Alta Bates Community Connection

People Who Care

Survival Guides For Breast Cancer

Ask anyone who’s been treated for breast cancer and they’ll tell you that counsel and support from survivors is invigorating, informative, inspirational—in short, invaluable.

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center’s program that pairs newly diagnosed patients with women who are at least a year out from treatment builds on that one-to-one philosophy and, since its founding in 2004, has served more than 150 women and enjoyed resounding success. “It’s called COMPASS—Compassionate Peer Advocacy and Support Services,” says Meredithe Mendelsohn, former manager of Alta Bates Summit’s Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center, who along with nurse practitioner Kathleen Colloton, R.N., W.H.N.P., spearheaded the program.

“Doctors refer patients, and after a brief intake interview, we go through our list of volunteer breast cancer guides (this dedicated group of survivors came up with their job title) who’ve each undergone a daylong training session to do this work, and we match them up … primarily by type of treatment and age.

“It’s really up to the patient and guide to decide how they take it forward,” Mendelsohn adds. “Some women just want a phone call or two, some get together to have coffee, and some want to have someone to go along with them to appointments. This is a great way for women to say things out loud that they wouldn’t say otherwise, because it’s confidential and they feel comfortable.”

Mendelsohn says that a “tidy sum” of funding was donated by the Orinda Nine Tees, a community-minded group of women golfers. This pays for patient and guide reference materials, which include a hefty notebook that’s also available online: www.altabatessummit.org/clinical/breasthealthnewly.html

All things considered, COMPASS has “been fantastic,” concludes Mendelsohn. “We have found that it’s been as beneficial for survivors as the newly diagnosed. People want to give back in a meaningful way, and this really fits the bill.” For more information about becoming a COMPASS participant or guide, call Kathleen Colloton, R.N., W.H.N.P., at the Breast Health Center, (510) 869-6628, or send e-mail to collotk@sutterhealth.org.

Volunteer Barbara Daggs

A Take Charge Volunteer

It all started back in February when Barbara Daggs went to Summit’s Breast Health Center for a routine mammogram. That’s the day she got the idea to donate her time there, and the day the center won the loyalty of the 69-year-old retired Pacific Bell training-room manager who’s since become their hardest-working volunteer.

“I’m loving every minute of it,” says Daggs, who has so quickly mastered her job that she was asked—and she agreed—to take on duties as lead volunteer. In that capacity, she schedules the 10 other volunteers’ time and is already making serious plans to expand her crew. “I’m recruiting because we’re going to be opening a large, new breast center,” says Daggs, obviously looking forward to the commodious new digs. “We’re going to need a lot of volunteers then. I think we could run things real smoothly if I could have 23 or 24.”

Daggs volunteers at the center at least two or three days a week and covers others’ shifts when the need arises. Somehow, this mother of six grown children, grandmother of nine, and great-grandmother of two also finds time to volunteer at the Summit Campus gift shop two days a week and tend to her pet African gray parrot and her garden, do beading, paint pottery, and dabble in other arts and crafts.

Still, “the Breast Center is my first love,” says Daggs, who easily empathizes with patients even though she and her family haven’t been touched directly by the disease. “The staff tell me all the time that I’ve made a big difference and I’m sure that I’ve made a big difference with a lot of the ladies who come in. I believe in treating people the way I want to be treated, and they come back and tell me, ‘Thanks for the smile.’”

Jeffrey Block

Arnold Perkins

Welcome, New Board Members

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center welcomes two distinguished new members to its Board of Directors.

Jeffrey Block is an independent media consultant, with strong media and advertising knowledge and demonstrated experience in running a multi-million-dollar division in a competitive market. His past posts include tenures as Vice President, Digital Strategies at Cox Television and Vice President and General Manager of KTVU Television. His current community affiliations include Bay Area Advertising Relief Committee, Board of Directors; Alta Bates Summit Foundation, Board of Delegates; and American Red Cross of the Bay Area, Board of Directors.

Arnold Perkins has served as director of the Alameda County Public Health Department since 1994. Over the years, his professional affiliations have been wide-ranging, including work with the National Center on HIV and STD Prevention (Centers for Disease Control), the Family Violence Prevention Fund and the San Francisco Coordinating Council on Drug Abuse. He’s been honored for outstanding service by numerous organizations, including the United Way of the Bay Area, Omega Boys Club, Center for Independent Living and Bay Area Strive for Five.