Maine’s Dempsey Center shows the way on supportive cancer care | Opinion

Sheri Biller is a cancer care advocate, philanthropist and the co-founder and president of The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation. Brandon Hotham is the president and CEO of the Dempsey Center.

Anyone who has faced cancer — or stood beside someone who has — knows that cancer is not just a medical condition. It is a life-altering experience that affects every part of a person’s world.

And yet, too often, patients and their caregivers are left to navigate that journey alone. That’s especially true in rural communities like many across Maine, where access to comprehensive support can be limited.

As a national cancer care advocate and as the leader of Maine’s Dempsey Center that provides cancer care services, we know it doesn’t have to be this way.

There is growing recognition of an approach to care called supportive cancer care — a model that focuses on treating the whole person, not just the disease. Supportive cancer care goes beyond clinical treatments like chemotherapy, radiation and surgery and includes a broad range of services such as financial guidance, counseling, pain and symptom management, caregiver support and help navigating practical challenges like transportation, insurance and goals-of-care conversations.

These services are delivered across both healthcare and community-based settings, often through a combination of providers and organizations working together to support patients and families throughout their cancer journey.

When these systems work well, the impact is clear. Access to supportive care improves quality of life and treatment adherence, reduces unnecessary emergency room visits and helps patients and families feel more confident navigating an incredibly complex experience. Just as importantly, it reinforces something deeply human: no one should have to face cancer alone.

Maine is helping show what’s possible in cancer care for the whole person.

The Dempsey Center is part of that broader network — providing community-based, evidence-informed supportive cancer care services that complement clinical treatment. We offer counseling, nutrition support, integrative therapies, movement and fitness programs and caregiver support, all designed to meet the evolving needs of individuals and families affected by cancer.

As a nonprofit organization, these services are provided at no cost to clients and are made possible entirely through philanthropy — through the generosity of donors, sponsors and community members who believe that everyone deserves access to this kind of care.

You can see the power of that community every year through the Dempsey Challenge, where thousands of participants — from Maine and around the world — come together to raise critical funds that sustain these services and ensure that no one faces cancer alone. As the need for these services continues to grow, so too does the importance of that support.

Maine is also making meaningful progress at the policy level. The state has taken important steps to support access to palliative care through MaineCare reimbursement, reinforcing that supportive care is not a luxury, but an essential part of high-quality cancer care. Initiatives like Maine’s specialty cancer license plates further invest in programs that provide patient support, fund research and expand access to care across the state.

Across Maine, a growing network of community-based supportive cancer care organizations — including members of the Association of Maine Cancer Support Centers — is working collectively to expand access to these services for as many Mainers as possible. And yet, despite this progress, access remains far from universal — both in Maine and across the country.

Nationally, only a fraction of patients can access supportive cancer care services like counseling, financial navigation or structured conversations about goals of care. Even when services exist, patients may not know to ask for them — or may assume they are not accessible or affordable. This leaves too many people and their loved ones carrying burdens they should not have to carry alone.

We need to continue building and strengthening these networks of care — across Maine and across the country. That means investing in community-based organizations, supporting policies that expand access and ensuring that patients and caregivers understand what supportive cancer care is and how to access it.

That’s also why the Dempsey Center is proud to support Support Is Care, a national campaign by The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation. It’s focused on helping people living with cancer and those who love them understand that this kind of support exists, that it’s part of high-quality care and that everyone has every right to ask their provider for it.

Last month, we gathered in our nation’s capital alongside providers, patients, caregivers and advocates from across our country — uplifting their voices, sharing their stories and advancing the case for supportive cancer care on Capitol Hill. We have to make sure that supportive cancer care is more widely understood, more consistently delivered and more equitably accessible.

Supportive cancer care isn’t “nice to have” — it’s a “must-have.” Research continues to show that when people have access to this kind of support, their outcomes and quality of life improve, and they experience fewer unnecessary visits to the emergency room.

Our work cannot stop there. We must all commit to building and sustaining the networks that make supportive cancer care accessible to everyone — regardless of where they live. That means continued investment in community-based programs, training providers and ensuring that every patient — regardless of ZIP code — knows what supportive cancer care is and feels empowered to ask for it.

No one should face cancer alone. Ask your providers about supportive cancer care. Advocate for systems that expand access. And consider how you can be part of the solution — whether by supporting community-based organizations or by showing up for those in your community who need help — because strength is built through connection, and connection starts with us.

Together, we can create a world where every patient and caregiver affected by cancer feels supported and heard.