensed genetic counselor to consider the option of genetic testing if appropriate; in the event the genetic counseling appointment is not covered by insurance, philanthropic funds will be used to cover the visit.
Individual, Comprehensive Psychosocial Assessment and Referral Service
- appointments scheduled in-person at the CARE Center with a licensed mental health professional (fee-for-service; billable to insurance).
Individual, Couple, and Family Outpatient Psychotherapy
- appointments scheduled either in-person at the CARE Center or virtually via Telehealth with a licensed mental health professional.
Nutrition Counseling for Individuals with Cancer
- appointments scheduled either in-person at the CARE Center or virtually via Telehealth with a licensed, registered dietitian (fee-for-service, may be billable to insurance with a doctor’s referral and covered nutrition diagnosis; be sure to contact your insurance carrier to request details for your nutrition coverage).
Psychotherapy Group for Individuals with Advanced Cancer
- held virtually every other week from 9:30-11 a.m. (fee-for-service; billable to insurance).
Psychotherapy Group for Individuals with Brain Cancer (fee-for-service; billable to insurance)
- held on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month from 3-4 p.m.
Psychotherapy Group for Individuals with Breast Cancer (fee-for-service; billable to insurance)
- held virtually every other Thursday from 9:30 to 11 a.m.
Psychotherapy Group for Individuals following Bone Marrow Transplantation (fee-for-service; billable to insurance)
- held virtually every other Friday from 11 a.m. to noon.
ReVital Cancer Rehabilitation
- program offered in partnership with the Penn State Health Rehabilitation Hospital to empower people affected by cancer and its treatment to live their best lives. ReVital-certified therapists can help you prepare for treatment, stay strong during your cancer experience, and assist you to get back to the things you care most about. Specialized services include: physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, cogitative therapy, and lymphedema services. Insurance coverage and a treating clinician’s order are needed to access this service.​​​
Stage 1-3 Cancer Psychotherapy Group
- held virtually on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month from 3-4:30 p.m. (fee-for-service; billable to insurance).
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