Cancer affects the whole person — not just physical health, but mental health, too. According the Mental Health America, up to 30% of all cancer patients will experience stress, anxiety, depression and other mental health conditions during and after treatment.
Fred Hutch Cancer Center’s team of psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health experts integrate mental health support with cancer patients’ care plans. This integrated approach aims to improve patients’ quality of life and overall health outcomes.
Please see below for Fred Hutch’s mental health experts. Reach out to our media team to set up interviews: media@fredhutch.org.
Clinical care:
Jesse Fann, MD, MPH is the medical director of psychiatry and psychology at Fred Hutch. He uses medications and counseling to help patients achieve their goals. His primary interest is helping people who are coping with medical illness and developing better approaches to delivering person-centered psychiatric care to these populations. His research project SCOPE, or Supporting Collaborative Care to Optimize Psychosocial Engagement in the Cancer Setting, aims to develop and test new web-based technologies to help improve the care of depression among people with cancer.
Psychiatrist Nicole Bates, MD, focuses on a person’s story as well as their experience as a cancer patient. She combines medications and counseling, and she believes that partnering with both patients and their medical teams is essential to create a successful plan of care. In her research, Bates examines the intersection of depression in cancer patients and extended opioid use. Bates is also part of the SCOPE research team led by Fann.
Clinical psychologist Julia Brechbiel, PhD, supports patients through their treatment process. She works not only with people going through cancer treatment, but also individuals with other serious medical conditions and chronic health conditions. She believes that a collaborative relationship with her patients to better identify goals for therapy.
Mental health research:
Megan Shen, PhD, is an expert on grief, hope and resilience. She is an associate professor and social psychologist researcher at Fred Hutch Cancer Center. She can talk about what her work with terminally ill cancer patients shows about how to face multiple losses throughout our lives: health setbacks, divorce, infertility and job loss. In her recently published TEDx talk, she talks about a three-step framework she has developed to apply the science of grief to grieving our many losses. Read her tips on how to cope with a cancer diagnosis.
To learn more about mental health care, access supportive tools and videos provided by our mental health experts please visit the Fred Hutch psychiatry and psychology supportive services landing page.