Lucía Fuentes is a clinical psychologist from Guatemala. She has been working with and for the families of childhood cancer patients for the last 20 years. She began her work as a psychologist at Unidad Nacional de Oncología Pediátrica (UNOP) in 2003, where she helped establish better and more efficient psychology interventions for patients and their families. She directed the Psychology Department at UNOP, helping to create the Integral Medicine Department to address possible suffering in patients and families with a culturally respectful approach. All of which resulted in a team effort to decrease the abandonment of therapy to less than two percent at UNOP.
Since 2019, with support from St. Jude Global, Fuentes has been co-coordinating the “Psychosocial Care model and continuous educational program for Central America, Caribbean, and some South American Countries,” aiming to improve psychosocial interventions and reduce abandonment rates in the region.
Fuentes got involved in research with Dr. Dylan Graetz from St. Jude Global in 2019, seeking to understand and improve the communication between oncologists, multidisciplinary teams, and patients. This led to other research projects with Dr. Graetz’s team and a new enthusiasm for qualitative research.
She is also involved with the Psychology Department of The Istmo University of Guatemala as psychology intervention and treatment lecturer and graduation thesis reviewer. Teaching college students and learning from them is considered by Fuentes as a very rewarding experience.
Fuentes believes that effective cancer care must include psychosocial support. However, many pediatric cancer hospitals still lack an effective psychosocial staff and those who have them typically lack culturally appropriate guidelines or processes to follow. By joining the Master’s of Global Child Health program, she hopes to improve psychosocial treatment for patients and their families both locally and worldwide. She believes that this program will offer her a platform for collaboration with multidisciplinary global experts.
Fuentes is currently a contractor for the Culture and Communication Transversal Program with St. Jude Global. This program strives to support the cure of childhood cancer globally with culturally appropriate approaches to research, education, and community engagement.
Hometown: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Education:
MSc, Integrative Medical Psychology - Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala (2022)
Brief specialization in Child and Adolescent Psycho-oncology - Marie Curie Oncology Hospital, Argentina
BA and Licentiate, Clinical Psychology - Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala (2004)
Publications:
De Pernillo, M, Rivas, S, Fuentes L, Antillon F. and Barr R. (2014), Measurement of socio‐economic status in families of children with cancer in Guatemala. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2014:261; 2071-2073. doi:10.1002/pbc.25060 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30729661/
Alvarez E, Seppa M, Rivas S, Fuentes L, Valverde P, Antillón-Klussmann F, Castellanos M, Sweet-Cordero EA, Messacar K, Kurap J, Bustamante M, Howard SC, Efron B, Luna-Fineman S. et al. Improvement in treatment abandonment in pediatric patients with cancer in Guatemala. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2017;64:e26560. https://doi.org/10.1002/pbc.26560 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30729661
Graetz D, Rivas S, Fuentes L, Cáceres Serrano A, Ferrara G, Antillón F, Metzger M, Rodriguez-Galindo C, Mack, J. The evolution of parents’ beliefs about childhood cancer during diagnostic communication: a qualitative study in Guatemala BMJ Global Health 2021;6:e004653. 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004653
Graetz DE, Rivas SE, Fuentes AL, Caceres-Serrano A, Antillon-Klussmann F, Rodriguez-Galindo C, & Mack J W. (2022). Development and Adaptation of a Patient-Centered Communication Survey for Parents of Children with Cancer in Guatemala. JCO Global Oncology 8, e2200124. 10.1200/GO.22.00124
Williams A, Rivas S, Fuentes L, Cáceres-Serrano A, Ferrara G, Reeves T, Antillón- Klussmann F, Rodriguez-Galindo C, Mack JW, Graetz DE. Understanding Hope at Diagnosis: A Study Among Guatemalan Parents of Children with Cancer (2023) Cancer Med doi: 10.1002/cam4.5725. PMID: 36846975