Kathy Noone was new to her job at St. Francis Hospital a few years back when Patricia Verde came to her office, visibly upset about a colon cancer patient. The woman, Verde discovered, had been evicted from her apartment and was spending her nights in a sleeping bag in her sister’s basement.
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Kathy Noone was new to her job at St. Francis Hospital a few years back when Patricia Verde came to her office, visibly upset about a colon cancer patient. The woman, Verde discovered, had been evicted from her apartment and was spending her nights in a sleeping bag in her sister's basement.
“She said 'I need your help. We've got to do something. We need to at least get this person a bed,' ” recalled Noone, a registered nurse and executive director of oncology at Smilow Cancer Hospital Yale-New Haven at St. Francis.
With Noone's help, Verde, a clinical social worker, tapped the hospital's patient assistance fund, which provides money to help cancer patients in need. She bought the woman a bed and had it delivered within 48 hours — then used her own money to buy the woman sheets, blankets and pillows.
“She just couldn't imagine anybody sleeping on the floor of a basement and not having those basic necessities — let alone adding a cancer diagnosis on top of that,” Noone said.
She said the case was typical for Verde, who approaches her job each day with selflessness, commitment and compassion.
“Pat will move heaven and earth to help a patient,” Noone said. “Officially she does psychological assessments of our cancer patients, who may need a variety of services including counseling about their diagnosis, family counseling, assistance interacting with nurses and physicians, or financial assistance. But unofficially, Pat does much, much more.”
Verde, who has been a social worker for 40 years, came to St. Francis in 2011. Originally from Rhode Island, she moved to Connecticut in the mid-1980s to take a clinical social worker job at Bristol Hospital. Four years later, she took a job at UConn Health Center, where she would later spend 15 years as director of social work. She earned her bachelor's degree from Maryville University in St. Louis and her master's from St. Louis University.
Born to a family of nurses, she always knew she would do something in the medical field. It was a hospital internship during grad school that hooked her on medical social work.
“I loved it. I knew that's where I wanted to be,” she said. After graduate school, she spent a decade with the American Red Cross. Her first assignment was the Indiantown Gap Vietnamese Refugee Camp, working with Vietnam War refugees. She also worked as a disaster volunteer in Key West following Hurricane Wilma.
At St. Francis, Verde meets patients when they are first diagnosed and shepherds them through their treatment, connecting them with any resources they may need along the way.
She said a cancer diagnosis can throw a person's finances into turmoil, as many are forced to cut back on work hours and keep up with unexpected medical bills. If a utility company is about to shut off a patient's electricity, Verde will intervene to keep the lights on. She also helps patients apply for social security disability or family medical leave.
Another part of her job is providing crisis counseling to families, which can be devastated by a loved one's diagnosis.
“Sometimes I'll just sit with a patient while they're getting treatment,” added Verde. “We don't even have to have a long conversation. It's just a presence of support.”
Having survived cancer herself, Verde's walked in their shoes, although she doesn't discuss the details publicly or with her patients.
“If I were to say to a patient, 'I know what you're going through because … ,' then it turns back to me. This is not about me. This is about the patient,” she said. “Yet I feel my experience helps me. I have an understanding of where they are and what they're facing, so I'm able to be with them in a very sincere way.”
Verde said the most rewarding aspect of her work is watching her patients beat cancer.
“Patients inspire me. They inspire me with their strength; with their fortitude to go through these treatments week after week, month after month,” she said. “I have been with them through all of that and then I get to watch them resume the life they had before the cancer diagnosis. That's what inspires me all the time.”
She said her work is also buoyed by her faith and the support of her colleagues. “I'm one person in a team of professionals,” she said. “We all have a role to play and we all support each other. I know I'm a better social worker because of the strength of that support.”
