The Psychiatry and Psychology Service at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA), directed by Jesse Fann, MD, MPH, and staffed by faculty in our department, has received approval to expand in order to provide increased on-site mental health care for patients undergoing cancer treatment. As the SCCA continues to grow – planning for the addition of a new clinic building to open in 2022 is currently underway – clinical demand has exceeded the Service’s current capacity (the Service receives over 700 new referrals per year). Starting this summer, Julia Ruark, MD, MPH, and Laurel Pellegrino, MD, will join the SCCA to provide direct patient care and supervise residents and fellows during their psycho-oncology rotations.

The Psychiatry and Psychology Service is an integral part of the SCCA’s Integrated Psychosocial Oncology Program, which uses the Collaborative Care model to integrate mental health care into cancer care. Clinical social workers who are integrated into each oncology clinic serve as care managers within a multidisciplinary team designed to meet each patient’s individual needs. The Integrated Psychosocial Oncology Program is one of the first in the country to implement this type of model in the cancer setting and continues to develop innovative approaches, including a telepsychiatry consultation program to assist outlying SCCA Network sites throughout the WWAMI region.