Stacy Meyer shows off the Reiki therapy room at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Radiation Oncology Department on Technology Drive. Her department has had to discontinue offering the Japanese technique for stress reduction, because of social-distancing restrictions.

Stacy Meyer will be whatever her cancer patients need her to be. She is in turn a financial adviser, car pool captain, salon manager, wig supplier or emotional support provider.

She can get her patients hair halos, money for the electric bill or knit prosthetics for breast cancer survivors.

“I am a social worker and I assist patients with any needs they have,” said Meyer, whose official title in the Butler Health System Cancer Support Services is oncology patient navigator.

She works from her offices in the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Medical Oncology, 129 Oneida Valley Road, (on Wednesdays and Thursdays) and the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Radiation Oncology, Suite 110, Technology Drive, (on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays).“If someone has a need, I try to help anyway that I can,” Meyer said. “We're here to help the patient.”All cancer patients are seen by a nurse and educated on everything they are going to experience.Part of their education is learning of the services Meyer can provide during their treatment.Her brochure and business card is in the packet every new patient receives, and patients are told to get in touch with her as soon as possible.Patients especially need Meyer's help in the course of their grueling radiation or chemotherapy sessions.Radiation treatment can stretch over five days a week for six weeks.Meyer said radiation therapy is not a difficult as the medical oncology treatments, the so-called chemo treatments.Chemo can make them extremely exhausted and weak depending on where they are with their treatment,” she said.“With radiation patients, a majority can drive themselves home. Chemo is a whole different ballgame,” she said.Along with physical illness, patients deal with mental stress as uncertainty and anxiety enters their lives along with their cancer diagnosis.Up until five years ago, cancer patients were on their own before Meyer created the position.“I've been with Butler Health Systems for 20 years, support services has been here for five,” she said. “The goal was to try and provide services similar to the ones people go to Pittsburgh for.”Meyer went to Slippery Rock University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in social work.To prepare for her new department, “I did my homework. I went to other centers and asked questions,” she said.She wanted to replicate the best of what she had seen at other clinics.“I wear different hats. If someone has a need I try to help any way I can,” she said.Some of the services she provides include:- Guidance to available resources within the community;- A cancer support group for all those dealing with cancer of any kind;- Free wigs, hats, turbans, hair pieces and accessories from a patient-only salon;- Assistance in completing necessary documents for Social Security disability and medical assistance;- Helping with transportation needs;- Help in completing living wills;- Providing Knitted Knockers, soft knit prosthetics for breast cancer survivors.- In addition, for patients especially hard-hit by financial demands, Meyer can help them find housing and money for bills, groceries, prescriptions and doctors' bills.Meyer's services are made possible by donations from the community, the American Cancer Society and Riding for the Cure.As with almost every other facet of life, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has complicated things for Meyer.Her department has had to discontinue offering Reiki therapy, a Japanese technique for stress reduction, because of social-distancing restrictions.Masks are mandatory for patients and Meyer.“Every patient/worker has their temperature taken every day,” said Meyer. “No patient has come down with COVID. I am extremely careful where I go and who am around.”COVID restrictions have also shut down the cancer support group although Meyer is working to get it reinstated as a video event.“We've done it once so far. We're trying hard to get it off the ground,” she said.Support group attendance is often dependent on the physical state of the participants.Some people undergoing radiation or chemo treatments often don't physically feel up to attending a support group meeting either in person or remotely.Still, the current complications haven't dimmed Meyer's enthusiasm for her job.She values the efforts of volunteers who provide money, services and such things as dignity robes for cancer patients.Meyer said most of them are relatives of cancer patients who want to give back.“It is such a rewarding job. I feel it was divine intervention that brought me here,” she said.“I think it gets really difficult when you see young patients,” Meyer said. “But it's the most rewarding job of my entire career. It's like my home away from home. I can't imagine doing anything else.”