December 3, 2025
Author: Shea Mencel, Certified Integrative Health Coach & Co-founder, We Are Here
This week, I was confronted face-to-face with my “why.” I seriously considered delaying my cancer treatment. Not because I was afraid of the medicine, or unsure of my care team, but because the system made it almost impossible to fit cancer into my life. I felt like I was screaming to be seen and heard within a system that didn’t always account for my life outside of cancer. And I kept asking myself: why do I have to advocate so hard just to get the care I need?
I’m a 2x breast cancer survivor still in treatment, soon-to-be parent, and co-founder of We Are Here. I’ve spent years advocating for patients, building tools to help people navigate the labyrinth of cancer care. And yet, even with my experience and willingness to push, I felt invisible in my own care — struggling with administrative delays, scheduling conflicts, lack of communication, and support that didn’t consider me as a whole person.
The Challenges I Faced
- Coordinating care has been overwhelming. I spend hours each week managing appointments, follow-ups, insurance, and approvals, often repeating my story or correcting information that should already be in my chart.
- Communication gaps create stress and delays. I frequently wait days for responses or updates, and at times received very short notice that insurance authorization hadn’t gone through — which caused significant stress and could have been avoided with more proactive coordination.
- Accessing care closer to home has been a huge hurdle:
- There is a treatment center 10 minutes from my home within the same health system, along with two other nearby centers, yet I still had to travel to a location up to two hours away.
- Accessing care closer to home took far too long. Despite multiple requests and follow-ups, it took almost two months to secure treatment at a center closer to my home.
- My husband and I rearranged our schedules for appointments that, due to system delays, didn’t happen as planned.
- Life outside cancer is not factored in. My demanding work schedule and impending parenthood were ignored in planning, adding stress to an already difficult situation.
- I don’t always feel seen as a person. I often felt treated as a case number rather than a human navigating life and cancer, with the focus often on process rather than humanity.
I’m someone who pushes, who asks questions, who fights for what I need. And yet, even for me, it was exhausting, frustrating, and overwhelming. Every step of the way reminded me how many patients either couldn’t or wouldn’t know how to fight the system for themselves — and what that meant for their care, stress, and outcomes. Navigation isn’t just helpful; for so many, it’s the difference between staying on track and falling through the cracks.
Why Whole Person Navigation Matters
Whole person navigation is about seeing the patient as a human being, not just a diagnosis. It means:
- Coordinating treatment around the realities of life, work, and family.
- Proactively handling insurance and administrative barriers before they become crises.
- Communicating clearly and promptly to reduce stress and confusion.
- Supporting patients emotionally and practically, so they can focus on healing.
Not every patient has the resources, knowledge, confidence, or energy to push for what they need. My experience reminded me that advocacy shouldn’t be optional; support should be built in. Research shows that patients with navigation support experience lower stress, higher treatment adherence, and better outcomes. But more importantly, whole person navigation just makes care human.
And this isn’t a unique experience — it’s a challenge across the healthcare system. Teams are overburdened and stretched thin, doing their best, but even the most dedicated clinicians can’t always provide the proactive, personalized support patients need without additional navigation resources.
Why We Are Here Exists
My own experience this week reminded me why I co-founded We Are Here. Cancer is overwhelming enough without having to fight the system to get the care you need, when you need it.
Imagine the additional impact on a patient who received precious financial support, like a gas gift card to help them get to treatment, only to use it to drive to an appointment that didn’t happen. Or a patient who is paid by the hour, missing wages for an appointment that was never scheduled correctly.
The difference is clear: coordinating care closer to home, anticipating barriers, and seeing patients as whole people isn’t just convenient, it’s life-changing. At We Are Here, we enable care teams to provide guidance, coordination, and support that meets patients where they are in life, not just in their treatment plan. We help the system work for the person, not the other way around.
A Call to the Field — and to Patients
Cancer care should be human-centered, not task-centered. Hospitals, insurers, and providers must invest in navigation that considers the whole person because this isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s essential for better outcomes and reduced stress.
For patients, remember this: it’s okay to ask for help and to advocate for what you need. You deserve care that fits your life, not one that forces your life to bend around treatment.
For me, this experience has been a reminder: we can do better. We must do better. And that’s exactly what drives everything we do at We Are Here.
Closing Reflection
I’m about to welcome a new baby while continuing my own healing journey, and yes, it’s stressful. Patients shouldn’t have to fight just to navigate the system and get the care they need. But knowing that we can create a system that truly supports patients gives me hope for the future.
About the Author
Shea Mencel is a Certified Integrative Health Coach, health equity advocate, and Co-founder & Vice President of Navigation at We Are Here. With a background in trauma-informed care, mind-body nutrition, and integrative wellness, she supports people with cancer in reclaiming power, clarity, and well-being, no matter where they are in the process. She is also a two-time breast cancer survivor.
Shea believes care should be bioindividual, holistic, accessible, and rooted in community, and that even the smallest changes in how we eat, move, and rest can make a powerful difference. You can learn more about her work at www.sheamencel.com.