Social workers facilitate support groups at Yale-New Haven, where cancer patients and families can gather to share their experiences and gain support from people in similar situations. Dietitians Dietitians offer a wide variety of services to cancer patients, from preparing menus to meet their special nutritional needs to making certain foods more palatable when a patient has a loss of appetite. They are available to both inpatients and outpatients of Yale-New Haven Hospital. Physical and Occupational Therapists Physical and occupational therapies help cancer patients relearn how to perform certain tasks and to retain as much independence as possible. In addition, they can help patients avoid or minimize certain side effects of cancer surgeries, such as swelling after a mastectomy.
Therapy can begin at the bedside, and continue, if necessary, in the home setting.
They have completed medical school and an internal medicine residency. This two-year fellowship in oncology at Yale School of Medicine gives these physicians exceptional training at one of the country's leading schools of medicine and prepares these physicians for their board certifying examinations in oncology. Clergy The spiritual component of healing and health cannot be underestimated. If patients wish, New Haven-area clergy regularly can visit them and their families on the Medical Oncology Unit on the eighth floor of the West Pavilion. For information, contact Peg Edgerly, Religious Ministries, 688-215.