A Temecula breast cancer resource center has recently partnered with Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP), increasing the center’s ability to help patients battling breast cancer.

For the next three years, IEHP has contracted with Michelle’s Place to provide the health plan’s patients with a patient navigator – a friendly face who can help women navigate through the resources they need after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

While Michelle’s Place – which offers breast cancer detection, support, and education services — cannot recommend doctors, or give opinions about resources and options, patient navigators can help in a variety of ways, from whether a patient doesn’t understand her pathology or simply has questions about what a mastectomy looks like.

That navigation is among the most important services that Michelle’s Place offers, according to Executive Director Kim Goodnough.

“Patients don’t have time to process and ask questions when they are given a diagnosis and doctors may not have time for long conversations,” said Goodnough. “But we have no time limit for listening. Whoever has needs, we have a place to send them to – not just a phone number.”

The nonprofit IEHP, which had been looking for ways to provide stronger services for members in the Temecula area, will also provide training and support for Michelle’s Place.

The breast cancer resource center, in turn, provides its experience with the surrounding community and its needs, as well as nearby cancer patient resources.

The center can help patients who are struggling with maintaining their jobs or may need information about their rights and advice on how to work with an employer. The center may even help obtain resources that may provide financial assistance.

“We have five part-time patient navigators and now they can really focus on women who are diagnosed and get them the care they need,” said Goodnough, of the partnership with IEHP. “Now we can really invest in our navigators with support, more education, and help them be the best they can be.”

Michelle’s Place has been providing free resources to women impacted by breast cancer since 2001.

When the organization started, Goodnough was its first employee. Today, it has nine employees but its needs continue to increase.

To this end, they have joined with two other organizations as part of the Temecula Valley Endowment program of The Community Foundation.

By combining fundraising efforts into a consortium, the organizations strengthen the potential growth of each of organizations’ endowment.

“We won’t all be here someday,” said Goodnough. “I wanted to start growing an endowment so that when I leave I know we still have the funding to continue the work we’ve started.”

Goodnough hopes that more of the community will discover the services that Michelle’s Place provides and discover the difference that patient navigation can make in a cancer patient’s life.

“When someone already knows the answers to your questions when you ask them, it’s part of the treatment process,” said Goodnough. “You have someone you know and trust to help you find the answers.”

Information:
michellesplace.org 
(951) 699-5455