If you have questions like – What is my life going to be after my transplant? When will I be able to go back to work? Why do I need to keep having bloodwork done? When will I be normal? – who would you go to for answers? You would want to ask someone who had that experience and could share things with you. You would want to talk to a mentor.
The Hopkins Mentor Program is comprised of trained volunteers who are at least one year post-transplant. When someone asks for a mentor through their organ’s social worker (or a transplant staff member suggests that a mentor might be appropriate), he or she matches the patient with a mentor or compatible background.
The mentor then makes contact with the possible mentee (the patient). Usually the mentor arranges to meet with the mentee and begins to assist that individual through what can be, for some, a scary process. (It is important to remember that participation in the mentor program is voluntary.) Mentors do not give medical advice. If a medical question arises they will provide the mentee with a source for their answer.
The mentee is the director of the whole process, while the mentor is there to lend a helping hand, to be the one who can say, “Yes, I really do understand why this concerns you.” An old saying is that you cannot really understand a person until you have walked many miles in their shoes. The mentors have walked many, many miles in all different kind of shoes. For some, the journey has been easy. For others, it has been long and difficult. The mentor will try to share the journey with the mentee in order that the journey is as burden-free as possible.
If you are a pre-transplant candidate and would like to request a mentor or if you just want to know more about the program, please contact your organ’s social worker: Linda Darrell (liver), Mary Kaiser (kidney/pancreas), Terry Ziegler (lung), and Helen Michalisko (heart).
Bridges 2001
