The Breast Cancer Supportive Care Foundation (BCSCF) provides innovative service programs supporting the recovery of breast cancer patients as they transition from illness to healing and health.
The mission of the Breast Cancer Supportive Care Foundation is to enable breast cancer patients to thrive from diagnosis through treatment and beyond.
This mission serves a greater vision, to lead in the design and delivery of an innovative model of care for breast cancer patients.
Led by a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals specialized in breast cancer care, BCSCF provides community-based programs to help breast cancer survivors deal with the psychosocial issues and delayed physical side effects arising from having had cancer, surgery and treatment. Where the existing healthcare system and intervention services focus on the acute cancer survival period, BCSCF focuses beyond treatment to survivorship and, a model of care called “thrivorship”, assisting patients to return to full and vibrant lives in their families and communities.
The Breast Cancer Supportive Care Foundation is managed by a volunteer Board of Directors that raises funds and oversees services provided by a multi-disciplinary team of medical practitioners. The Calgary community has strongly embraced the programs offered by BCSCF and to date 1461 breast cancer patients and their family members have accessed services, which are currently only available to residents of Calgary and Southern Alberta.
BCSCF operates independently of the provincial or regional health care systems. To date, current funding for programs at BCSCF has been received primarily from charitable community support.
The two core functions of Breast Cancer Supportive Care are: transitioning patients along the continuum of breast cancer care while integrating practical and relevant community resources as required to meet patient needs. Through a patient-centred approach to care, patients are given the time and expertise they need to manage as effectively as possible the many-faceted challenges of cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery.
