Oncology Clinical Social Workers Add Layers of Support for Patients and Families During CAR T-Cell Therapy

The interprofessional team for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy at Smilow Cancer Center at Yale New Haven includes a transplant team, cell collection and processing unit, intensive care unit, pharmacy, telehealth for home evaluations, and social work. On that team, the oncology clinical social worker’s role is chiefly to help patients and families manage the stress associated with therapy. We provide patients and family members with ongoing clinical social work support, including listening, counseling, educating, advocating, and referring them to resources and services.