In 1999, a group of eight women who had recently undergone breast cancer treatment met through a psychosocial support program at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. This group, including Dr. Ardythe Taylor, continued to gather together for social support and to share personal challenges related to their experience with breast cancer. In spring of 2002, this group identified the need for a medical practice that would help to fill the gaps they had experienced in their ongoing cancer care. Attempting to determine if other breast cancer patients shared their concerns they organized five focus group sessions to solicit input from stakeholders in the Calgary community.
The focus group sessions indicated a lack of continuity of care in the current health care system in Southern Alberta for women who develop breast cancer. This finding was confirmed in a study commissioned by the B.C./Yukon Chapter of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation in 2002 (“Uncovering the gaps: an inquiry into breast care in B.C”) which found that a lack of communication, co-ordination and continuity existed in the care of women receiving treatment for breast cancer.
Dr. Ardythe Taylor and Dr. Lesley Coulter, family physicians with over twenty five years of combined medical experience, embarked on the challenge to bring about the required shift in medical care that breast cancer survivors were seeking. Following an intense period of specialized training, Doctors Taylor and Coulter opened Breast Cancer Supportive Care (BCSC) in Calgary in the fall 2003. They developed the Interface Team Services for Individualized Patient Care to effectively address patient concerns, provide information and education and extend support services to patients and their multidisciplinary health care providers.
Since then, BCSC has experienced exponential growth and developed a reputation for excellence in the community. In December 2005, Breast Cancer Supportive Care was granted charitable status and in 2005 the Breast Cancer Supportive Care Foundation was established to financially support future growth and sustain service delivery. A volunteer Board of Directors was formed to lead and direct the activities, strategic planning and fundraising efforts of Breast Cancer Supportive Care.
In 2006, the innovative Breast Cancer Recovery Group Program was developed by the BCSC team to assist patients who had completed active treatment and were transitioning to their “new normal” as a breast cancer survivors . This program continues to be delivered with overwhelmingly positive response from patients and is being further developed, in collaboration with key specialists in the field, to become a replicable model for supportive care in other communities and locations.
The Healthy Living After Breast Cancer Program was developed in 2008 as an extension to the individualized services offered to patients. The purpose of this program is to develop a structured and individualized wellness program for patients who have completed active treatment. This program assists patients to identify their recovery issues and empowers them to prepare a feasible and well-defined strategy to optimize their health; effectively manage the impact of breast cancer on various aspects of their lives; and actively implement risk reduction strategies in a systematic and measurable way.
As the Breast Cancer Supportive Care Foundation looks toward the future, we will continue to build on the momentum of the past five years. With key strategic goals for the future and by monitoring and responding to the ever changing environment of breast cancer care in the broader community, BCSCF will continue to develop its programs and services into a leading model of supportive care while also remaining relevant and effective in all the services offered to patients.
