Thanks to Sallie Woodring, Director of Volunteer Services at
Appalachian Regional Healthcare System, Inc., the new Avery County Cancer Resource Center has been nominated for the 2010 American Hospital Association’s Awards for Volunteer Excellence.
The recommendation pays tribute to the efforts of numerous hard- working women in the community and hospital volunteers who have made the Resource Center possible, Woodring says. In fact, Charles A Cannon, Jr. Memorial Hospital in Linville and its volunteer program co-sponsor the Resource Center with the American Cancer Society and the Avery County Health Department.
Together, everyone works diligently to insure the Center’s success as a very necessary and much appreciated community outreach. Their efforts have made a significant impact in a very short time.
The Hospital Awards for Volunteer Excellence (HAVE) program was established by the American Hospital Association Board of Trustees to help hospitals attract and retain volunteers by recognizing outstanding contributions of organized programs of volunteer service. It is designed to acknowledge the value of volunteerism to individual lives and institutions. The program is designed to achieve four goals: to encourage exceptional service; to promote visibility and goodwill toward the hospital or health care system; to increase allegiance and collegiality among volunteers; and to promote collaboration among provider organizations and community service organizations, as well as instruct volunteers on how to improve the quality of life in the community they serve.
According to Woodring, The Avery County Cancer Resource Center meets, if not exceeds, the award criteria.
In her nomination, she explains how the ACCR came about “as a result of the work of the Rural Health Initiative, developed by the American Cancer Society as a means to discuss rural health concerns within rural counties, and discover opportunities to provide information and services for patients diagnosed with cancer.”
See sidebar for more information about the ACCR and how it has successfully evolved since its inception.


Avery Cancer Resource Center Reaching The Community

Since its grand opening nearly three years ago (March 5, 2007), the Avery County Cancer Resource Center has made a significant impact upon the community and the patients it serves. Within a month of opening its doors, the first patient was served – and 35 since then have received support and encouragement along the way.

The Resource Center has made great strides since its initial location in the dressing area of Cannon Hospital’s radiology department, where it consisted of little more than an armoire that housed a wig bank.

The Cannon Hospital Volunteer Program worked with a local furniture shop to secure a donation of the armoire to house the wig bank and two chairs for clients. The American Cancer Society donated the wigs.

The hospital’s volunteers have been actively involved since the Center’s inception – with one volunteer initially selected to serve as coordinator, and funding provided by the volunteer program for furniture and accessories, turbans and hats for the wig bank, in addition to hand-knitted chemo caps that the volunteers made for chemo patients.  

In July, 2009, the Avery Cancer Resource Center moved into a three-office suite in the Sloop Medical Office Plaza, adjacent to Cannon Memorial Hospital.

Today, the Center is open five days a week, completely staffed by volunteers with a coordinator on call 24/7. In addition to the volunteers who staff the Center on a daily basis, four others are trained for the “Road to Recovery” program, and four volunteer cosmetologists are trained for the “Look Good, Feel Better” program.

With the help of the American Cancer Society, the Center’s volunteer coordinator and rural health initiative committee developed a poster and a brochure (in both English and Spanish) to promote the Center and its services.

In the past two years, the Center’s coordinator, as well as the American Cancer Society community coordinator, have taken their message to various organizations, and all doctors and pharmacies in the county, in an attempt to educate others on the services provided through the Resource Center.

Presentations on the Center have also been available at the fundraising events, “Pretty in Pink,” and “Forever Blue” with proceeds from these events donated to the Resource Center.
Center volunteers also have a viable presence at all Avery Relay for Life events.

Patients who utilize the Center are referred by physicians, friends or family members and have access to the following services:  Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program (BCCCP), General Cancer Screenings, Reach to Recovery, Road to Recovery, Look Good Feel Better, wigs, hats, Lymphedema treatments, support groups and prosthetics.
 
Although the Center does not have funds for screening mammograms or diagnostic mammograms for uninsured or underinsured women, the Resource Center volunteer coordinator works with the Appalachian Regional Healthcare System Foundation to secure these funds. The Center is currently serving patients from western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.

The Center’s volunteer coordinator also works closely with the Seby Jones Cancer Center, which is located at Watauga Medical Center in Boone, and also is a member of the Appalachian Regional Healthcare System.
 
The coordinator regularly attends the meetings of the Cancer Resource Alliance, composed of community members from Ashe, Watauga, and Avery Counties.
 
The Center’s volunteer coordinator and a representative from ACS have presented information on the Resource Center at a regional event entitled, “Fighting Cancer in Appalachia Forum.” Additionally, they have hosted a round table discussion on cancer that involved professors from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN, along with other health care providers, and the American Cancer Society. A networking relationship has also been developed by the volunteer coordinator with the Tri-Cities affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Foundation to secure breast cancer resource information for patients. The highest compliment to date for the center is that several other hospitals in the surrounding communities are using the Avery Cancer Resource Center model to open cancer resource centers in their hospitals.