My calling as a social worker is to empower patients with support, knowledge, and resources so they can get the right care at the right time.
Jennifer McCalley, LICSW, ACHP-SWJennifer McCalley, LICSW, ACHP-SW, returned to Cheshire Medical Center in February 2023 to serve in a newly created social worker and program manager position for Palliative Care and Oncology at Cheshire Medical Center.
“Providers, staff, and administrators from across disciplines at Cheshire have worked together to plan for this new position at Cheshire,” said Lisa Leinau, MD,who specializes in Palliative Medicine at Cheshire. “I am thrilled that Jenn is here to support our patients and families with this patient-centered model of care. Working with Georgette Vachon, RN, Jenn has already begun helping patients cared for in the Cancer Center.”
In this role for outpatient Palliative Care, McCalley provides psychosocial assessment, advance care planning/goals of care, and referrals to external and internal resources such as Volunteer and Spiritual Health services. McCalley works with Oncology patients in a similar capacity.
"I am thrilled to join the Palliative Medicine and Oncology teams and to return to Cheshire! My calling as a social worker is to empower patients with support, knowledge, and resources so they can get the right care at the right time," says McCalley. "I’m grateful for the opportunity to engage in that empowerment of patients in this new position.”
Starting July 12, 2023, McCalley and Chaplain Rob Hamm will begin facilitating the Cancer Patient Support Group, formerly offered through MAPS Counseling Services. This hybrid support group is from 1:30 to 3 pm on Wednesdays and can be attended online or at Cheshire in the library of the Cancer Center. For more information and to register, visit the event listing on our calendar.
McCalley will also coordinate the Compassionate Companions program in partnership with Spiritual Health, which will train volunteers to visit and sit with hospital patients on Comfort Measures Only (CMO).
A certified palliative care social worker by training and calling, McCalley has worked in hospitals, outpatient clinics, a senior living community, a nursing home, home healthcare, and hospice. She has always sought to promote the empowerment of patients and families through effective conversations and communication that enable individuals to identify their own goals, values, and wishes and healthcare providers to deliver the best care possible to those individuals.
Most recently, McCalley worked for Covenant Living of Keene (formerly Hillside Village). Before that, she worked as a social worker at Cheshire from September 2019 to December 2020 in Case Management, where she assisted patients and families in coping with hospitalization, serious illness, and any psychosocial barriers to discharge, as well as the usual logistics of navigating the healthcare system for smooth transitions to each next level of care. Before joining Cheshire, McCalley was a program coordinator for Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center’s Honoring Care Decisions, a program based on the patient and family-centered Respecting Choices advance care planning (ACP) system model.
In a previous life, McCalley taught English in Madrid, worked as a publicist for Nickelodeon, and in organizational development and training for MTV Networks. When she found her true calling in social work, she attended the University of Washington for her MSW.
McCalley lives in Keene with her family. She enjoys travel, reading, baking with her son, dancing with her daughter, and rare quiet alone time with her husband. McCalley also speaks Spanish fluently, French confidently, and attempts to speak Portuguese passably.