Cancer Aid Group Turns to Workplace : Health: The Wellness Community is making a push for support in the corporate world, where some already view its programs as a natural extension of benefits.

SAN DIEGO —  San Diego Gas & Electric’s chief operating officer, Jack Thomas, has witnessed cancer’s devastating effects, both on the job and at home.

During 33 years with the utility, Thomas has seen the emotional and physical difficulties that surface when an employee receives a cancer diagnosis. And, 12 years ago, Thomas and his wife, Virginia, lived through “difficult emotional times” after she was found to have breast cancer.

Thomas credits a loose-knit coalition of “cancer victors” with helping his wife deal with the emotional trauma of the diagnosis and treatment. That impromptu guidance was welcome because “the places to go were precious few back then,” he said.

Consequently, the Thomases have been strongly supportive of the Wellness Community, an organization that last year began offering free services to cancer patients in San Diego County.

Virginia Thomas is now a board member of the nonprofit group that, according to Executive Director Barbara K. Cook, helps cancer patients learn “whatever they need to know to participate in their fight for recovery . . . rather than acting as hopeless, passive victims.”

With Jack Thomas’ support, SDG&E; made a contribution of $10,000 to the Wellness Community. In return, its programs are made available to SDG&E; employees through the utility’s employee benefits department.

SDG&E; has steered a small number of employees to the Wellness Community for support and information, according to Vicki Zeiger, SDG&E; manager of employee benefits. Zeiger sees the program as a natural extension of the utility’s employee benefits package.

If San Diego-based lawyer James S. Farley has his way, more employers in San Diego will be getting in line behind SDG&E; and incorporating the Wellness Community into their benefits packages.

The Wellness Community helps new cancer patients cope, and it also helps business managers deal with employees who have received cancer diagnoses, said Farley, who serves as president of the Wellness Community board of directors.

“We give (managers) something to say” when an employee first learns of a cancer diagnosis, he said. “Everyone has heard a horror story, and very few of us have a response other than, ‘Well, your health insurance is paid up,’ ” Farley said.

SDG&E; employee benefits managers now have the option of directing cancer patients to the Wellness Community “rather than saying, ‘Good luck, you’ve got so many days of sick leave, and your insurance is paid up,’ ” Thomas said.

“I don’t want our employees to have to suffer (alone) through a devastating experience,” Thomas said. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to discover that you’ve got to nurture those who are newly exposed” to a cancer diagnosis.

The Wellness Community offers cancer patients a positive social and psychological setting in which to undertake their fight for recovery, according to Cook. The programs--which include workshops, sharing groups, nutrition advice, exercise regimes and events designed to accommodate family and social needs--augment medical treatment, Cook said.

“The program they offer really is a tremendous opportunity in a high-need area,” according to Frank Panarisi, president of the Construction Industry Federation. “From an industry standpoint, one of the highest costs is labor, and, with the high incidence of cancer in the population, this is a problem that almost everyone has some personal contact with.

“The more tools we have to work with that kind of thing, the better off the individual is, and, from the business standpoint, it makes good business sense,” he said.

Employers who add the Wellness Community to their employee benefits package “show the warmth and personal interest they have in employees,” Panarisi said.

Farley believes the Wellness Community will gain corporate support for another reason, however.

“We’re trying to tell them that we can help to reduce their overall medical costs,” he said. “We’re trying to tell them that we should be part of their benefits package. . . . It just makes good business sense.”

Farley and other Wellness Community board advocates are introducing the organization to business leaders through a series of breakfast meetings. “We describe the services we offer to people,” Farley said. “We think it sells itself.”

The San Diego Wellness Community has served 950 cancer patients and family members since opening its doors there last year. There are other chapters in Santa Monica, Redondo Beach, Chicago and Knoxville, Tenn.