CLINICAL
CARE KIM C H RISC ADE N
MD Finding a way back to “normal” JANA LO MA X H E LP S CAN C E R PAT I E NTS ADJ UST TO L I F E AFTE R D I AG N O S I S BY E R I K A MATI C H As a child, Jana Lomax, PsyD, sat at the dinner table
Lomax also helps patients find their way back to
listening to her parents’ conversations about the
“normal” life or the “new normal.”
psychological needs of the patients they saw that
“Cancer can often motivate people to make
day. Her father, an urologist, and mother, a nurse,
meaningful life changes. They want to live a fulfilling
often worried their patients wouldn’t get the support
life after facing mortality. I get to help them find
they desperately needed after learning about their
meaning, have difficult conversations and resolve
cancer diagnosis or other life-threatening disease.
difficult relationships,” Lomax says. “I help people
Once she became an adult, Lomax took those
answer questions like: how do I make sure my
conversations to heart. She found a way to help
3-year-old remembers me as a good mother who
cancer patients navigate cancer’s emotional jour-
lived fully?”
ney, along with the physical one, and became a clinical health psychologist. “My father would ask how to support those
Lomax spends much of her time developing
JANA BOLDUAN LOMAX, PsyD Clinical Health Psychologist University of Colorado Cancer Center Director of Psychosocial Oncology Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital and Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center
survivorship programs like CU Cancer Center’s LIVESTRONG Cancer Survivorship Program, which
patients and where to send them. The options were
offers clinical services for cancer survivors and
limited in rural Indiana,” Lomax says. “I was lucky
assesses their ongoing needs. cancer survivors to a wider audience, especially to
SU RVIVO R S H I P RESOURCES
Ohio, with the goal of finding a career to help
people who may not know how many resources
people deal with the challenges that accompany
are available now,” says Lomax, who is also
Cancer Information & Counseling Line
cancer and chronic conditions. She earned a psy-
working on a pilot program that makes information
chology degree and later completed a doctorate in
about cancer available online to those who are
clinical psychology at Illinois School of Professional
newly diagnosed.
enough to find a career to meet that need.” Lomax went to Miami University in Oxford,
Psychology at Argosy University in Chicago. In 2004, Lomax moved to Colorado and found a position with University of Colorado Cancer Center’s Cancer Information and Counseling Line (CICL),
“It’s satisfying to take what we know works for
Stress is one aspect of dealing with cancer that Lomax knows well, both from her patients’ perspectives and her own. “The research we have is inconclusive in terms
a nationally recognized service offering free phone
of mood and how that links to cancer progression.
support for people with cancer and their families
But there is evidence that chronic stress can affect
and friends. Lomax was finally meeting her goal of
our immune system. I help people do the work
working in the oncology community. Eventually, she
that may help them heal and manage their stress
was offered a job in the Hematology Malignancies
and hopefully reduce risks of recurrence, but at
and Blood & Marrow Transplant Program.
minimum improve their quality of life,” Lomax says.
Today, Lomax is a cancer prevention and control researcher at CU Cancer Center and director of psychosocial oncology at Exempla
“I want to hear that they are angry; I want them to feel open to having bad days. “But I want them to manage their stress differ-
Saint Joseph Hospital and Exempla Good
ently and understand where that comes from and
Samaritan Medical Center.
develop healthy, adaptive ways of coping. Whether
Leading a team of social workers, dietitians and residents, Lomax works with oncologists and allied health professionals to help cancer survivors
that is deep breathing or throwing a pillow across
Resource Center University of Colorado Hospital (720) 848-0316 LIVESTRONG Cancer Survivorship Programs • University of Colorado Hospital, Aurora (720) 848-0349 • St. Mary’s Regional Cancer Center, Grand Junction (970) 298-7500 • St.Mary-Corwin Medical Center, Pueblo. (719) 557-3738 Psychosocial Oncology Support Services Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center, Denver (303) 318-1322
Because her job can also bring stress to her own life, Lomax dedicates uninterrupted time to her family
diagnoses. Regardless of age or stage of cancer,
and doesn’t make promises she can’t keep, a per-
patients come to Lomax and her team to discuss
spective she learned long ago at the kitchen table.
new cancer diagnosis can bring. Post-treatment,
The Monfort Family Foundation Cancer
the room or listening to music,” she says.
manage the adjustments that come with their
ways to cope with the fears, anxieties and stress a
(800) 525-3777
“I learned that perspective from my dad,” Lomax says. “Helping people is so rewarding so I focus on helping people live better and make the most of what they have.”
11 C3: SPRING 2013